So with a successful 3 days of re:solution under the belt ( including the first run of the year and a good dose of yoga, woohoo!), I feel I am somewhat entitled to create post regarding what may or may not be the trials and tribulations of my choices ( do not snigger or roll your eyes, there is officially such a thing as the "3 day resolution hump"). As I mentioned in my list of re:solutions I have embarked on a journey to a happy, healthy raw food lifestyle, I should perhaps at this stage point out that throughout my life, I have embarked on numerous other weird and wonderful journeys~ some stick and some seriously do not, but I have yet to loose much from the effort of trying. Needless to say, so far so good. I have to give due credit to the wandering wonderer, my ever supporting husband, who has kindly offered to join me on the first legs of my journey, both for his own benefit and perhaps to help me ease into things (preparing two meals; one for me and well, one extra yummy one for you, doesn't lighten the load much). The other fabulous thing about this journey is that it is very much a transition thing, it does not happen over night, so I have been able to cling to some of my life supporting bad habits i.e. my morning coffee and the odd glass of wine ( although there has been a serious reduction of the latter, I am proud to say).
So last night was the first social challenge. We were invited to celebrate New Years with our gorgeous land lady/ yoga teacher and her parents. New Years in Japan, might be likened to Christmas in the west, sans all the Hallmark, excess and hypocrisy, and so it is an honor to be included . It is a time of family and reflection and eating specifically prepared food. They call the food oSetchi and it consists predominantly of pickled bits of pieces that will keep over three days to avoid anyone having to slave in the kitchen over that period. In the past I have not taken particularly well to some of these bits and pieces, I might go as far as to say, that the thought of some of the bits and pieces creates a nasty feeling in the pit of my tummy and the back of my throat, but I gallantly went forth. I also managed to politely slip in my sentiments on one of the items on the way there and was very relieved as it played some leading roles in the meal and definitely does not feature as a raw food.
It was a lovely evening and I got the opportunity to don a kimono for the first time since I have lived here, but, the thing that is always highlighted for me during these occasions, is that even though there is a massive language/ culture/ generation barrier and so many opportunities for misunderstanding or stilted moments, the evening runs beautifully. To me this is a result of people wanting to understand one another and trying to enjoy each others company. So often in our everyday lives, there is miscommunication, misunderstanding... so many misses! We are so easily offended, so over sensitive, so insensitive and yet we have all the tools for good communication at our disposal... I wish we all wanted to understand each other more, I hope 2010 will be year of understanding!
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