031020
And so it's Monday again, but not for much longer. I only made some bread for dinner, but I had a quite filling lunch so it was enough. More Japanese today and then wasting some time in the lab again. Or probably not completely wasted.
The weekend was mostly good with just one really depressing thing happening. The imoni party on Saturday was great. We went down to a place where the river bends, carving away at a cliff on the south side and leaving a nice beach on the north side. On this beach we made a couple of small fire pits to boil the soup over and set up a couple of grills, mainly for grilling seafood (grilled ika (squid) tastes great, but hot prawns are a little difficult to peel) but also some small sausages and sliced beef tounge. And of course there were onigiri of different kinds (made with some kind of extra fine rice that Tanaka-san had brought with him from his home region). Afterwards we cooked potatoes and sweet potatoes in what was left of the fires.
That was Saturday. On Sunday morning I biked to the beach as planned, I ended up going on my own since Monica was expecting a call from home that she couldn't miss. On my way to the beach I got a bit lost and probably ended up biking at least ten kilometers extra, but you can't really get lost between an ocean and a city with hight buildings so I just kept trying to go east. The beach, once I finally got there, was great. It's wide with fine sand and big noisy waves, separated from the road and houses by a tangle of twisted pine trees. Maybe a bit of glass in places, but that's to be expected on a public beach close to a big city. This late in the year the other people there were mostly surfers in wetsuits, with a surprisingly large female percentage... I kind of like wetsuits. I considered going for a quick swim, since the weather was warm and sunny, but I decided not to tempt my sore throat to go over into a full blown cold. Instead I went up by the pines where I was out of the wind and lay for a good while in the sun before eating my sandwiches and starting back home. Had the wind against me on the way back so I was quite tired when I came home to the international festival (together with the dancing last night it's got my legs a little achy today). The festival was pretty much fun, I was too late to get any of the food but there were still performances and dancing in the evening. Naturally I was wearing my jumpsuit and waking much interest for this little known swedish custom. Dancing was fun even though I'm not good at it at the best of times and yesterday's dancefloor was crowded, hot and dark. When I got back up to my room I kind of wished I'd never gone to the dance though. The pendant I got from Lucia this summer had cracked and fallen off its leather string (which still hung around my neck). I got quite upset about that since I really liked that pendant, I hadn't had it off once since I put it on a month or so ago.

031016
Ok, forget what I wrote about having lots of time to cook. It's past eight in the evening and I just got home from the lab, hungry and tired. I was still the first to leave though. I'm very glad to have my leftover risotto now.
I've got a small dilemma this weekend. On Saturday I'm invited for an imoni party (a kind of barbecue party down by the river I'm told, traditional in this region) with my the people from my lab. Finally a chance to get to know them better. Then on Sunday there's the International Festival here at International House and I've kind of promised to go since Ogawa-san, my tutor is helping to arrange it. My problem is that I also want to pack a lunch and bike out to the beach before the weather gets too bad for it and next weekend Markus will come for his weeklong visit and I want to spend as much time with him as I can then (mmm... the risotto is at least as good today) and I don't have an extra bike to go together.
Thus I have to choose two of the three: imoni party, international festival and trip to the beach.
I think I'm going to check if the other people who were interested in going to the beach have other plans. And I'm most likely to skip the beach, since that's the option where I don't risk hurting anybody's feelings (am I starting to think too much like the japanese?) and I really need that imoni party as a chance to get closer to the lab group. I can't take another week as an almost complete outsider.
... I just realized that the festival will continue until quite late, so if I start out early on Sunday I should be able to do all three. The only problem with this is where to fit in my Japanese homework for Monday, but I can always squeeze that in somewhere. Probably tomorrow afternoon at the lab unless I get something to do.
Ah, more good news. My thermos that I bought a couple of days ago keeps the heat pretty well (not exceptionally but well enough), after twelve hours my tea is still hot enough to drink. I think I'll pour boiling water in it on Sunday and just bring one of my curry udon bowls for lunch.
I must have been really hungry, the risotto that would have been enough for three people is gone. And I ate a pretty big lunch today. Katsudon I think it's called, rice with fried pork and egg.
The first Japanese lesson today was pretty good, I've got a whole bunch of words to add to my lists. I have lists of words that I spend quite a while each night going through, up 'til now I've had to find the words myself (I add about ten or fifteen every day) but now I think I might get enough in class.
A big bowl of risotto and four small cups of strong tea has cured my hunger, tirdness and cold fingers (and that is hopefully the last you'll hear about that risotto, I'll probably make another fairly soon though). I shouldn't let having a thermos of tea around become a habit, it'll be too easy to get addicted.
And again it is time for the dishes (though much less work than yesterday) and then some Japanese.

031015
I hadn't cooked rice in quite awhile, so I made way too much. Well, I put in a bit more chicken and onion and I had enough chicken risotto for at least two, probably three, people. It's not so bad I thought and called around to the few people I think I know well enough here at International House to invite for dinner. They had either eaten or weren't in, so now I'll be eating nothing but chicken risotto for a couple of days. Good thing it tastes great.
I've felt a bit isolated today, haven't met any of the other international students I know and I still feel very much like an outsider at the lab. I've just been sitting there at my desk studying my books. These people don't seem to take breaks and I don't want to disturb them in their work just to chat, so how will I ever get to know them? Next time I can I'll be there a bit early and make sure not to eat lunch before I go. They have to eat sometime!
And as mentioned dinner is tasty, but lonely. It's been that way quite often these couple of weeks I've been here now. Cooking is a good way to spend part of the evening, I've liked cooking for a long time and since I don't have a TV or an internet connection I've got a surprising amount of time left for it. Once it's done the fun kind of goes out of it when there's noone to share the triumph with.
I have to stretch my imagination just a little bit since I don't recognize most groceries and wouldn't know what to do with them if I did. I've just never done any japanese cooking. It seems my main sources of protein will be eggs and chicken since meat is very expensive. I thought rice would be cheap in Japan, but it isn't. A two kilo bag costs about 1000 yen, not that I'm complaining since that bag is likely to last me awhile. Potatoes aren't as expensive as I'd thought, maybe it's because they're in season. One of the staples of my cooking at home, crushed or diced canned tomatoes are expensive here so I'll have to live without them, or at least use them to a much lesser extent. When I can get about half a kilo of chicken breast for the same price as one can of tomatoes the choice is easy.
This post turned out to be mostly about food, not so strange considering I'm eating my risotto while writing. The thing I like best in this room is probably the little table on wheels hidden under a desk, I can roll it over to the cooking corner to set it and then just roll over to the window or computer to eat. I'm gonna roll over to the kitchen for seconds now...
...mmm this really is good, even if I do say so myself. These small leek like things they've got here work pretty well in many things, it's one of the cheaper vegetables (most of the usual ones from home are frightfully expensive) so it'll probably become a staple in my cooking here. There's also some garlic in there as well as salt, black pepper, some stock that I can't read the label on and a couple of dried pepper fruits that I've picked out after it was done cooking. I also let a carrot (split in four parts lengthwise) cook in with the rice then fished it out and served it on the side. It was all served with a large glass of milk (more expensive than home, but I won't be without it) and a generous helping of plain salad. Say what you will about the sticky japanese rice, but it's perfect for risotto. For next time I'll have to find some good white vinegar.
There that's way more than you wanted to know about my dinner, time to do the dishes.