Roll Cakes, Jellyfish, and What? Snow in Tokyo?!

今日の日本語の言葉: yuki (雪) - snow

This word was brought to you, obviously you already know in the title, by the fact that it actually snowed today. It was so little, and only for a tiny bit, but it was unmistakably snow.

Today I woke up and I was utterly alarmed. I had decided to sleep in a little after I had by circadian rhythm awakening at five,  and when I woke up again, I checked my watch, and it said 10:15. 10:15. I'm proud of the fact that I haven't actually "woken up" past nine in the past... three years, at least. Maybe four. I mean, I've lounged around and read a book and actually didn't stand up until after nine, but I'm always conscious and alert by that point. Thus, you can see why I freaked out that it was 10:15. Plus, I had to leave for school at 10:45 for another workshop today, so it was extra alarming.

But then I did the usual teenager in the morning thing and I opened my computer, which is set to EST still. It said 5:30, which meant 7:30 in Tokyo. Needless to say, I was a bit confused, but I trusted my digital computer more than my analog watch. Turns out, the little dial you use on the side to change the time had been pulled out the night before at 10:15. I actually remembered the event, though I didn't think the setting dial had gotten dislodged. I was so relieved! This meant that I still hadn't broken my waking up record, and I still had plenty of time.

I spoke to Anna a little this morning and had a very nice breakfast. I had enough time to even take a leisurely warm shower. This feeling is not unlike the feeling one gets on Daylight Savings day, where you wake up and you just have one extra hour. Except I had three instead. It felt like SUPER Daylight Savings day, basically.

My breakfast was so adorable!

As I mentioned above, I went to school early today in order to participate in another one of the cool workshops! Today, we made roll cakes, which I was very interested in learning, but not so interested in eating. I don't like whipped cream, after all. It's worse than car sickness when I have more than what can be found in one thin slice of a small roll cake. Say, a quarter cup? Maybe a fifth.

Our instructor for the day was such a cool guy. He's really funny, and I actually understood a lot more of what he said than I thought I would, considering that he was speaking quite fast. He also has a cool French accent to his Japanese, because he studied in France for years to better his culinary skills. So both his French and his Japanese now are accented with the other language.

He's also going to be a competitor in the Japanese version of Iron Chef in a few weeks. What a badass teacher. And he works so quickly and so precisely too! It's like watching art. Well, I guess it is culinary arts, after all.

Putting whipped cream on it was quite fun! Usually, you're supposed to evenly spread it out with a knife though, so that it won't squish at the end when you roll. We then put some canned fruits on there, drained of the syrup so the cake wouldn't get soggy. I think making a chocolate roll cake with fresh strawberries and blueberries would be utterly delicious. And, of course, more fruits, less cream. I'll definitely make that (maybe for Anna and her girlfriend who's obsessed with roll cakes) when I get back to the states.

Doesn't it look like some large milk candy? Or like, a sausage?

When we were done, they gave us a bag to put it in to take home. We tied the bag with air in it so that we could put it in our backpacks without the cake itself getting squished. Such an ingenious idea! I totally would have just carried the log around by hand all day. xD

School passed by as usual today. I didn't draw at all, most because I spent class time writing chapter one of the new fic instead. As I said yesterday, my creative juices are being focused on this new story, rather than on stations (plus, I haven't really fallen in love with any other station that I want to draw right now, aside from Gotanda, who's this hip old man, but we'll get to him some day). But! In the place of more stations, you get one of Anna's drawings instead. She drew Harajuku very quickly for me this morning. I'm so glad that she has allowed me to better my blog with the presence of her beautiful work. I love Anna's art style so much! >3<

Anyways, there wasn't much to learn in class today that I didn't already know. Kanji class still goes at the ever-slow five kanji a day pace. But I did learn by myself some more useful kanji, which means that I find myself sometimes being able to read whole signs now, which is such a cool development. Pronunciation is another matter, but at least I know what the sign means, even if I don't know how to say it.

But here's the interesting school day bit: it snowed! It was only very briefly, and so light that it wasn't even very noticeable. But someone had pointed out that it was "raining," but then when you looked out the window, the stuff was falling way too slowly to be rain. And being from Boston, I think I can tell pretty well when snow is falling. It was so surprising, and such a nice addition to the day. Of course, it's also like, 60 degrees outside, so I don't know how that's physically possible... Global warming. We'll just put all the blame for weather we don't understand on global warming. Hurricane Sandy? Global warming. Rain with barely any clouds? Global warming. xD

I went home immediately after school. Saya possessed some more green tea chocolate, though not Kit Kats, so I tried that too. This one tastes more strongly of green tea than the Kit Kats had been, and it actually wasn't all that bad. Of course, I don't think I could eat a whole bag in one sitting like she did, but one piece was nice.

For dinner today, I had some very interesting things. If you just look at the picture, it looks like all I ate were regular things, like cabbage miso soup, and rice, and avocado, and potatoes, and fish filet, and cucumbers, and jellyfish... Jellyfish. I ate jellyfish. For the first time in my life. And I have to say, for all the fear that I had before trying it, it really just feels like more chewy jelly. And the way that my host mother cooked it made it taste and feel almost exactly like seaweed salad, which I love very much. It was hard to get past the fact that it was still jellyfish, though, you know? Like my thing with liver. Once I can picture it, it gets difficult.

After dinner, we had some roll cake. Everyone else seemed to like it, especially the children, so I was very glad. I feel like I really don't do enough for this family, who has so kindly taken me in and is treating me so well. So I'm always happy when I get a chance to cook for them, or get them something from my travels, or read to Ryosuke almost every night. It's a nice feeling of mutual giving, you know? 

I couldn't eat this without three glasses of milk, so sweet was it.

Lastly, I give you a continuation of the gradual tour you are getting of the house. Your picture of it will be complete soon enough. Some day.
Below is the first floor bathroom installment. The door in the back leads to the place where we hang up our clothes to dry outside. To the right side of the room, you can barely see it, but that's the door that leads to the shower/bath area. The next picture is the actual shower/bath area. In the mirror's reflection, you can see that the bathtub is on the other side of the room from the shower. Every time I take a shower, I have to use a water scraper to scrape down every surface and lead all the water to the drain. Otherwise, there will be mold! D:

Apologies for the short post today. I am feeling very, very tired for some reason. It's 11:00, which is usually the time I like to go to bed, but I'm usually not so lethargic at this point. Maybe I've been getting too little sleep. Well, we can remedy that starting now! I'm going to go to bed.

お休みなさい！
マギー