Tempura~

Once again, this post will not have as many pictures. However, I worked up the courage to ask my host family if I could take pictures of our meals and they said it was fine. So now I can add pictures of fun Japanese cuisine and, to the left, is a picture of my lovely chopsticks!

I was able to sleep until 6 am today and have noticed a decrease in jet-lag symptoms throughout the day (yay!). Breakfast will be the same everyday, if I translated correctly: homemade bread, a boiled egg, tea, and basically a mini parfait - and "everybody love parfait." I have my own dish set to use in the mornings and it is adorable! It has a little pattern of tea cups, tea pots, coffee pots, and so on in red and blue on a white background with their English words below each.


After breakfast, I pretty much studied until lunch. I was able to eat udon today! I also got to try kamaboko, a pinkish white processed fish product, and some form of algae-like seaweed that was surprisingly delicious despite its outward appearance. Of course, I like almost anything I eat.

Next, my host family and I went to the dollar store and a pharmacy so I could get notebooks and body wash. This dollar store was much higher-class than the one my friends and I went to the other day, but everything in it was still a dollar. On the way, we unexpectedly stopped at a cake shop and though I protested, they bought us all slices of desert for later. The shop was small and extremely fancy looking, but the prices were actually pretty fair. A little over $4 for one of the best slices of chocolate cake I have ever had, layered with chocolate and topped with a macaroon. The entire shop smelled divine. I wish I could capture smells and flavors like we can capture images with cameras. Another one of the senses that was messed with today was hearing: on the car ride, we stopped before a train rail due to a passing trail. The tall, yellow posts had red flashing lights, and the bar that came down was covered in yellow, red, and black stripes as well as hanging red straps. Most interesting was the noise emanating from the posts. It's not something we hear in the US and since I have only ever heard it in anime until now, I was having anime flashbacks.

We interrupt this regular blog program to bring to you cultural notes!

• Coins are essential in Japan. Cash, yes; but coins specifically. Most of the time, change is given in coins only and many small vending-style machines take only coins. Not only are coins so important, but cards are often not taken. Some stores in larger cities will take debit and maybe credit cards, but a majority of Japan apparently does not use or accept credit cards.
• This city is definitely people-centric, not car-centric. Although there are more cars in Japan than I expected, the city is made for organized public transportation and easy access via walking and biking. Small shops of any design and clinics of various fields can be seen everywhere. I also saw small playgrounds everywhere, including one built in the space under a raising train rail! 
• The rumors that Japanese people do not care about their teeth and that there are few dentists are wrong. Today alone I saw four dental clinics and I asked my host family about it and they pointed something out. There are definitely dentists in Japan, however, people do not get braces or surgery just to straighten their teeth or make them look "nicer." It's more necessity than a specific beauty norm.

Now we shall return to your regular blog program. Thank you.  (I apologize; I wanted some humor)

 The aforementioned cake slices were eaten with a loose-leaf tea and jokes of tea-leaf fortune telling. Before studying until dinner, I stood outside and roughly sketched the view from my humble balcony. So many places have made me itch to draw or photograph and I gave in to this one. It was drizzling a bit, but though it was not very hard rain, it made this cold weather even colder. I am honestly shocked at how cold it still is. My host family is very understanding of how I am obviously not accustomed to this weather and have provided me with yet another thick blanket (:-)). Since I have more and more resources, I also planned my courses a bit for both this semester here and next semester back home - ugh so much drama but so many cool classes!

 Now the title of today's post becomes relevant: for dinner we had...tempura!
When I came down, I was looking at the table, trying to figure out the layout and my host family were making jokes, imitating me: "What could it be?" The main parts were a dish full of sliced vegetables and some huge shrimp on sticks and a hot plate in the center of the table which a pot of oil was placed upon later. The items were dipped in a bowl of batter then fried right there on the table and quickly eaten! I was not sure how it would turn out, but it helped warm me up so I was extremely happy. I tried two new vegetables as well: gobon, a long starchy food, and renkon, a root with natural holes in it. (When I asked my host father why there are holes in it, he didn't know so he said there were there to see long distances). It was a fun and delicious dinner.


After dinner I studied until now (give me a break! I have the first of my two placement exams tomorrow!). So I have stayed awake until 10:30 tonight - I think that I can go to bed without feeling like a wimp. Good night!