September 19th, Happiness in the City by the Sea

On Saturday I chilled for a while, but resolved not to stay cooped up in my apartment for all of silver week! Unfortunately I also had computer problems and it looks like I’ll have to leave my computer running until after silver week so that I can mail it in to be fixed T_T Pray for me and my mental health!

I was lucky enough to spend a lot of time skyping with Elizabeth! For the most part I didn’t want to go outside because I’m still suffering from pretty bad Japanese burn-out. I don’t want to study, I don’t want to use it. I’m tired. I’m dismayed because I still can’t express what I want to express. I know that’s normal - I haven’t been learning long enough and I don’t even have all the grammar. Still, it’s no less frustrating. I figure I can forgive myself this week, and next week I’ll take some action in studying and suck up all my grievances. Even if I’m tired of Japanese, I can’t deny that I know a lot of kanji now and I’m only getting better at reading.

When I had enough apartment time, I decided to begin The Great Silver Week Photo Quest. My pictures haven’t been so artsy since I've come to Japan, so I decided to spend silver week hitting up my favorite spots in the City by the Sea, taking artsy pictures and pictures of me interacting with the locale in the ways that express how I feel in them.

So just before sunset I biked to the top of my favorite mountain, the one where I usually run. It’s a very pensive place for me, the relationship we have is very simple though – I look out, I feel at one with the city, I go home. My shots are very calm, the background is very full, and the colors are very soft. Fortunately I was blessed with good lighting. Initially I thought maybe I’d read for a while and take pictures, but when I arrived at the top I was literally met with a swarm of mosquitoes. It was kind of scary, actually. I didn’t get eaten too badly when I began to run between pictures, but it was still quite the sacrifice to get some good shots. The mountain is much busier during the day as far as hikers go, and in fact it was the first time I’d actually visited it in the light! So that was quite the experience. The success of this photo shoot makes me very excited for the rest of the week!

On the way home I thought maybe I’d stop at the grocery store, but I wanted to wait a little bit so I could buy the day-old bentou lunches for cheap just before closing, so I stopped off at one of the department stores in town first. The first time I was there I wasn’t so impressed, but during class a student had told me she really liked it so I thought I’d give it another shake. As it turned out, it’s a two story store and it had a lot of great things! I bought two Japanese magazine cookbooks of good quality, some socks, a cute little cardigan, and a skirt. I’m sick of wearing long skirts and I had this idea for an outfit in my head that required a short one. It doesn’t fit quite right because I have hips and Japanese ladies clothing isn’t made to fit hips, but I can get it on and that’s what counts! Also I can never remember which side is the front because for whatever reason there is no tag inside. Maybe it’s just this style or maybe it’s all skirts, you'd have to ask a Japanese woman!

Walking around the store I felt a little conspicuous, I always have these ideas that the Japanese women are laughing at me because they know nothing will fit me, but for the most part no one really spoke to me except for the one point where I turned a corner and the clerk made a surprised noise like, “Oh! There’s a foreigner in our store, how cool!” I did summon the courage to go into a dressing room to try things on. Usually nuanced behaviors like fitting rooms make me nervous, even in my own country, but for the first time ever I decided not to worry and to pull a gaijin smash. If I was supposed to ask for help in the fitting room, too bad, what would they do? Come up and tell me I couldn’t go in? Fat chance.

Still, I think I did it right. I took off my shoes to enter the stall and it seemed the other women also just walked in. So I guess it's not really a gaijin smash if you're not doing something wrong, but I'll still consider it one because it wasn't paired with the usual quibbling I do.

As I was leaving I noticed I had a slew of mail in my phone. The foreigners of the City by the Sea were banding together for dinner at 8 PM! Fortunately it was only 7:30, so I decided to meet them. We had a pretty good turn out except for the folks who were off camping with the JETs. It ended up being me, Neighbor Dude, Mystery M (everyone kept talking about him but I didn’t actually meet him until last night), Suza, and Keito. We went out for chuuhai and yakitori (chuuhai is the Japanese mixer alcohol). I tried kimchi and imomochi for the first time, and I liked them both, though imomochi is pretty much just fried mashed potato rounds and therefore very delicious.

It was nice getting some foreign time in my own city, and afterwards just us three girls went to Mister Donut for a donut and coffee (lol nijikai! 2nd course!) I had a strawberry custard donut :D A very good night indeed, with a lot of good conversation. I think we’ll all make more of an effort to see each other again. The three of us made plans to go to the hot spring on Tuesday in the next city, so it will be quite soon, in fact!

By the time I left Mister Donut it was midnight, so the elevator at the train station was closed and I had to carry my bike down the stairs >,< Fortunately I am a super strong gaijin woman.

September 20th and 21st, Black Hole of Awesomeness

Sunday and Monday we’ll just blur together because vacation time does that. Sunday I did a lot of laundry and eventually got to the grocery store. Or maybe that was Monday? I don’t remember. Lots of inactivity and artsiness was mixed in, though it rained both days so I couldn’t go out to continue my photo quest :( I did, however, discover that our vending machine across the street sells coke zero and limon&nada, which are two delicious beverages that make my day :)

When I was hanging my laundry outside, I knew I should have stopped to talk to my neighbors but I looked like hell and I was scared, so I figure I’ll do it later. Oddly enough, I’ve done no cleaning, no self introductions, and no work, as I thought my vacation would be full of. What have I been doing? Not sure. Small tasks, reading, and exploring. Good things, I’m just not being as productive as I’d have liked to be.

It’s kind of exhausting looking at my new recipes. There’s a ton of really good ones in the book that I’m really looking forward to trying, but since it’s all in Japanese and my Japanese cooking terminology is so-so, it’s very time consuming, especially with the kanji because often times the words aren’t in the dictionary because they’re proper nouns. There were a few things I just copied exactly and decided to ask at the store (go me!).

I also decided not to worry about how much money I spent. Cooking is a hobby for me, I have an adult job now, and I need some love, so I figure it’s okay to buy whatever I like. In the end, my bill was only about $60 and I bought a lot of food, including meat, and a lot of staples like oils and vinegars and such that will keep my pantry stocked for a while to come. I even treated myself to some bananas :) This is only the second time I’ve bought meat to cook from the grocery store (crazy huh?). I’m not vegging-out though, because I get meat at restaurants and buy a lot of tofu and other stuff for when I cook. Tofu is so easy to use!

It was fun planning my new meals though, and I was very excited. I also learned a new vegetable (komatsuna, Japanese mustard spinach?). I asked the guy at the counter to read the kanji, and when he told me it was “komatsuna,” I was like “Oh! Okay!....what’s that?” and he showed me and we talked about how much I needed for the recipe. So, here goes! New foods, yah! Tonight I’ll be cooking a mushroom chicken dish :)

Additionally, my time off has included a few dance parties in my living room. Put on a little Pitbull, Lady Gaga, Timbaland, and even Britney. I miss this stuff a lot. I miss dancing and hot summer dresses and even vodka. I’m not the biggest partier, but I like being young and it makes me sad that I haven’t figured out how to do that here yet. Don’t get me wrong, drunken Labyrinth and karaoke are fun things, but I kind of want to go dancing. I’m trying to figure out if there are any good booty-shaking clubs in Sapporo and if there’s anyone who will go with me. Also I’ve been thinking lately that I want to visit South America – my buddy Tom studying abroad there is making me very jealous with his endless fruit, beaches, and salsa clubs. Next stop? Maybe Argentina?