Adventures in the Looking Glass

Just re-posting the forthcoming list so I don't have to trawl though entries to remind myself what I'm doing.


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 - -Something about Japan that sets it apart from anywhere else.
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 favorite/least favorite 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 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?

My house in shaking.  Not from an earthquake, but from a building site just down the road.  Most irritating it is at 9am.

Japanese class went well.  Apparently I haven't forgotten that much, as I my teacher very kindly kept telling me how impressed she was.  Still, I had some trouble getting my words out and had to stop and think a few times, but I didn't spot too many grammatical errors - apart from dropping particles (which Japanese people do a lot anyway) I was OK.

I'm gonna cook a spicy tomato and garlic sauce and then I'm heading off to a party.  Hurrah!

I was amused to see an article on the Guardian website about more men taking their own lunch to work.  My bento box is pink and sparkly though, and those little fish I detest.  You can see them looking at you.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/18/japan-white-collar-workers-bento

I've been thoroughly miserable since I came back to Japan. I know, I know, post-holiday blues etc etc, but I don't think I've ever had them this bad. I was telling my friend and co-worker Kazumi about how annoyed I was, and she said:

"But Japan's a good place!"

"Yes, it is!" I replied. "But... I want to be back in Thailand!" Maybe it's a sign of how much like home Japan has become that I feel a little downhearted to return, although, truth by told, I was quite relieved to get back here after my trip home in April, if only because I could eat brown rice and miso soup for breakfast.

The photos are back, but you'll have to wait a little longer for them all as I need to knock my ramblings into shape before unleashing them on you. Meanwhile, you can have this picture of me looking insanely happy in the sea:




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Last night I made Goya Champ and decided it would be great idea to tell you all how to make it. So here we go:


You will need: Eggs, tofu, a goya (also known as Okinawan Cucumber or Bitter Gourd/Melon), oil, soy sauce, mirin or cooking sake.


Cut the goya in half. In the middle are the seeds and a soft pith. Scoop these out with a spoon and then slice. Put in a bowl and add salt. Leave for 5-10 minutes for the bitter juice to come out. Meanwhile, beat your eggs and drain the tofu. Then rinse the goya and immediately squeeze out any excesss juice with your hands.


Chuck the goya in a frying pan with some mirin and cook for a few minutes. Add the tofu and cook a few minutes more. Add the eggs and a dash of soy sauce and push around until it looks cooked.

Stick it on a plate.
Serve with extra soy sauce (it takes the edge off the goya if it's too bitter). I also experimented with a bit of cheese - I don't recommend it. It is, however, pretty good in curries.

Scrummy. Of course, if you don't like bitter stuff than don't go near this. And as for those of you in England - good luck find a goya (try an Indian market)! I'll be sending seeds over to England for my three favourite allotmenteers (Gideon, Dad and Grandad) so see what you can grow in the greenhouse next year.

Goya is alleged to have numerous health-giving properties, including balancing blood sugar (so is a good food source for diabetics), aiding digestion and being chock-full of various vitamins and minerals. How true any of this is I don't know but I certainly don't get after-dinner munchies when I've eaten goya.

In other news, I decided to tranfer to Yokohama, so told the relevant people on Friday. That's it so far. I likely won't hear more about it until December time. Many hours of Japanese this weekend too. I've noticed that my brain has permanently replaced "wow" with "すごい" and "really" with "ほんと”.

I've been reading Stephen Fry's "The Ode Less Travelled", a beginners guide to writing poetry. As a formerly prolific poet who is trying to find their way back to the metaphorical "ribbon of moonlight", this is a thoroughly entertaining read. Of course, I am biased: Stephen Fry is Number 1 on my list of fantasy dinner guests. However, if any other writer said they weren't going to let me read on until I had picked up a pencil to mark enjambment and ceasuras, I would ignore them. Not so in this case. I do everything I'm told. I even sit up at night writing iambic pentameters for homework. Tonight I have to work those two end-stopped lines into two lines of enjambed poesy containing 2 ceasurae. Phew.

I'm gasping for a cup of tea and a digestive biscuit. Well, 50% success isn't bad.

I've spent the afternoon and evening working on the story and the poem. The story is finished (for the moment)- clocking in at 1600 words or so, and the poem is in its fourth draft at 20 lines. It's nice to be working on poems again after so long. I like the action of paring them back and back again, like boiling down a sauce until it's thick and glossy. I wouldn't go so far as to say this is glossy, but the analogy is true of the good stuff.

I wanted to write up tales from my holidays, but I've put these two pieces as a priority, so the tales will have to wait. Rather than bore you with a blow by blow account, I'm going to flick through the notes I have, write up some more (I didn't get anywhere near enough chances to write while I was in Tokyo and Kyoto) and then give you the best of, along with a selection of pictures (there are over 100 in total).

I cooked curry yesterday for my new manager and the Japanese teacher at school. It was pumpkin, potato and chickpea curry, which initially hit you with a the sweetness of the pumpkin and then followed up with a good dose of chilli. Until two weeks ago I hadn't had a curry for over six months. I was in the restaurant sweating, and afterwards got a proper curry high. Great it was, and I even had the company of Shizuko (my student from London) too. I'll be doing it all over again in a couple of weeks with one of my current students.

Next week I should get a big load of overtime payment, so I plan on buying a bike (of the foot-powered variety) to go on weekend adventures now the weather has perked up. There have been some very impressive thunderstorms, and it's not even the rainy season, which has me both looking forward to some spectacular lightning shows, and a little concerned at my proximity to the river...