About Me

Ikawa-cho Miyoshi-shi, Tokushima-ken, Japan
I was recently accepted by the JET program as an assistant English teacher in Japan for one year.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

blog of the centry

web log,
i figured out why the softbank hawks have a dog on their uniforms. the softbank mascot is a white dog, so the team must have dual mascots, one for itself and one for its corporate sponsor. i know it should probably just be the softbank white dogs, but i dont know the history. anyway, they lost by a wide margin last night to bobby valentine's chiba lotte marines, which was fun to watch.
i know i was emphatic about how this is not supposed to be a food blog, but it is a life in japan themed blog, and food is a very big part of life. i am going to be careful about the tendency for all posts to tend towards food, since it is by all measures the main basis of life. so last night i prepared my first mostly home cooked meal in japan. up until then it had been frozen stuff like gyoza, or dried stuff like instant noodles, but last night i busted out the frying pan and got down to it. the tacoyaki shop was closed, which was disappointing, since that is probably the best food ever, so on the walk home i stopped at the little butcher shop run by very friendly ladies (who gave me 3 free croquettes last time i was there) and bought 200 grams (do the math) of some nicely marbled, somewhat fatty beef. i asked if they had cooking oil, but they did not, so i was offered a little chunk of cow fat, or lard, instead, which i accepted. then i got home and turned on the heat. i greased the pan with the lard, and threw in one haphazardly chopped onion with one even more haphazardly chopped potato. i received a bag full of these items the day after my welcome bbq. then i added the meat. things got going, but i realized i dont have any salt or pepper or spices of any kind in this new house. i stirred everything up and added a good amount of kikkoman soy sauce for flavor and simmering. now the secret ingredient i discovered was to add a little bit of orange juice for sweetness. kept the heat on high for a while, and wound up with this as a result, which i like to call 'west meets east':

served with a peach and a can of kirin strong 7 (% alcohol) , which is nasty but refreshing. the entire meal was delicious, and i was very full and content.
i just got back from the post office, where i picked up my cash card, so now i can use the atm to access my cash when i get paid n the 13th.
big news - i have internet at my house now!!! it started to work last night. so i can use google chat, all of that good stuff. if you want to chat with me, just keep in mind that whatever time it is on the east coast, the corresponding time in japan is one hour behind, and the opposite meridian. for example: 9 AM NY = 8 PM Japan.
alright. things dont really start, and by things i mean classes, for me until september, so i get to chill out and relax until then for the most part. questions, comments, feedback go to soipsismwow @ gmail . com.

1 comment:

  1. you are an unreliable narrator.
    9am NY = 10 pm Japan. COME ON

    ReplyDelete