Haven't updated in forever, I know, I've been so busy with work and other things I haven't had time >.<
I got to go to a Thai restaurant (favorite type of food after Indian food :P) I ordered red curry, and they made it extra spicy; my eyes were watering, but it was so good.
Dessert-tapioca in a coconut based sauce. It was pretty good, kind of similar to an Indian sweet with sabudhana. My Japanese friend didn't like it, so I ate hers as well :D
Afterwards we went to this store called Meijiya which sells all kinds of international goods. It is slightly expensive, but fun to recognize all the goods from India and America. My dorm-mate regularly buys Swiss miss (hot chocolate mix) here.
Then I made them take me to Parco, a very popular shopping mall in Sakae, and asked them to take me to the mens' floors. You can see just how feminine the mens' fashion is here in Japan:
My friends in the background haha:
Yes these are mens' boots:
Most guys here carry purses, and they usually hang it from their shoulder; women here hang it from their elbow with their palm facing up (arm bent in a 90 degrees angle). It took me a while to get used to seeing that on campus because in America at least, women carry their purses on their shoulder, and hanging it from your elbow just looks kind of uncomfortable, and extremely girly. =P
One of the kids' clothing stores! I asked an employee why they named it that way, and she said one of the owner's friends named it? I thought it was amusing though:
Ok so the kids' fashion here can get pretty intense:
O_O
One of the kids' mannikins:
Kind of scary to think about kids walking around like this, although I haven't seen any yet so maybe it's not so common?
I laughed out loud when I saw this:
These hats are very 'in' right now and considered really cute; I personally don't want horns on my head =P
The way they lay out accessories here is like stumbling upon a treasure cove or something; it's always so shiny and sparkly and it's so hard to walk by without checking it out:
So instead of using the word cream or lotion, they say milk here?
So, many food places here have days called mens' day or ladies' day, where you can get an automatic discount depending on your gender. It was Ladies' day at this gelato place where you can get 2 flavors for the price of one, so I got tiramisu and pumpkin. Both were extremely good ^.^
My dorm-mates came back from Kyoto and brought me this!
A gorgeous handkerchief! It's so pretty I don't wana use it =P
One Friday after class a friend and I went to Mountain (the restaurant right by my dorm) and asked the waitress to surprise us with some kind of dessert. This is what she brought out to us:
A volcano!
That same day I visited another Nanzan dorm called Kojima to have nabe with some friends. I also had berry-flavored tea:
All of us:
I loved their dorm; it looked so new and clean compared to my dorm, and the set up was really nice too:
The general layout of this dorm is very traditional. This is the view from the genkan (place you leave your shoes):
The genkan. The entrance also had sliding doors:
Ground floor hallway with showers on the left and guys' room on the right:
Upstairs girls' rooms:
They even had tatami mats and futons in their rooms. The dorm looks especially traditional from the outside, with a gate and everything, but it was too dark to take any pictures.
That Sunday I went out to eat with my dorm-mates and a professor one of them knew. It was my first time eating out with a professor like this and at first I was kind of nervous and felt awkward, but that quickly went away when I met him. He was hilarious and very entertaining; acted like a teenager lol. It was also my first time at an actual sushi bar, and sitting right at the counter in front of the chef. Since coming to Japan I had only eaten sushi at Sushiro and the conbini (convenience store), so I was really excited. It went far beyond my expectations:
The reason why some people like to sit at the counter is so that they can converse leisurely with the chef, so it's not at all unusual to come by yourself. This chef was really nice and spoke really good English because he had traveled to so many places around the world, making sushi. His story was really quite incredible:
I really wish I could remember what each one was, but it's so hard to keep track, especially when everything is in Japanese. But I know the one on the left is crab salad and the middle is tiny fish eggs (I don't remember the last one).
The one on the left is tempura eggplant, which was my second favorite:
We got to make our own wasabi! You basically grind it against that wooden block, and ta-da!
Here's a video:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151157505241733
I really can't remember what they are! ><
I think this was miso; it was alright, it tasted like what it looks like lol:
I think that's the infamous natto; I didn't dare try it haha:
Making sushi:
Overall the sushi was very good, definitely has a different taste when made fresh, as compared to a kaiten-zushi (conveyor belt sushi) where it sits out for a while. I avoided eating fish that I knew was endangered, although my friend told me it was worth it.
Finally to end my post with something random. (I'm not sure if I already talked about this, but) In America cars drive on the right side of the road, so people also walk on the right side. In Europe, it's the opposite. In Japan however, although they drive on the left side of the road, there is absolutely no order to the way Japanese people walk. They walk all over the place, and to top it off, they almost never move aside when walking towards me. In America at least when you and a stranger are walking towards each other, you can see that from a distance and so you both can shift accordingly, way before you pass each other. In Japan, the person literally walks straight towards me in my path, and I always end up having to dodge them.
It's really quite strange. I think it's because here there is no concept of personal space; for example when I meet someone for the first time, I always feel like they stand way too close to me, with their face right in my face, and I can't move back too much because I don't want to be rude. Another classic example is on the train; it is very normal here to be bunched up against a complete stranger, whereas in America everyone always has their own personal bubble, even on a crowded bus. Americans will avoid touching or bumping into strangers if they can and if they do by accident, it is immediately followed up by an apology, but here people will push and shove you without a care, let alone a "sorry" or "excuse me". As a foreigner, this is still something I'm trying to get used to :)
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