New Year's: Part I

Tonight I made those vegan whole wheat chocolate chip pumpkin muffins again today without paper cups (so much better without the cups), but I think they're too sweet...even the ones I made without the chocolate chips. So next time I'll cut some of the sugar out. Might have something to do with me using just brown sugar.

NEW YEAR'S FOOD
Okay, my family's Japanese, so we always have a lot of traditional (as well as non-traditional) Japanese food on New Year's day (New Year's is big in Japan). Being a fourth-generation Japanese American, I don't know much about Japanese culture...so I can't tell you exactly what everything is called or what certain things symbolize or whatever, so sorry in advance!! Here are pictures of SOME of the food:

Of course, ya gotta have sushi of some kind... cucumber rolls, raw tuna, uh....pickled pink thing (?), and unagi (eel) with tamago (egg), cucumber, and...I forgot what else was in those big ones:

Salmon (this was the first type of raw fish I learned to like because it's not too fishy-tasting):

Won-tons made of shrimp, pork, water chestnut, green union, and I'm not sure what else (my dad made these...this isn't even a quarter of what he made though):Dad cutting the tako (octopus), which I don't like:
There was more food than what's pictured in this post.
Oden, a traditional soupy dish that my grandma makes ever year. It's made of stuff like kamaboko (fish cake thing--the pink and white objects), daikon radish, and a single boiled egg. I'm simplifying it...I really don't know what the rest is, but Wikipedia has a nice description and list of ingredients, although this particular oden doesn't have a lot of the things on that list...
Of course...SAKE, which I still think tastes gross:

These aren't Japanese...haha. spinach and cheese fillo triangles:I'll post the dessert pics later.