So, in my quest to be more active, productive, and proactive in the new year, I am doing more experimental cooking. Which is always a challenge in my tiny kitchen and in Japan, where I cannot identify ingredients! For example, I stood in front of the bottles for like forty minutes today trying to identify fish sauce and in the end had to leave ( Read more... )

For example: I heard from my new coworkers! The women use a frightening number of emoticons and little drawings. I may not fit in well at all, but they do seem nice. I am apparently supposed to bring postcards from my area. Or photographs. I shall bring photographs on my laptop - to be quite honest, my area is fairly uninteresting. Unless you like ( Read more... )

I'm just in the mountains, and that means I have two hours or so of rather slow internet a day, which I have primarily spent looking up... more recipes. I will cook ALL the things! Other than the cooking, life's been pleasant and reasonably uninteresting - first snow in February, wtf. Sauna last night! Mother sick. Again. Tiny dogs smelt funny, so ( Read more... )

Happened to be first off the train on the way home, and consequently made the elevator start. It always sends a little thrill of pleasure through me - you step on the metal plate and the whole thing shudders into life. After that, it doesn't matter how one goes up it - it's just that step. Stop laughing at me.

In other news, most unnatural rain for ( Read more... )

 Things I got in a package from my grandmother ( Read more... )

 And I think the incidents are all turning out okay anyway. I splashed ink on my shirt (level of stupid today: high - forgot my notebook, dropped my key, wore a white shirt to shodo...), and when I got home and my host mum was all 'oh no! Your shirt is inky!' and I pulled it off, it caught on my glasses and popped the lens out, and then I couldn't ( Read more... )