Ryosuke's Undokai and Quiche Lorraine!

Kyou no Nihongo no Kotoba (今日の日本語の言葉): hayaguchikotoba (早口言葉) - tongue twister
This word is brought to you by dinner, at which I got much closer to both Yoshiko-san and Masahiro-san due to our discussion of tongue twisters, in both English and Japanese.

First of all, the picture above is something for which I'd like to thank my beloved godfather Moe for. As you can see, it's got the perfect amount of plug space, and I utilize it all! It's one of the most handy things I own at the moment, and so versatile an adapter is hard to find over here (I've tried to find one for Julien that works just as well, but to no avail). So thank you very much for having found this for me!

Now, on to today. It was a pretty relaxed day, and for that I am glad. I don't think I could have handled another full day, or even another day that involved the train. I just wanted to stay home, walk around a little, and rest. That's exactly what I got today, which was great!

First of all, for breakfast, I had yakisoba, kara age, and an onigiri (without the nori (seaweed)). It was wonderful and delicious, and oh, if I could have this every day without getting extremely fat and unhealthy, I totally would. I will never get tired of rice. I could never imagine a day in which that would happen. SO good.

Afterward, the family and I went out to Ryosuke's undokai, which is a sports festival that basically every school up to college/university has once a year. There's races, cone dodging, dancing, etc., all celebrating the spirit of sports. And what was I doing? I was sitting, watching this whole thing. No surprise that that's what I would be doing during a sports festival, ne? Hehe.

There was quite a bit of marching as well. They march very well, these students. Even the first graders. They have synchronized footing and everything. It's truly quite a sight. Though what broke the spell a bit for me was that the main marching song was... the Mickey Mouse Club theme song! I don't know why they use this song so much, but I've heard it about once a day since I've been here, for many different purposes, such as a celebratory song, a marching song, elevator music. Why are Japanese people so attracted to this piece? In case you guys don't know what it is, here's a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5ZOcIc_pKk
I guess at least they didn't play it with lyrics, so there was only the melody. At least.

Yep, they're doing push-ups!

I went home before everyone else because it was so hot! And since all I was doing was just sitting there, there wasn't much to distract me from the sunlight hitting my skin. I knew that I would burn if I stayed out there long enough (and in most sunlight, I don't feel that way; this one was somehow special). So I left early and went home to chill, read, and (this wasn't part of the initial plan) take a nap. 

When the rest of the family got back (without Ryosuke, who was having lunch with his classmates before more of then undokai happened in the afternoon), we had lunch. This is the first time I've ever had raw eggs with rice. I've had raw eggs with porridge before as a Thai dish, but never with rice. Nevertheless, it was pretty good, especially when eaten with umeboshi (pickled plum). I gotta say though, raw egg probably isn't for everyone. It's got a pretty specific taste, and though I don't like eggs much anymore, this wasn't bad. I just probably can't have it more than once a month or something, otherwise I'd get sick of the taste. 

After lunch, the family went back to the undokai and I stayed home to write my previous blog post about my night at the Honmonji temple. Again, sorry for being late with it, but I was just so tired last night that there was no way that post was happening. I barely even remembered to turn off my lights when I went to bed. So now you have the treat of two posts in one day! Hooray!

After the family came back, with Ryosuke this time, I went shopping with Yoshiko-san. I decided that I would make dinner, since Yoshiko-san was probably tired from all of the undokai festivities (not to mention the hot sun; how do Asian women protect themselves from tanning so well? They were wearing thick sweaters for God's sake. What is the price of beauty? Fainting?). 

More cool ice cream flavors

Look at those cute jam containers that look totally like ice cream!

After shopping, I went home and started on dinner immediately. Quiche is quite easy to cook, now that I know how, though it takes a while to prepare (like rolling out the dough, then refrigerating it, then baking it, then preparing the filling ingredients, then putting it all together, etc.). In my quiche, there was bacon, gruyere cheese, gouda cheese, zucchini, red & yellow bell peppers, and caramelized onions. Very yummy! I think it came out pretty well, and the family really seemed to like it. Yokkata!

In addition, we also had spaghetti salad for dinner. For desert, I had put the remaining pie crust pieces in the oven, then covered it with cinnamon sugar when it was done. This was more for the kids than anything else.

After dinner was especially nice though. This was the first time I've ever actively interacted with Masahiro-san aside from the odd question here and there. He was trying really hard to teach me to hear the difference between "kuki" (stem), "kukki" (cookie), and "kuuki" (air). And then that got us into talking about tongue twisters and alike sounding words. I tried to explain the meaning of that woodchuck tongue twister, eventually saying something like "how many pieces of tree can a beaver chop down with its teeth..." It was difficult. And then Yoshiko-san and Masahiro-san taught me a few Japanese ones, which I couldn't pronounce, and I daresay I don't quite remember. D:

Then afterward, we sat down together to watch the videos Masahiro-san recorded of today's undokai. It ended up in a ticking battle between Ayuka-chan and Ryosuke-kun on top of poor Yoshiko-san, who was trying her best to brush Ayuka's teeth.

Tomorrow I think will mostly be a studying and Skyping day. I want to learn tons of kanji tomorrow, and am very much looking forward to Skyping both dad and Aaron (though I'd love to Skype anyone else if they were around!).

Much love,
Maggie

National Health and Fitness Day

Japanese word of the day: Yukan (勇敢) - brave

This word has been brought to you by the little people I saw today at the park, who fearlessly charged into each and every obstacle course.

First off, I'm very happy that Japan has a health and fitness day. If only America had that holiday (and actually participated in it). Families in Japan are very into each and every holiday, whereas the case is obviously not the same in America (Columbus Day? Does anyone walk into some stranger's house and start declaring that this is now their living room?). 

Anyways, the day started off with breakfast, which was pancakes, to my delight! However, as I started to make them, all the ingredients were in grams/ounces/mili-litres. I got really confused, needless to say, and took a while to actually get into things. The pancakes ended up being delicious! Apparently, people in Japan often eat pancakes with condensed milk drizzled over it, which is delicious, but it's something I hadn't tried until that day.

After breakfast, we departed for the park in celebration of National Health and Fitness Day (Taiiku no Hi). It's apparently a famous park around this here parts, and it was very crowded when we got there. The line was incredibly long. 

Nevertheless, when we got into the park, that's where the fun began. I found that I'm definitely not as agile as I wanted to be, but that wasn't much of a surprise. It's a big ropes and wood course with 40 obstacles. It's more for the children than anything else, though there are a few challenging ones that adults try themselves as well. Each course is marked with it's own number sign, and a description as to how to do the course correctly. Then you have your own pamphlet in which you can mark whether or not you were successful in completing that course.

I did some cool things at the park, such as tightrope walking and running on a water wheel. Mostly I just stood around and took pictures though.

I'm not good at balance.

Ain't she a cutie?

Walking on a water wheel isn't easy.

SO MANY people got wet. Full on. Head and all.

I didn't want to run. At all. 

Very cool architecture! 

After the park, we went to a food court for lunch. On the way, I saw this whole baseball team travel in their bikes, and when I asked, apparently that's how many baseball teams get around. Biking with the whole team to your destination. That sounds a lot more fun than getting rides to the game, don't you think?

7/11 has their own premium brand here that sells
special rice and bedsheets, among other things.

For lunch, I had this beef and rice dish, which is definitely even more delicious than it looks. It's really good. Really, really good. Masahiro-san had ramen, and the rest of them had McDonald's, as you can see in the background.

After that, I went shopping for groceries with Yoshiko-san, where I saw many interesting things, like pikachu fish cakes. Their meat selection is also massive. They have every cut of meat I can imagine, and in many different sized packages, for different needs. They also had corn dogs in that section, which I thought was weird.

I also saw some very large green onions, and some very small bell peppers (they don't get much bigger than that around this here parts). In addition, everywhere, they were giving out samples, but samples of things I didn't find that special, like hard boiled eggs and rice...

When you check out, it's a three step process. First, you get your items scanned, and they put the necessary bags into your basket for you. Then you go and pay with a different lady. Then you take your basket to the bagging station and bag the stuff yourself.

After that, we went back home. The streets near the house are really small and narrow, and they barely fit two cars side by side, yet they're still two way roads. People are so used to it, like Masahiro-san, that they drive pretty quickly past other cars. I flinch every time.

For dinner (after some relaxing, a walk to the library, etc.), we had chawanmushi (the pudding like thing) and this little fish, whose name I forget. The miso soup and rice were regular stuff I'd had before, but I was hesitant about the rest.

The chawanmushi tastes like miso soup a little bit, but it's god baked egg on top, which is why it looks like pudding and has that consistency as well. I ate that all with enthusiasm when I actually realized that despite my dislike for pudding-like things, this was actually pretty good.

The fish, however, was a different story. You're actually supposed to eat the fish head and all, but I couldn't bear to eat that head. So after the head, you're still supposed to eat all the bones and spine and stuff, which I still found difficult. When you break open the fish, there are eggs everywhere too, and I usually don't like fish eggs when they're on sushi, so...

Nevertheless, I promised myself that I'd try everything that came my way, and so I took a bite of the fish, spine and all, and it actually just tasted like... fish. I don't think I'd order this of my own volition at a restaurant, but it actually wasn't that bad. The spine was a bit difficult to chew, though, so I left it alone and ate the rest of the fish. I was pretty proud of myself (and I still am).

Apologies for the late post! I fell asleep last night, having forgotten to blog. But here you are! And just in time for me to head to my school's entrance ceremony!

All the best,

Maggie