Keeping At It
Nov. 6th, 2010 11:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
blodeueddHaving these daily writing prompts really gets me to, you know, write! Amazing.
But before I start on those, I've just had this rather silly idea for Christmas gifts. I'll need to get started on them soon, so please comment if you would like a unique, hand-made-by-me little something for Christmas/New Year's/Solstice/whatever. You will also need to give me your mailing address at some point, if you don't live in Japan or I possibly won't see you before I leave for Canada. For now, simply tell me:
1) one or two colours that you like;
2) animal, vegetable, or mineral;
3) useful, or just cute?
^_^
Day 06 - Food that you swore you would never eat but now love (or tolerate).
This one is a bit tough, because there aren't many things that I'd probably outright refuse to try, and the few that I can think of aren't Japanese dishes anyway. Some things I prefer not to eat, such as beef liver, but pretty much everything in Japanese cuisine is fair game, including raw horse meat (I love raw meat!) and any type of seafood. Mmm, seafood. Some things I haven't tried, such as whale, simply for lack of opportunity.
One thing I kind of regret not trying is suzume (sparrows). When I went to Kyoto for the first time, G and I visited Fushimi-inari shrine and had lunch at a nearby restaurant that served stuff-onna-stick and udon. I ordered udon, but he wanted meat, so he asked the lady what her o-susume (recommendation) was. She gave us the strangest look, asked him if he was sure, and came back ten minutes later with a a skewer of what looked like little bats, skulls and wings and all. Staring at it in bafflement, we figured out that she'd misheard his order, which explained her initial surprise. I let G eat all of them ("The bones are crunchy!"), partly because I had a huge bowl of udon in front of me, partly because I was in a hellish emotional state at the time and didn't want to deal with eating cute little birds on top of everything else.
Oh, wait, I did think of one! For the longest time, I disliked asparagus. It was perhaps the one holdover from a childhood of disliking a great many vegetables (but I always liked brussel sprouts and fiddlehead greens, go figure!), but every couple of years, I'd try asparagus again and think, "Yup, I still take no pleasure in eating this!" It took Japanese pizza, topped with asparagus, corn and mayonnaise, to make me revise my opinion. As it is, I can't see myself buying and preparing it, but I certainly won't turn my nose up at it if it's served to me.
On the other hand, after having tried uni (sea urchin) a few times, I can honestly say that I don't really care for it. It's not disgusting, but there are so many more delicious sea creatures that I'd rather eat instead!
Since we're on the topic of food, though, I never realised before coming to Japan how divisive a subject mayonnaise could be. Maybe it just never came up back home, but I never thought that many people disliked it! Or maybe I just happened to have met a disproportionate number of mayonnaise haters here?
Day 01 - A picture of you "in Japan". (doing or wearing something "Japanese")
Day 02 - Describe your neighbourhood in Japan.
Day 03 - Most interesting person you've met.
Day 04 - What's your favourite place that's not in any of the guidebooks/lists of places to visit?
Day 05 - Which, if any, Japanese mannerisms or expressions have you adopted?
Day 06 - Food that you swore you would never eat but now love (or tolerate).
Day 07 - Which Japanese words do you use in English? (hanami, shinkansen, etc.)
Day 08 - Are you a Herbivore or Carnivore? S or M?
Day 09 - Favorite stores/shopping centers.
Day 10 - Something about Japan that sets it apart from anywhere else.
Day 11 - What did you find most overrated and underrated about Japan?
Day 12 - Describe a fail!gaijin moment. (Where you did something wrong or completely misunderstood because you couldn't ~read the air~ or just plain had no idea what you were supposed to do because you weren't born and raised here) Describe a gaijin!smash moment .(Where your foreignness was to your benefit)
Day 13 - How is daily life in Japan different from how it was back in your home country?
Day 14 - What is the hardest thing about living in Japan versus your home country?
Day 15 - Weirdest food item you've seen, and weirdest food item you've actually eaten.
Day 16 - How you realised you'd acclimated to Japan. (if you have)
Day 17 - Your karaoke top 5, your sushi top 5, your conbini top 5.
Day 18 - Post some amusing/cute/faily purikura.
Day 19 - Your favorite Japanese character(s) and Gachapon/UFO Catcher toys
Day 20 - Favorite Japanese festival or folklore.
Day 21 - Favorite and least favorite Japanese fashion trends.
Day 22 - Your favorite Japanese saying or kotowaza (proverb).
Day 23 - What is something you have/do in Japan that you wish you had/could do in your home country?
Day 24 - Your favorite Japanese slang or borrow-word (外来語), e.g. セフレ "sex friend"
Day 25 - Most interesting vending machine find.
Day 26 - What's your favourite/least favourite train line?
Day 27 - Place you avoid going to if at all possible.
Day 28 - A picture of you looking like a weaboo/A picture of you trying to blend in and failing.
Day 29 - What's the thing you [will] miss the most about Japan when you leave (either on vacation, or move away)?
Day 30 - Did Japan meet your expectations, both good and bad? What has been the most surprising thing about Japan for you, or the thing you least expected?
Day 06 – Your day
My day wasn't all that exciting, but here it goes. To make it more interesting, imagine some epically dramatic background music.
I was woken up early by a text message, but I probably would have woken up soon anyway, since the temperature in my room had, due to the rising sun, gotten much warmer than it had been when I went to bed last night. I undressed some, and went back to sleep.
When I finally got up, around 10:30, I remembered that I had no milk for cereal, so I started cooking some Kraft Dinner instead. Which is not a solution, of course, because Kraft Dinner also requires milk! I've done this more times than I care to admit. Luckily, more butter can be used in lieu of milk.
After that, I basically wasted much of the day. I decided that I wouldn't go to ballet after all, and apart from posting to Travelpod, I just sat around reading on the internet. Oh wait, I did get a load of laundry done, and I did the dishes and tidied the kitchen when I was hungry enough that I need to rinse out my small frying pan so I could steam some dumplings for a late lunch. What else? Uh... I drank lots of tea. I patted Tabitha. I thought about sewing -- I mean, I thought about it as in, I planned stuff, as well as thinking, "Hmm, I should sew." Oh, and I took a shower!
A bit before six, I headed out to Otemachi for a language exchange session kindly organised by the lovely![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lizstarsky. My nihongo didn't totally suck! Though I did get stuck a couple of times, trying to express concepts beyond my ability. Anyway, it was lots of fun, and it was funny to see the look on the Japanese speakers' face when I said the names of the characters in Les Misérables with the correct [French] accent. XD
Then I took the train home (I didn't sleep through my stop as I did Thursday, go me!), bought milk, bread, yoghurt and clementines at the supermarket, and came home. I gave Tabitha a snack, and ate two of the clementines whose rinds had split when I dropped the bag on the floor by accident. When I'm done writing this post, I'm going to tally my word count (I'm already at about 8000 for six days, which is Very Good!), then maybe watch an episode of something and knit for a bit, and hopefully be in bed by... not too late.
I hope nobody passed out from the sheer excitement of my existence.
Day 01 - Introduce yourself
Day 02 - Your first love
Day 03 - Your parents
Day 04 - What you ate today
Day 05 - Your definition of love
Day 06 – Your day
Day 07 – Your best friend
Day 08 – A moment
Day 09 – Your beliefs
Day 10 – What you wore today
Day 11 – Your siblings
Day 12 – What's in your bag
Day 13 – This week
Day 14 – What you wore today
Day 15 – Your dreams
Day 16 – Your first kiss
Day 17 – Your favourite memory
Day 18 – Your favourite birthday
Day 19 – Something you regret
Day 20 – This month
Day 21 – Another moment
Day 22 – Something that upsets you
Day 23 – Something that makes you feel better
Day 24 – Something that makes you cry
Day 25 – A first
Day 26 – Your fears
Day 27 – Your favourite place
Day 28 – Something that you miss
Day 29 – Your aspirations
Day 30 – One last moment
But before I start on those, I've just had this rather silly idea for Christmas gifts. I'll need to get started on them soon, so please comment if you would like a unique, hand-made-by-me little something for Christmas/New Year's/Solstice/whatever. You will also need to give me your mailing address at some point, if you don't live in Japan or I possibly won't see you before I leave for Canada. For now, simply tell me:
1) one or two colours that you like;
2) animal, vegetable, or mineral;
3) useful, or just cute?
^_^
Day 06 - Food that you swore you would never eat but now love (or tolerate).
This one is a bit tough, because there aren't many things that I'd probably outright refuse to try, and the few that I can think of aren't Japanese dishes anyway. Some things I prefer not to eat, such as beef liver, but pretty much everything in Japanese cuisine is fair game, including raw horse meat (I love raw meat!) and any type of seafood. Mmm, seafood. Some things I haven't tried, such as whale, simply for lack of opportunity.
One thing I kind of regret not trying is suzume (sparrows). When I went to Kyoto for the first time, G and I visited Fushimi-inari shrine and had lunch at a nearby restaurant that served stuff-onna-stick and udon. I ordered udon, but he wanted meat, so he asked the lady what her o-susume (recommendation) was. She gave us the strangest look, asked him if he was sure, and came back ten minutes later with a a skewer of what looked like little bats, skulls and wings and all. Staring at it in bafflement, we figured out that she'd misheard his order, which explained her initial surprise. I let G eat all of them ("The bones are crunchy!"), partly because I had a huge bowl of udon in front of me, partly because I was in a hellish emotional state at the time and didn't want to deal with eating cute little birds on top of everything else.
Oh, wait, I did think of one! For the longest time, I disliked asparagus. It was perhaps the one holdover from a childhood of disliking a great many vegetables (but I always liked brussel sprouts and fiddlehead greens, go figure!), but every couple of years, I'd try asparagus again and think, "Yup, I still take no pleasure in eating this!" It took Japanese pizza, topped with asparagus, corn and mayonnaise, to make me revise my opinion. As it is, I can't see myself buying and preparing it, but I certainly won't turn my nose up at it if it's served to me.
On the other hand, after having tried uni (sea urchin) a few times, I can honestly say that I don't really care for it. It's not disgusting, but there are so many more delicious sea creatures that I'd rather eat instead!
Since we're on the topic of food, though, I never realised before coming to Japan how divisive a subject mayonnaise could be. Maybe it just never came up back home, but I never thought that many people disliked it! Or maybe I just happened to have met a disproportionate number of mayonnaise haters here?
Day 02 - Describe your neighbourhood in Japan.
Day 03 - Most interesting person you've met.
Day 04 - What's your favourite place that's not in any of the guidebooks/lists of places to visit?
Day 05 - Which, if any, Japanese mannerisms or expressions have you adopted?
Day 06 - Food that you swore you would never eat but now love (or tolerate).
Day 07 - Which Japanese words do you use in English? (hanami, shinkansen, etc.)
Day 08 - Are you a Herbivore or Carnivore? S or M?
Day 09 - Favorite stores/shopping centers.
Day 10 - Something about Japan that sets it apart from anywhere else.
Day 11 - What did you find most overrated and underrated about Japan?
Day 12 - Describe a fail!gaijin moment. (Where you did something wrong or completely misunderstood because you couldn't ~read the air~ or just plain had no idea what you were supposed to do because you weren't born and raised here) Describe a gaijin!smash moment .(Where your foreignness was to your benefit)
Day 13 - How is daily life in Japan different from how it was back in your home country?
Day 14 - What is the hardest thing about living in Japan versus your home country?
Day 15 - Weirdest food item you've seen, and weirdest food item you've actually eaten.
Day 16 - How you realised you'd acclimated to Japan. (if you have)
Day 17 - Your karaoke top 5, your sushi top 5, your conbini top 5.
Day 18 - Post some amusing/cute/faily purikura.
Day 19 - Your favorite Japanese character(s) and Gachapon/UFO Catcher toys
Day 20 - Favorite Japanese festival or folklore.
Day 21 - Favorite and least favorite Japanese fashion trends.
Day 22 - Your favorite Japanese saying or kotowaza (proverb).
Day 23 - What is something you have/do in Japan that you wish you had/could do in your home country?
Day 24 - Your favorite Japanese slang or borrow-word (外来語), e.g. セフレ "sex friend"
Day 25 - Most interesting vending machine find.
Day 26 - What's your favourite/least favourite train line?
Day 27 - Place you avoid going to if at all possible.
Day 28 - A picture of you looking like a weaboo/A picture of you trying to blend in and failing.
Day 29 - What's the thing you [will] miss the most about Japan when you leave (either on vacation, or move away)?
Day 30 - Did Japan meet your expectations, both good and bad? What has been the most surprising thing about Japan for you, or the thing you least expected?
Day 06 – Your day
My day wasn't all that exciting, but here it goes. To make it more interesting, imagine some epically dramatic background music.
I was woken up early by a text message, but I probably would have woken up soon anyway, since the temperature in my room had, due to the rising sun, gotten much warmer than it had been when I went to bed last night. I undressed some, and went back to sleep.
When I finally got up, around 10:30, I remembered that I had no milk for cereal, so I started cooking some Kraft Dinner instead. Which is not a solution, of course, because Kraft Dinner also requires milk! I've done this more times than I care to admit. Luckily, more butter can be used in lieu of milk.
After that, I basically wasted much of the day. I decided that I wouldn't go to ballet after all, and apart from posting to Travelpod, I just sat around reading on the internet. Oh wait, I did get a load of laundry done, and I did the dishes and tidied the kitchen when I was hungry enough that I need to rinse out my small frying pan so I could steam some dumplings for a late lunch. What else? Uh... I drank lots of tea. I patted Tabitha. I thought about sewing -- I mean, I thought about it as in, I planned stuff, as well as thinking, "Hmm, I should sew." Oh, and I took a shower!
A bit before six, I headed out to Otemachi for a language exchange session kindly organised by the lovely
lizstarsky. My nihongo didn't totally suck! Though I did get stuck a couple of times, trying to express concepts beyond my ability. Anyway, it was lots of fun, and it was funny to see the look on the Japanese speakers' face when I said the names of the characters in Les Misérables with the correct [French] accent. XDThen I took the train home (I didn't sleep through my stop as I did Thursday, go me!), bought milk, bread, yoghurt and clementines at the supermarket, and came home. I gave Tabitha a snack, and ate two of the clementines whose rinds had split when I dropped the bag on the floor by accident. When I'm done writing this post, I'm going to tally my word count (I'm already at about 8000 for six days, which is Very Good!), then maybe watch an episode of something and knit for a bit, and hopefully be in bed by... not too late.
I hope nobody passed out from the sheer excitement of my existence.
Day 02 - Your first love
Day 03 - Your parents
Day 04 - What you ate today
Day 05 - Your definition of love
Day 06 – Your day
Day 07 – Your best friend
Day 08 – A moment
Day 09 – Your beliefs
Day 10 – What you wore today
Day 11 – Your siblings
Day 12 – What's in your bag
Day 13 – This week
Day 14 – What you wore today
Day 15 – Your dreams
Day 16 – Your first kiss
Day 17 – Your favourite memory
Day 18 – Your favourite birthday
Day 19 – Something you regret
Day 20 – This month
Day 21 – Another moment
Day 22 – Something that upsets you
Day 23 – Something that makes you feel better
Day 24 – Something that makes you cry
Day 25 – A first
Day 26 – Your fears
Day 27 – Your favourite place
Day 28 – Something that you miss
Day 29 – Your aspirations
Day 30 – One last moment
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no subject
Date: 2010-11-07 01:00 pm (UTC)