Day 176: Homemade okonomiyaki and vegan blueberry ice cream 火曜日・2015年3月10日

I bought a 5kg bag of rice at the supermarket. Thought about buying a 10kg one, but it was kind of expensive, and the 5kg one was already heavy enough. Besides, I didn’t even get through the first 5kg bag within the almost-six months I’ve been here. Mainly because I got lazy and started microwaving all my rice. But I tested one of my frozen rice packs that I made yesterday, and it microwaved just fine, so I think I can keep doing that and save money, not to mention packaging. Also it’ll be good for when I go back to the UK, as I don’t know if they’ll have microwaveable rice of the same calibre.

My shopping for this week came to over ¥5,000. Ugh. Mind you, it included that 5kg bag of rice, which was about ¥1500. I’ve lost more than that weight since coming to Japan. It looks like a lot when you look at that huge bag of rice, same when you try to carry it, but that’s only a small fraction of what I weigh, and I don’t know if it’s really that noticeable.

I made a list of everything I’m going to cook this week. I’ve become quite good at running my fridge down, and I’m hoping I never have to waste food again if I can help it. Tomorrow I’m making “italian chicken” as my mum calls it, which is chicken thighs marinaded in white wine and vinegar with rosemary and mushrooms. This is so I can use the bones to make stock for soup, as I already have a leftover chicken bone in the fridge, but I don’t think it’s enough to make stock with.

To use up the rest of my eggs and the half-used packet of bacon, I made okonomiyaki for dinner tonight. No big deal I guess, but last time I made it I didn’t chop up the cabbage anywhere near thinly enough. This time I was able to use my food processor successfully, and so the batter turned out well. I mixed it with crab and then put the bacon on top as I was showed in Japanese Culture Club at my sixth form college a couple of years ago. Wow, was it really two years ago? Time flies.

I then used the food processor to make (vegan) blueberry ice cream. A frozen banana, and frozen blueberries. But I ended up adding milk to it, so it wasn’t quite vegan. Last time I made that kind of ice cream with Rachel we luckily had soy milk on hand, so it really was 100% vegan. I did buy some soy milk today, but only in a little carton so I could drink it once I got back from hauling all those heavy bags from the supermarket. The ice cream’s in the freezer now because I had to let the ingredients melt a lot to be able to process properly, and I don’t like melted ice cream. I’ll see how it fares after being frozen then eat it later.

I got an email back from the online English tutoring site, and I have an interview this Saturday. They’re Skyping me from the East Coast, 13 hours behind Japan. So I feel very big and important. Hahaha. They told me I speak very clearly and easily (my mum would probably scoff), so I really do hope I get the job. Even if I don’t earn that much, surely it’d be something good to put on my CV. And I think I do 10 hours a week max, so it should be easy enough to work into my schedule alongside my studies once school starts again. I could even try finding another part-time job to do alongside it, if I’m lucky. And because I’d be working from home, I could even continue the job once I move back to the UK.

There’s a U-Program leaving party tomorrow. U-Program students were only here for a year/a semester to do Japanese classes so that they could get better at the language before going on to become fully-fledged university students at universities all up and down Japan, mainly doing engineering, biology, chemistry, aerospace technology, robotics, all kinds of cool stuff. Needless to say, there are some amazingly intelligent people in the U-Program. Some are staying here in Osaka, and why not, seeing as Osaka is one of the best places to go for the sciences. Others are going to Kagoshima, Nagasaki, Kyoto, Tsukuba, all kinds of places.

Day after is the visual kei live. And then I may go to Nara the day after that. We’ll see.

Day 122: I finally saw Battle of the Five Armies. End of an era. *obligatory nostalgic sigh* 木曜日・2015年1月15日

Okay, when I said I wasn’t going to wake up at a ridiculous time last night, those were famous last words, because I ended up sleeping 15 hours last night. I woke up at 2pm. Well, it’s not like I had anything planned for today, so it’s okay, I guess.

But I got a last-minute email from Aiko-san asking to go see The Hobbit, so I got ready, and off we went. The only showing that day was at 5:50pm, so I was wary that we might not leave until about 9pm at least, but this film was a lot shorter than the others. And it was better than I was expecting, because the second film dragged and dragged, but this one was over too soon. Some horribly cheesy lines, and certain parts that were supposed to be dramatic ended up being anticlimatized and botched, and then Legolas at some point denies the laws of physics, but actually, I didn’t mind it too much. I think because I actually managed to concentrate on the film without getting bored, which is what happened during the second one.

The film was shorter, and certain parts felt very sketchy rather than developed, so it felt very much like this film was a rushed assignment handed in quickly without checking over and working on the minor details to make it as good as possible. Though the visuals were still aweshum. I watched it in IMAX so it was pretty kewl. Though the 3D glasses hurt my eyes, as I was wearing them over glasses.

But anyway, I felt sad when it came to the end. I want another movie franchise to get all excited about, with the same calibre as Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. I’m feeling fantasy-deprived. I want to go back and watch Lord of the Rings all over again. And I actually really enjoyed the first Hobbit film. I could watch that alone and be satisfied. One aspect I enjoyed of this film trilogy was the bromance between Bilbo and Thorin. Richard Armitage and Martin Freeman had good chemistry there.

Backtracking, we went to the supermarket first, as that one has a HUGE IEON, which is my favourite Japanese supermarket as it sells stuff like herbal tea and other international products. I managed to get taco shells from there last time I came. Speaking of, I’ve not used those taco shells yet. I don’t actually know how to make tacos. It’ll come to me.

I bought a whole roast chicken (with garlic) from this IEON. I think it’s probably the only supermarket in the area where you can get such a thing. It’s huge in there – reminds me of the TESCO Extra in Stockport. Not quite as big, but the range certainly outstrips usual Japanese supermarkets.

I got home, and I finally unfroze one of the bananas at Rachel’s command, and put it in the food processor to see if it would mix. And it worked! Sort of. I put blueberries in it, too, making a more healthy ice cream substitute.

Very melted.

Unfortunately, it tasted too much like banana. I put strawberries on top of it, which made it better, and still managed to keep it healthy. But I need to combat this, somehow. Put more ingredients in it? Add sugar? But that would defeat the purpose of it being healthy… sigh.

But the consistency was pretty good. And as it’s just bananas plus whatever you want, it means it’s good for vegans too. I don’t eat ice cream that often, so this is good for satiating certain cravings.

I also found a BEAUTIFUL baguette in the supermarket, one I think the French would nod their heads at in approval. I did actually see some brie in there too, but I didn’t buy it. I didn’t think to have it on the baguette, which I could have done, I was mainly thinking, “ahh, I have no cream crackers”. But oh well, cheese is very fatty. The longer I put off buying cheese, the healthier I’ll be. I wonder if the brie over here is any good, though? Maybe I should give it a try some time.

Hmm, though speaking of fatty foods and so on, I’ve not exercised since Sunday. I feel like my body’s finally, MOSTLY recovered, thanks to that long sleep. There’s still a few remnants of pain when I stretch, but I think I could easily go on a jog tomorrow. I shall do that. That would be good, as I’ve been immobilized yet eating a fuck ton of carbs. Nothing unhealthy, just a load of pasta and bread, and I’ve not channeled any of that energy into exercise.

There’s an ochakai tomorrow (tea-party?) I think, so I’ll skip along to that. I don’t really have any interesting snacks, though. Just a lot of tea. So I’ll bring that over.

Whoops! It went past midnight already. I got distracted.

Night night!