We opened the year with friends at our home which was a last minute plan, but ended up being just the right amount of casual and fun. This was our first time spending new years in Japan and it's much different compared to the chaos of fireworks/crackers in Hawaii (which has its own charm). Rest of the month was mostly business as usual - just with a bit colder temperatures!
Isoyama Benzaiten / Izuruhara Benten Pond
This was a spontaneous pit stop to help kill some time before sundown during our time in Sano. Izuhara Benten Pond came up as a landmark in Google Maps near the specialty Sano Ramen restaurant we visited (Ramen Oguraya) and we just decided to make the short 10 minute walk over to check it out.
If you choose to take the stairs all the way up, there's a nice view of the area and it seems there are also multiple other paths as options too. We chose to just stop at the temple for a little bit before heading back down.
If you're in the area, this is a nice little stop to make. It's very idyllic at sunset and I'm sure even moreso when it's nice and bright out as well. It'll be best if you have suitable shoes if you choose to take the stairs and explore though!
Ashikaga Flower Park Flower Fantasy Illumination
Our friends told us that Ashikaga Flower Park's illumination was worth the 3+ hour drive (apparently especially compared to Oi Racetrack which is much closer in comparison), so we took advantage of one of the free Saturday nights we had this month to drive over. They were supposed to join us, but unfortunately ended up sick that day.
The pictures mostly speak for themselves and are only a small sample of what was available there. It is definitely more impressive in person, but certainly cold at this time of year so be sure to dress appropriately (unlike my lolo husband who decided to wear a light jacket in 6C weather haha)!
Snowboarding in Hakuba
This was a slightly last minute (planned within a couple weeks rather than months out) and short little snowboarding-centric excursion we made. M&M were already planning to be snowboarding for the weekend, and we tagged along for the first 1.5 days and brought J along with us since her husband was working and unavailable. We drove in early in the morning (about 4.5 hours), went straight to Hakuba 47 (second visit for me), and then stayed overnight in a 3-person room at Mojo Lodge.
It was oddly warm this weekend, especially compared to the last time we went, but snow was still well groomed for the most part. I had a lot easier time compared to the two times I went in December once I warmed up a little bit!
For the second day, we went to Happo-One. We got half day lift tickets (ending at 13:00) since we were planning to leave after lunch. The timing worked out well for us except that you can't go through the automatic lift ticket gates with the half day pass which is super annoying.
I would consider this another successful snowboarding trip! We didn't end up spending time in the area or stopping anywhere on the way back because there was supposed to be a bit of traffic, and we didn't want to get home too late, but we had a lot of fun with our friends. My second pair of snowboarding boots did break on the bottom (second pair to do this??), but I was able to manage to get through the day, so that was good enough.
What we ate
We cut back from eating out this month (in a good and purposeful way), but still got to try some new things in addition to going back to old favorites.
Dim sum set and a soupless beef noodle dish from 80sHongKong 八十港
Uobei (Genki) Sushi
Ramen Oguraya (Sano)
Menya Yousuke (Sano)
Mendokoro Shin-ya
Shoyu ramen lunch at Hakuba 47 (Hakuba)
pocket and wrap kebab from Samurai Kebab (Hakuba)
provided breakfast from Mojo Lodge (Hakuba)
Rabbit Hole (Hakuba)
AYCE hot pot with tantan and sukiyaki broth at Yuzu-an
Gyukatsu Motomura
Yakiniku King (I somehow ended up going 2 nights in a row for dinner)
Nankotsu, chicken skin, cheese rolls, pork kushiyaki, gyoza and yakitori from Shoya 庄や
Personal/Miscellaneous
We visited a BookOff Super Bazaar not once but twice this month. First time was at the beginning of January when I was looking for a replacement for my hand-me-down boots and bought this gold pair. The second time was near the end of the month after the January snowboarding trip when the gold boots failed lol. I finally resolved that maybe I should spend decent money on a not-so-old pair and think we might have a winner (crossing my fingers for our February trip lol). 
My husband had a work trip to Okinawa near the end of the month, so I had the week to myself and went into Tokyo for some shopping at Shibuya since I was going in that direction anyway to meet him at the airport. I only had about 90 minutes to kill and ended up walking around Shibuya 109 and trying on some clothes I had been eyeing from Runway Channel brands.
Walked out with a great deal on a jacket and skirt set from Dazzlin and an idea about whether I wanted to get a few items from Resexxy in the future.
And somehow didn't have enough time to even go through all the floors as thoroughly as I would have liked! It's been a while since I spent so much time in 109 since I've been favoring the Harajuku area for the EATME honten.
My cousin and his wife had a layover at Narita and their way back to Hawaii from Bali on a Sunday, so I had planned to meet up with them in Tokyo. As it turned out, it was the same day that my husband was leaving on his work trip, so it was just me. And then my cousin's wife had gotten food poisoning just before leaving Bali, so it was just me and him.
We changed up the plans a little bit and ended up having time to do some shopping on Kappabashi (Kitchen Street) and getting gyukatsu from Gyukatsu Motomura before his train back to Narita.
Outfits this month can be found here. I'm quite pleased with a lot of them even if the photos didn't come out that nicely sometimes (lighting, etc).
This month seemed to pass pretty slowly, but almost in a good way! It felt like a pleasant start to the new year - a little peaceful during the week, but doing some fun stuff on the weekend. Looking forward to the rest of 2023 (and getting used to writing/typing the year correctly! haha). We have a bunch of visitors we're planning to host or see in the upcoming months now that Japan is easier to visit, and we can't wait to see them here!
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