Eating Bugs

Motto and I brought some canned bugs back from Korea, to share with friends<3<3

Im Like a Real Person Now

If there's one thing Ive learned from living in a country where nothing is edible-- it's how to cook for myself. Like, real cooking. Before I came here I would have never biked in the rain to the grocery store at 9:30PM, bought ingredients like ginger and pumpkin, and brought them home to accompany my soaking garbanzo beans in what would soon become a delicious curry. I would have never spent over an hour boiling and sautéing food that would be eaten only by me, while sitting on the floor in front of the television.

I would have gone to Taco Bell after work. It's open late.

And, this isnt even the first time ive done this; it happens three or four times a week!

Oh, and to just pile on how super productive today has been, I also learned how to say "I like Japanese" in Japanese!

Watashi wa Nihongo ga suki desu.
[わたしは日本語がすきです]

This almost makes up for Monday, when I stayed in bed until 4 eating chocolate and talking to Owl Skunk.

Sesame Dressing

Challenging myself! Yeah, so while I'm in Japan I thought I may as well take photos of it. Everyday. I'm starting close to home, really close, with my lunch. I'm obsessed with macro zoom. This photo may not be great, but Im sure if I actually do this for more than one day eventually sometime may show up.

Let Me Be Your Salty Dog

Nothing makes me feel more like an adult than making coffee. It reminds me of my mom, she used to make it every morning. I used to tease her about her addiction. I just made a bitter pot. I accidentally put in too many beans and then I sprinkled hot chocolate mix in. Wasnt as good as Id imagine.

Last night I went to karaoke with Yuka and Kirsty. It was actually a lot of fun. Ive discovered my karaoke song is definitely Bjork's "It's Oh So Quiet." We were there for three hours and got nomihodi. I drank way too many Salty Dogs.

Afterwards we went to Antonio's yatai. It was freezing. I started talking to these guys that were sitting there, making Yuka translate everything. It was ridiculous. Me screaming, "YUKA! ASK HIM WHAT HIS JOB IS!" "YUKA! TELL HIM I HAVE A TATTOO, TOO!" And random nonsense like that. At one point the man called "The Samurai" squeezed my nose and banged my head against his. Some sort of ancient Japanese mating ritual? Perhaps. They paid for our drinks, so mission accomplished. Then, they tried to give us a ride home, but luckily Kirsty had been drinking iced-hot-chocolates all night and she suggested we find other transportation.

Why am I writing all this here? It's the prelude and maybe explanation to my story about the pizza.

When I got home from the yatai I went to make some delicious store-bought pizza. While I was preparing it for the toaster oven I cut open the Italian Spices packet. I sprinkled them all over the pizza. But, they were black. And not pepper-black, but charcoal, ashy black. I thought maybe they were just burnt or something, and I considered continuing with the preparation, when I gave the packet another look. I had just cut open the "Do Not Eat" moisture absorber and poured it all over my pizza!

It took me a few minutes to decide not to eat the pizza.

Then I called Lauren on Skype and bitched/cried/talked-about-myself until the internet connection died and I fell asleep on my carpet. One contact lens mysteriously missing.

Now Im headed to the Shunan Art Museum to see an oil painting exhibition. If I can get there before they close.

Like Direction, but Backwards

I went to heat up my coffee and I found last night’s dinner in the microwave. Uneaten. I think I forgot about it and had a peanut butter and maple jam sandwich instead. Am I getting old? How could I forget about the Japanese fried pumpkin thingies that smelled so good?

I did just have them for lunch today; a win-win situation.

Maple jam is my new favorite thing. I look forward to the day I have maple butter and can have the ultimate sugary, syrupy, maple sandwich. Maple jam is a bit like honey or syrup, but since it was labeled “jam” I use it in that way. You know, on toast, sandwiches, spoons.

In other mundane nonnews, since I haven’t bought any new CDs in five months (not including Mariah Carey’s Greatest Hits) I have been creating iPod mixes to reinvigorate my interest in artists Ive lost interest in. My latest creation, “The Ladies of BSS” is wonderful. It’s Fiest, Emily Haines, and Amy Millan (I also threw in Cat Power because it felt good). Listening to it makes me feel like how it would feel if I had feelings.

Feel free to burn me some CD’s people! This internet connection is too slow to even get podcasts of Chicago Public Radio's "This American Life" (and I need my Ira Glass fix).

Im for real, real, reals studying Hiragana again. So far Ive mastered:
あ a
い i
う u
え e
お o

And I'm working on:
か ka
き ki
く ku
け ke
こ ko

So, I have like 90 more Hiragana characters to learn, then the Katakana alphabet. Then maybe 2,000 kanji characters. After all that I'll be able to read Japanese manga! A life dream!*

So some words in Hiragana I can read include, あし (ashi, leg/foot), いえ (ie, house), and かめ (kame, turtle). So if I were reading a newspaper and there was an article about a turtle running into someone's house and biting their foot, I could potentially understand it (if there was huge in depth accompanying illustration, too).

I just had deja vu.

So Im thinking, how am I going to remember all these Japanese words if I cant even remember to take my dinner out of the microwave?

This random post was brought to you by my two-hour lunch break.

*denotes sarcasm,
some of you have trouble picking that up here

EDIT: In the times it’s taken to find an internet connection and post this (24 hours) I’ve learned さ (sa), し (shi), す (su), せ (se), そ (so) and た (ta), ち (chi), つ (tsu), て (te), と (to). Now I can read すし!

I Give Up

I made some pasta tonight, with the same jar of tomato garlic I usually buy. But tonight there was this strange taste to it. It was fishy. I looked at the jar and the picture was the same as always, a tomato and a some garlic. I even figured out the katakana on the label (トマト&ガーリック) and it said tomato and garlic. There was a website printed on the back (http://www.kagome.co.jp/annamamma), so I went there to see if I could find some English ingredients. There werent any, but I looked up the kanji for fish (魚) and saw it was printed all over the place. Then I found a translation website (http://nihongo.j-talk.com/parser/) and saw that the sauce I've been eating for months doesnt just have fish but chicken meat (鶏肉) too!

Why?

This goes in my I hate Japan column.

I Can [Kinda] Cook

Moving to Japan has made me do things I never thought I'd do. I've watched three seasons of Lost and the OC. I've gone over five days without checking my email. I had a job interview where a full-grown Japanese woman pretended to be 3.

Ahyhoo, they dont sell anything resembling a veggie-burger on this side of the country so I figured out how to make one.

I didnt know what "grating" was so I peeled and diced.
Mushrooms, Green Onions, Corn, and Red Peppers
Im so freakin healthy.
Sizzle, sizzle, etc.
Mush with some breadcrumbs and make delicious veggie-balls.
Came out pretty tasty.

Can you guess what I've had for dinner the last four nights?