031206 10:29
Aaah! Saturday morning. Haven't done much more than get up, make my bed and have breakfast yet. I decided to try to make the best approximation of an English (or Irish, I can't say I know exactly what sets them apart, except for one being made in England and the other on Ireland) breakfast that I could. So I had three slices of toast (somewhat thicker than you'd normally get), two fried eggs (I finally had to flip them over since I don't understand how to get all the white solid without the yolk meeting the same fate otherwise), four small fried sausages (not proper breakfast sausages, but I was still lucky to have these at home), orange marmalade (or if I'm to trust the jar "orenji maamareedo", written in katakana of course), and a big cup of ceylon tea which I'm still sipping at. I suppose that's enough to call it an english breakfast, but there should be fried mushrooms, a fried half tomato, a thick, fried slice of bacon and at least in the case of the irish breakfast a slice of fried black pudding and maybe one of white pudding as well. Oh, and I didn't put milk in my tea either... I suppose it wasn't much of an english breakfast then, but it should get me through a day of looking for christmas cards and gifts.
Notice how the english haven't figured out a way to fry the marmalade and tea yet.

031207 10:54
Breakfast again, three slices of bread again, but real bread this time bread that can actually be chewed. I ran into Monique yesterday after I'd found christmas cards (though I've noticed that I didn't get enough, wonder how much it will cost me to send them) and we wandered around among the shops under the station. Had sushi, though I can't really say exactly what was in mine. It's a good thing most places here like to display their food, so ordering by pointing is easy. Even now, when I might be able to decrypt what it says underneath I sometimes don't bother. Anyway we passed a "french" bakery
... have you read Pattern Recognition by William Gibson? You should. Quote: "The pizza turns out to be very good, though very Japanese, but the potatoes are amazing, a Rickson's-like super-simulacrum of a Western classic." Thats how it is with most foreign food here, it's either copied with such obsessive perfection that you know it has to be Japanese (nobody else fries an egg with the yolk so perfectly centered), or it's been around long enough (or is just too expensive to copy, I'm not sure) to be considered Japanese. Pizza is one example (small, expensive, good but different), hamburgers another. In case of the pizza, I think it's just that very few Japanese people would manage to eat a full sized pizza, as well as the fact that almost every culture in the world has it's own interpretation of pizza by now. Hamburgers I think would simply be too expensive to make in regular sizes, meat prizes being what they are here. Hamburger is also one of the many English words (or maybe it's an American word) which have been around long enough to become Japanese. You're not sure to be understood if you say "hamburger" (and even if understood you might get a giggle for your strange way of speaking), on the other hand "hambaaga" will be understood and "hambaagu" will get you the meat with no bread. I'm starting to really like this country...
Anyway, french bakery. Got a loaf of very good thick crusted white bread. Monique showed me a place that sells actuall dutch peanut butter, best I ever tasted, got it on one of my breakfast slices of crusty bread. The station has an entire floor I'd never noticed before or part of a floor, I instantly get disoriented when I go below ground level.
Last night we celebrated George's birthday. Went to Gusto, an Italian resturant with one small pizza on the menu ;). I got the bacon potato gratin which was small but very good. American basketball game on big plasmascreen over my head. Best hot chocolate I've had in months.
This afternoon I'll probably play tennis, if the weather looks good when I eventually open my curtains. And now I'm going to go eat the last piece of that "french" bread.

031209 22:37
I forgot to upload this yesterday when I brought the computer to the lab. I'll do it... later. Right now... well not right now, since I'm sitting with a large cup of green tea and writing my blog, but these days the Japanese midterm on Thursday is looming pretty large in my mind. But even so I come up with all sorts of things to do rather than study, probably haven't put in more than two hours concentrated Japanese today. I'll have to make up for it tomorrow. I'm not sure if I'm entering another period of Blender inspiration or if it's just something that I'm avoiding studying, but I've spent a couple of hours in Blender today and done more than I've done in quite a while, adding details to unfinished models. Still can't texture though ;)
Hmm... my stomach isn't very fond of me at the moment, I think it's trying to tell me that topping the chicken and beans with green tea wasn't a very good idea. Or more likely I've just eaten too much. I've noticed I eat more here than I normally do at home, something I'll have to change soon since I might be getting above my preferred weight. Not that I have the scales to confirm it. Besides eating less would be good for my economy too.
Almost everything is ready for the trip me and Carl Fredrik will make when he comes over on the winter holiday. I'm so looking forward to seeing him. I'm out of tea so I suppose I'll finish here.