タカペン - Taka Pen's Blurt-Log

英訳歌詞とか日常 - Translyrics and Stuff

年越し / Welcoming the New Year

日常 / Daily Diary 日本語＆英語記事 / Japanese&English Entry

こんにちは！

 

Hellos and welcome, dear readers!

 

新年早々、散々な

目にあった気がする

タカペンです（笑）

 

The new year's only begun, but it feels like there's been too much going on already! lol

 

一度ギアを入れ替えて

アメリカで過ごす

大晦日と元旦のお話を

ちょっぴりだけ

してみたいと思います♪

 

So I'd like to change gears for now and just write about more daily mundane events of how I spent the last day of 2022 and the first day of 2023.

 

＊注＊大分長いです / *warning* super long entry lol

大晦日の夜 / New Year's Eve

日本だと大晦日の夜は

紅白とかその他歌番組を

観てすごされる方も

いらっしゃいますよね

 

In Japan, there are several traditional concerts that people can watch to wait for the New Year. (I daresay the biggest one would be Kouhaku.)

 

タカペンはネットがここまで

便利になる前はまわってきた

紅白のビデオを1月のどこかで

観たりして、「年越し」気分を

味わっていました

 

In the older days before the Internet became such a convenient everyday tool, I used to watch the kouhaku on video that other people took and shared around. But by the time I got to see them, usually it was middle of January. lol

 

今も特にN〇Kとかの契約は

していないので、紅白は

残念ながら観れませんので

 

Even today with the Internet, I still can't watch Kouhaku on New Year's Eve because I don't subsribe to the channel that airs it.

 

とりあえずニューヨーク、

タイムズスクエアで行われる

ボールドロップをテレビで観て

年越し気分を味わいます

 

So I usually watch something on local CBS station for the TimesSquare ball drop. (or so I thought. More details to follow)

 

昔は様々な放送局で

アメリカ東海岸の

どこかしらの

大晦日コンサートを中継していて

それを観てた気がします

 

Years ago, I remember various broadcast stations airing live concerts from different cities along the East coast, and I think I used to watch them.

 

ニューヨークの放送局では

昔はニューヨークのライブを

中継してた気がしたので

今年もテレビをつけて

ぼーっと観てたのですが

 

And I thought the New York CBS station used to air the concert in New York, so I turned on the TV and was just kind of watching.

 

なんか

 

But

 

ずっとテネシーのライブ中継？

いつニューヨークのやるの？

ってはてな状態になりました(笑)

 

They're airing a show based out of Tennessee, so I was like wait, when do they show the concert in New York?

 

 

利権やら大人の事情で

タイムズスクエアの中継は

放送局では扱ってなかったんですね

 

I'm guessing due to ownership or something, CBS no longer, if ever, is airing the events in TimesSquare, which is a bummer.

 

で、まぁせっかくなんだし

ニューヨークのライブ中継

観てよ～と思ってたのですが

なんかひたすら

スポンサーの宣伝が多くて

 

So since I found where they were broacasting live from TimesSquare, I watched it for a bit, but they just kept on talking about the sponsors... so...

 

なんだかなーと

テネシーのライブ中継に

戻ってみてました(笑)

 

I switched back to TV and watched the country concert in Tennessee.

 

カントリーなんて

よくわからない！

と思ってたのですが

意外と楽しかったです(笑)

 

I'm not too into country music, but the show turned out more exciting than expected and I had fun. :)

 

さて、そんなこんなで

テネシーのカントリーライブを観て

零時前にはニューヨークの

ボールドロップを無事観て

今年を迎えました

 

And right before midnight, I switched back to the live broadcasting from TimesSquare to watch the ball drop. :)

 

ボールドロップはなんて

説明したら良いのか

わかりませんが…

くす玉が零時に

落ちて、みんなで

「ぅえーい、おめでとう！」

ってやる感じ？

 

Not sure how to explain the ball drop... They have a special ball prepared in the TimesSquare that drops exactly at midnight to singal the New Year...? And they have confettis filling the square somehow.

 

コロナ真っ只中の時以外は

毎年世界中から人が

集まるそうで、今回も

日本からの観光旅行者も

ちらっとテレビで映ってました♪

 

During the pandemic, they had to restrict access to the square, but they were back in full force this year, and they were even showing Japanese tourists who'd come to watch the ball drop. :)

 

お正月の準備と元旦 / Preparing for the New Year

さてそんな大晦日の夜でしたが

日中は頑張ってタカペンなりの

お正月料理を準備してました

 

And so that's how I spent my New Year's Eve evening, but during the day, I was trying to prepare for my New Year's Day meal.

 

とても簡易的ですが

以下を作ってました

  • お雑煮
  • 五目チラシ
  • 厚焼き玉子（伊達巻きの代わり）
  • なます

 

The dishes I was preparing myself for the New Year's Day were as follows:

  • Japanese chicken soup, "ozouni"
  • Chicken and veggie mixed sushi, "gomoku chirashi"
  • Japanese style sweet rolled egg, "atsu-yaki"
  • Thinly slicked vinegared radish and carrots, "namasu"

 

料理はそこまで得意ではないので

材料の下ごしらえの段階で

大分時間がかかります(笑)

 

I'm none too skilled at cooking, so just preparing the ingredients take me like literally hours to do. lol

 

その合間、一応こっちの食材？

の写メを撮ってみました

（２～４枚目ですね）

 

And while I was preparing, I took some pictures of the ingredients. (Pics 2 through 4)

 

 

お酢２ / White Vinegar 2

1枚目は料理に取り掛かる前に

そう言えば、ついでだから

食洗器を洗っておこうと

お酢さんの出番です！

 

The 1st pic actually has nothing to do with my cooking. Before I started, I decided to also wash the dishwasher, so here's the white vinegar again!

 

（お酢さんのお話はこちらで）

 

(For my previous tale of the white vinegar, you can click here)

 

お酢さんはお風呂場だけではなく

キッチンでもとても

活躍してくれてます！

 

White vinegar is quite useful, not only in cleaning around the bathroom, but also in the kitchen as well!

 

食洗器さんがここずっと

食器から洗剤のにおいが

取れなくて困ってたんですね

 

For some time now, the dishes and things strongly smelled of the dish detergent after a wash in the dishwasher, so I've been having to rinse them in the sink afterwards.

 

で、なんとかならないかなー

と調べたら、

コップ二つにお酢を入れて

最後の高音乾燥をオフにして

食洗器をまわすと

においがとれると

 

I tried searching for a solution on the Internet, and there was an article saying that putting two glasses of vinegar on the bottom rack and running a regular dishwasher cycle without the high heat dry at the end will get rid of the smell.

 

でも臭いとかじゃなくて

洗剤のにおいなんだけど

それも行けるのかなぁ

大丈夫かなぁ

と心配してたのですが

きっちりとれました

 

Well, it sounded like the vinegar would get rid of any stinky smell, but what I needed was something that would cut through the detergent residue, so I wasn't too sure that it would work, but once the cycle ran through, I was pleasantly surprised that the smell of the detergent was gone. (btw, Running an empty cycle didn't work)

 

そしてお酢のにおいもしません（笑）

 

Plus it didn't leave any vinegary smell either, which I was also afraid of. lol

 

と言うことで

お酢の活躍を祈念に

写メでした♪

 

And so, just to show how useful white vinegar can be, I took a pic of the vinegar in the dishwasher. lol

 

料理の食材 / Ingredients for My NY's Meal

2枚目

かつおぶしは多分

こちらで作られてるっぽい？

よくわからないですが、

恐らくアメリカ専用の

メーカーではないかと

 

2nd pic

The package on the left, as you can't quite see because the letters are cut off in the pic,  says "dried shaved skipjack tuna". I thought those were bonito flakes so I have no idea what a skipjack tuna is. lol

 

こんぶは多分日本から

直送されてきてるもの？

 

The package on the right is a type of dried seaweed. Not the type that's used with sushi that you can eat right away.

 

だしにかつおぶしを

わんさか入れるのが

大好きなのでこの大きいサイズの

かつおぶしさん、重宝してます（笑）

 

These items are commonly used to create standard Japanese broth flavor. I use a whole lot of the skipjack tuna shavings so I love these big packages. :)

 

3枚目

お雑煮ようにおもちと

そして鶏肉さんです

お肉は買いに行く時間が

あまりなかったので

近くの韓国経営のスーパーで

買ってきました

 

3rd pic

I got the chicken and mochi for ozouni, or the Japanese chicken soup. It's a dish commonly prepared for the New Year's Day. I got the mochi at the Japanese supermarket several weeks ago, but I didn't have time to go there for the chicken, so I'd gotten them at my more local Korean supermarket.

 

そして面倒なので

このままのサイズで

ほうりこみました（笑）

 

And because yours truly is lazy as heck, I threw in the chicken without cutting them.  :)

 

タカペンに女子力を

求めてはいけません！

 

I mean, you can always tear apart the chicken after its cooked! :P

 

4枚目

このサイズがふぞろいな

しいたけさんたちも

同スーパーで買いました

 

4th pic

Bunch of shiitake mushrooms that I also bought at the Korean supermarket. A must have for many Japanese dishes. Can you tell that I heavily depend on the Korean supermarket for my Japanese dishes? lol

 

小さい子たちが

可愛いなぁ～と思って

写メりました♪

 

Just thought it was cute that there were tiny wittle mushrooms mixed in, so I took a pic. :)

 

2022年のツイッター / My Twitter Account at End of 2022

5枚目

ブログとは関係ありませんが

YouTubeチャンネルを併設した際に

始めたツイッターのアカウント

元旦付近でフォロー数と

フォロワー数がなんかきりの良い

数字だな～と思い

ぽちりと写メりました

 

5th pic

My Twitter account that I started along with the YouTube channel doesn't really have anything to do with New Year's or this blog, but I just took a screenie because the follow and follower numbers were kind of cool. 

 

英語おしたいんだか

歌おしたいんだか

好きなアニメおしたいんだか

よくわからない

アカウントになっております（笑）

 

Can't really tell what I want to do on that account. An account about English language education, my cover song activities, or just a place to talk about my fave animes or what. lol

 

元旦の朝 / New Year's Day Morning

6枚目

そしてはれて今年の初の朝

お外をみたら、また幻想的な

雰囲気になってたので

窓から写メを

 

6th pic

And so on the morning of the New Year's Day, I looked outside and it looked like something out of a movie or something, so I took a pic from my apartment window.

 

気温が上昇して

靄が漂っていたようです

 

Looks like the fogs were rising from the river because of the temperature difference between the air and the water?

 

頻繁に見る光景ではないので

ちょっと得した、

めでたい気分になりました（笑）

 

Not something I get to see everyday, so it was cool to see, especially on a special day. :)

 

料理の成果 / My Cooking Results

そしてそんなめでたい日に

自分で頑張った料理を

食べました！

 

And on that special day, I ate the meals I prepared for myself! :)

 

7枚目は朝に簡易的に準備した

おせちもどきです　えへ

 

7th pic

Another Japanese traditional meal for the New Year's Day is called osechi. Usually it's got all kinds of dishes prepared and stuffed inside multiple tiers of laquered boxes. I can't replicate that, so I just put what I can prepare on a single plate. lol

 

日頃食べないかまぼこも買って

あと佃煮系？のものは

作れないのでサケの昆布巻きを

買って、ちょっぴりおせち気分です♪

 

On the left, the yellow stuff is the sweet rolled eggs.

The top portion is the chirashi, or the chicken & veggie mixed sushi.

The bottom left white and pink edged slabs are kamaboko, which is like... a type of fish ball... maybe? really not sure how to describe them. They don't really have strong flavors to them. The black looking thing next to kamaboko is salmon wrapped in seaweed. This was a bit too salty. I got the kamaboko and the salmon thing at the Japanese supermarket because these are things that aren't as easy to prepare as the other dishes.

And on the right are the namasu, or the vinegared radish and carrot strips.

 

そして夜にお雑煮と

五目ちらし（もどき？）

をいただきました

 

And at night, I had ozouzni, the chicken soup, and chirashi.

 

作り過ぎたので

お雑煮とちらしを

いまだに食べてます（笑）

 

I made too much of these so I still have a bit left over... lol

 

仕事始め / 1st Day of Work

さて、年が明ければ

アメリカでは通常なら

2日からお仕事です

 

And once the New Year's Day is over, it's back to work! Most years, we go back to work on the 2nd day of January.

 

少なくともうちの会社は

 

At least at my company, we do.

 

ただ、今年はラッキーなことに

元旦が日曜日だった為、翌日の

月曜日がお休みになってたので

いつもより大分ゆっくり

過ごすことができました♪

 

But this year, because the New Year's Day fell on a Sunday, they gave us the 2nd off too, which let me enjoy the New Year's feeling a bit longer. Woohoo! :)

 

 

1枚目

なんかちょっと久しぶりに

感じる街頭さんです♪

 

1st pic

Long time no see, Mr. Lamppost! lol

 

2枚目

そして今までなかった

カナダグースの群れが

駐車場にたむろしてました

 

2nd pic

First time I saw Canadian geese congregating in the parking lot near the spot where I park at.

 

なので写メろうと

近づいたら

どんどん

逃げてくグースさんたち（笑）

なので写メでは

皆ほとんど

向こうを向いてます（笑）

 

I wanted to take a good pic, so I slowly moved closer to them, but they kept on sidling away, so they're mostly faced away from me in the pic. lol

 

3枚目

最近雨が多いのですが

車の横に

水滴のついた枝が

落ちてたので

いい感じの写真

撮れないかな、と思って

撮ってみたのですが

枝や水滴よりも

何やら地面の方が

強調された1枚になりました（笑）

 

3rd pic

It's been very rainly for the past several weeks. I saw a tiny little branch with water droplets on it, so I figured I might be able to take a nice photogenic shot. Turns out, though, the aslphalt ground looks more accentuated than the branch or the water droplets. lol

 

4枚目

そして最後、青空

 

4th

And lastly, the blue sky. :)

 

年が明けても

そしてきっと

場所が変わっても

空は空ですね

 

Even if the calendar year changes, and even if we look at it from different parts of the world, I guess the sky is sky. :)

 

大変なことも多い

世の中

そして人生ですが

 

There's a lot of not so fun things in this world, in this life, but

 

皆様にとって今年が

より良い一年になりますよう

願っています

 

I wish this year will turn out to be a great year for everybody!

 

それではまた次の記事で

お会いしましょう！

 

Until the next blog article!

 

ではではっ！

 

Taka, out!