Broken keyboard at home + busy time at uni = no LJ for Amelia. Sorry guys, I've not read any of your entries for about a month, and will try to catch up little by little, but am unlikely to read everything I would like to ( Read more... )

It was just after Easter that I decided once and for all to lose weight three years ago, so this time of year gets me thinking about how I view food, what problems I've dealt with and what things I still have to work on.

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Q: What happens when you don't wash rice ( Read more... )

I am chest-achingly hungry. I should eat ( Read more... )

So, where was I on the job front? Well, last week I had decided to only look at university advertisements sanctioned with an "Exchange student OK!" label and/or English teaching posts. Now, I'd love to work to improve people's English conversation, I'm genuinely enthusiastic about it and see it as something of a worthy cause, but teaching? Ugh, ( Read more... )

Last night the kareshi and I got back from the Snow Festival in Hokkaido, over a day's travel away by boat, local trains and shuttle buses. Today is Valentine's Day, and it's customary to make chocolates for your loved ones in Japan, but that's okay! I bought Valentine's Day chocolate-making ingredients last week to be used today, meaning nothing ( Read more... )

And today in the news it's Spain vs. the "unreal dolls of 'alien dimensions'"! Now that is a '50s B-movie I would gladly watch, though the plot would likely be a tad different to this actual news story ( Read more... )

To my mind, all they need to do is produce a leaflet describing each and every social situation that becomes more awkward and upsetting if you are visibly chubbier than the majority of your peers, and the job [of reducing obesity] is done.A few hours later and I'm wishing I'd not been in such a snarky mood when I wrote this, because while I was ( Read more... )

Yesterday the kareshi and I:

1. Watched a Japanese Baking Champion competition between Pantasia and St. Pierre five top Japanese chefs. Weirdly enough for a television culture obsessed with food, Japanese TV really doesn't seem to have any celebrity chefs. Programmes featuring prominent comedians, singers and other celebrities (no real people, ( Read more... )

I spent a significant part of last night sifting through mincemeat recipes for ingredients I could acquire in Japan that didn't seem to necessarily need a lot of ageing time. The kareshi and I have spent a significant part of today in a large supermarket thirty minutes' drive from here, and a significant part of our time there was spent gathering ( Read more... )