塩寂しい

塩は辛くないけど、まだ舌を痛みする。

Hellos peeps,

As many of you know, recently I have had some bumps in the road. Exchange is, contrary to what many of you may have thought, almost exactly as I had anticipated. Lots of study, with lots of adventures.

So far my experiences in Japan have been (terrific). Both positive and negative, all become a lesson.

Cultural observation

Japanese culture varies quite a lot from Australian culture in that it is much older, deeply ingrained and for the most part unchanging. Or at least it was. While the youth of Australia attempt to fathom the multiple cultural influences of the young country, the youth of Japan struggle with culture also, though in their case it's not a question of how to build, but what materials to use.

On a less serious note
- My helix is infected..very infected.
- Starting to eat healthier - salads and fruit. (I now like strawberries)
- Going for more walks (moonlit)
- Drinking more tea (matcha and Himalayan Sherpa Tea)
- iPhone refused to work, entered recovery mode, took it to the Apple Store - fixed.
- bought a headset and mouse for my computer
- Spring break is over - homework has started
- speech went well (Did not cry)
- want to read more manga, especially Norigami and Momochi
- loaded my Manaca card with $100
- exchange rate sucks
- going to pay rent tomorrow
- had takoyaki on Monday
- made strawberry and chocolate pancakes again (Delicious)
- Paws and Nuki got my letters and were pleased.
- not feeling as lonely now I'm back at University

Tomorrow

Tomorrow peeps, I am going to make Japanese tea cups. They said I can make as many as I would like in the allocated time and they have a range of colours. I plan to carve a fox into each and do my best to make as many as I can!!

 



Kaworu is still waiting for Shinji-kun underneath the Ume tree. 

Kaworu waits, 
The delicate flowers bloom
As love itself
Like winters final flowers
 まだ会いましょうね。

Post in progress.

Assignments are under way.
Speech is roughly 9 minutes.
Kanji I have learned almost all of and am working on the final few.
Report topic still not decided.
Feeling a tad lonely, so here are some pictures of me not feeling lonely.

雪つね Snow fox.

雪だよ！雪が降っていた。白くてきれいな雪だった。
 Snow! It was snowing! It was white, beautiful snow!

Emily and myself.

One of the only things more hardcore than sleeping in a kareoke booth from 1am to 8pm, is doing kareoke until 5am, then just not sleeping. Welcome to my wonderful life.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thurday. Where did you go? 

Friday

Dinner with Justin and three very nice new Japanese friends, Ken, Kentaro and Rin. Was super shy at dinner, though managed to push myself to converse. It was worth it. We had Italian food, including a  carbonara pizza.

We then met up with Emily and Dan before proceeding to an izakaya. We ate nibblies and had fine sake. What can I say, great experience.

After that we went to kareoke. I sang Beautfiul World by Utada Hikaru, as is a tradition for me. We did have a short break from kareoke from 11pm and 1am as we had to drop the Japanese students off at the train station, then wait for the 1am - 7am kareoke deal. We headed to Maccas, which seemed like a good idea after.....well, did I mention that the kareoke was..all you can drink, and I don't mean water and softdrink. :D

Satuday. 

Walked outside the kareoke bar to....snow! Glorious snow!

Sent Justin home as he was crashing, and went with Emily and Dan to check out of their hotel.

Spend the rest of the day frolicking in the snow. Made a snow dog, ate snow (not yellow), sung songs from Disney's Frozen in English and Japanese. Skipped, hopped, jumped, twirled, all in wonderment at this magical fluffly stuff.

Pan and cakes.

Discovered Norigami (click for link). Only read the first chapter, though I will head to Bookoff and purchase the remaining 8 bookies sometime soon.
-Still addicted to Matcha Latte.
-Cooked triple layer chocolate strawberry pancakes again, this time all the pancakes were as big as the plate. 

耳見る人やまめまきもちマスク。

This holiday is...marvelous *spins around*           豆撒き

9am I met Justin downstairs and we traveled to Osu Kannon for the Mememaki.
 On the way I realised that I'd not eaten breakfast, so I purchased some tea, and as it's rude to drink/eat while walking, I convinced Justin to stop for a moment so I could sit to drink. Sat down next to a really nice elderly lady. (Enter the first 祖母ちゃん(grandma) chat). This lady had been everywhere it seemed. Chatted about her visits to Australia and America. She especially loved my cat ears.


3,000円 later I was maki that mame!! Even got a special mame maki outfit to wear for the bean throwing. People stand under the platform and try to catch the beans.

Shall save the lengthy explanation, though basically the mame (beans) which you maku (throw) are good and scare away demons so you can have a pleasant year. For those who wish to read more about Mememaki and Setsubun, please click HERE.

(Enter 祖母ちゃん(grandma) chat No.2).Loved my cat ears and wanted to tell me how their son went to Australia and they are heading to New Zealand soon. They were a festival volunteer and wished me a happy day for mamekami.

たこ焼き
Takoyaki time + was introduced to a shop FULL and I mean wall to wall, of lolita, cosplay, wigs and accessories called Body Line. HERE is link for their online shop. Originally I had found a dress that was perfect, only they did not have my size, though I did end up getting a blouse from there later in the day.

   狐 Fox!             

Within Akamon the temple is spread across multiple streets and this has various sections away from the main temple. One of these is what appears to be a shall shrine..that had kitsune. Almost went crazy at the sight of the wonderful creatures.

 They had kitsune plush you could purchase with various blessings from the temple, this is Ki-chan and it's blessing is for love. <3 <3 


Maid in Heaven

First trip to a maid cafe!! Maidreamin was such a fantastic experience. I had a turtle parfait and got to watch one of the maids dance.I intend to go again after the Cat Cafe. Facebook link HERE.


Went to the arcade and took Pricura with Emily and Gretchen! Shall be sending some of them to some of you soonish. There was even an arcade where they would lend you outfits to take pictures in. I was a Christmas maid, though the outfit was chyou mijikai!!!

 Lamenting over my failed attempt to buy a lolita dress earlier in the day we continued browsing...then I found it! The perfect dress! 
 Blue and white with Alice In Wonderland print, from a good brand, for a relatively cheap price!


Finally finished the evening with dinner with friends. Such an awesome bunch of people and I was glad that I got to spend the day with them. Here's to more adventures in Nagoya!


(Enter 祖母ちゃん(grandma) chat No.3)
After saying goodbye to her friend a few stops after I got on the train. she invited me to sit next to her in one of the only free seats. We got talking about her daughter who moved to Sydney and almost got married , what animal year we were born in, how she was a drama teacher and what I was studying, She thought my ears and my bag were especially cute. ^_^ When she left I waved goodbye and knew I had made a friend even if only briefly.

Thus we conclude that 3/3 kind Japanese grandmas that I randomly met and chatted to today, approve of my cat ears.

Bus fair, the fair bus driver. Was short 100円 for the trip home on the last bus....
bus driver said "just pay next time" and let me on.

Today was a great day.

パンケーキ

So today I decided to make pancakes. 


 Pancakes were a success!


Made them from scratch and added chocolate and strawberries. They were absolutely delicious. 

Been a slow day again today. Managed to create a 3 minute introduction to my speech about Aboriginal Dream-time stories.

 Also realised while airing my futon that I could place it on the towel rack like a hammock.

Mame-maki

Mame-maki tomorrow. I have my mame-maki mask and beans to throw.
Hopefully going to be an awesome day.

Planning to leave early so I don't miss anything.

Should charge my camera.

Uping the date.

Cy-chan is blooming beautifully which makes me really happy. Kaworu is still waiting for Shinji under the beautiful pink blossoms. Maybe Shinji will be along soon and they can be together forever.

As I mentioned to one of the Chinese students (Lin) that I was not very confident at cooking, she suggested that I help some of the other students make Gyoza.

This was a wonderful experience as making gyoza together has a positive meaning in that we all worked together to make something delicious.




Here is a photo of everyone who made gyoza with me and some of the gyoza we made. Many of you would have eaten gyoza before.



In continuing with the "I want to learn to cook" theme, I asked 狸様 for a recipe and he gave me one for a stir-fry. At first I was feeling paniced as it seemed to have lots of ingredients and steps. Also the super market is not exactly easy to navigate, especially when everything is in Japanese...

  Nuki-sama no Ichiban Oishii no Stir-fry Recipe!

1. Cut up beef into strips (or buy stir-fry stripped beef, a little more expensive but a lot less work)
2. Prepare baby corn, water chestnuts and bamboo shoots (usually this means pouring out the water from the can)
4. There is no step 3
5. Cut up an onion and some garlic, and fry them in a wok (or suitably large pan) with some curry paste
6. toss in beef, fry it until it's brown
7. chuck in vegetables
8. pour in 1/3 cup soy sauce, and 2/3 cup coca cola
9. Simmer for a while, and chuck in some bok choi leaves (or other such vegetable), and when they've wilted, you're done.
10. Serve with rice or delicious udon noodles, mm mm!

(sure, I forgot step 9 and 10, but hey! I cooked something)

Then I had a celebratory corune and it was filled with cream...and memories.

Last time I was in Japan I would eat one of these each lunch time at school. They are basically a swirl of bread-like pastry, filled with cream then topped with chocolate.



 



 Today I woke up at 1pm, washed my hair, went for a walk and bought a jacket, went grocery shopping then came home. I also cleaned the kitchen, emptied my bins and tidied the flowers on my desk so now everything is neat and tidy. 

When I got home I was able to chat to Granny, Mainge and Dad. JJ has got really fat!. Was wonderful to chat to you all and I'm very glad you are going well.

This-evening I cooked an omelet which turned out more like scrambled eggs, with capsicum, onion, tomato, shallots and cheese.

It was tasty.

Spring holiays are from the 1st - 13th of February. 

While I don't have much homework, I plan to study and explore Nagoya a little more.

Tomorrow I plan to sleep in again (though not as late) and make pancakes.  

My main assignment is a 10 minute speech about Australia which is due the day I get back. I have chosen to speak about Aboriginal culture, food and language as this is something I know a little about, and something that very few of my international classmates would know.

Monday is Mame-maki in Osu Kannon, so stay tuned for pictures.