Japanese Food

When I was getting ready to come to Japan, one of the tings I looked forward to most was the food. I'm not a fan of sashimi, and haven't been brave enough yet to try natto, but pretty much everything I've eaten here has been, if not delicious, then at least not bad. One thing I didn't think about enough was cooking for myself. Sure I knew I'd be doing it, but I just kinda assumed that it wouldn't be any different than back home. Well I come from a small town in the backwoods that has not very many options for ingredients, and to me that wasn't strange, then I got here and had so much more at my disposal, so I didn't even know where to start! Not to mention everything is written in Japanese on the food packages themselves. (When I'm lucky it's katakana which I can sort of read and sort of sounds like English when said out loud, with guesswork... Ugh)

So on to my food adventures, I'm a poor college student so I started with a bag of rice. 2 kilos 500 grams (I'm American I have no clue the equivalence for that in pounds it feels like about 4-5) for 1900 yen. Easy enough. Here's a fun fact almost nobody in Japan knows how to cook rice on a stove! So I've one-uped them in that way at least (when you don't think that I really can't use a Japanese rice cooker cause all the buttons are written with kanji).

Japanese (Short Grained) Rice - Recipe

It doesn't matter if the cup you're using is American or Japanese because the amounts in the two measures are different, just make sure you don't measure part of the recipe with one and part with the other.

1cup rice, rinsed so the water is mostly clear (Japanese people say this is important, I don't know why)
1 cup water
Saucepan with lid that fits (to keep steam in)

Bring water to boil, pour in rinsed and drained rice, give it a stir.
Turn heat down to low, set timer for 20 min, put on lid.
Do not remove lid until timer is up unless you want al-dente rice.

Want more rice? 2 cups rice = 2 cups water etc.
Using long grained rice? 1 cup rice = 2 cups water
And that's it. Simple enough.

Ok, So Knitting...

I've only been in Tokyo for a few days, but have already learned my way around the area a bit. Yesterday I was surprised to find a yarn shop sitting, as plain as can be, somewhere I think I've walked past 4 or 5 times and never noticed yet. Of course now that I have noticed it, I can no longer find it. 

Since that lovely little find, it was a tiny shop, I have been searching the internet for yarn shops in Tokyo. I've had some interesting finds that I will direct you to, though they are not too helpful to me. I really don't want to go to a lot of big name places, but find fun hole in the wall shops like the place selling green tea down the street from here that gives you a free sample when you go in...

This just looks fun, nothing to do with yarn: Nekobukoro (Cat House)
Yarn shopping: Pinku's Yarn Store List & Travelknitter's Guide to Tokyo 

Ah, Japan

So, I'm finally here, and have been for a few days actually. Classes start on the 21st. Yes I know that's a Saturday, but its really not that uncommon to have Saturday classes or practices in America either. Until then I have orientations and placement tests and free time. My roommate and I went to Asakusa the other day after some school scheduled event or other that I don't even really remember now... Funny how that works. first we went to Sensouji, which is a beautiful Buddhist temple in an older district, which is set apart form other temples (I think anyway) by the fact that they let you go into the main temple area where the Buddhas and the statue of Kannon, the river goddess the temple was built for, are enshrined.



Then we wandered around for about an hour trying to get to Tokyo Sky Tree. This thing is incredible. You can see it from where I'm living now actually, but really it's the second highest building in the world, and when we finally... and I do mean finally, it was hot outside and we'd been walking for almost three hours by the time we made it there, it was awe inspiring to just look up at it from the base. Don't expect to go up inside it for free. There are two observation decks, and the lower one costs 2,000 yen to go to, the upper one 3,000. One nice thing is that there is no need for reservations. You can just show up and get a ticket as long as they are open. Also there is an aquarium and a mall on the bottom five floors, and the basement includes a train station, so if, like us, you are tired at the end of a long day sightseeing, you can get on the train to go back to your hotel, or apartment or dorm or wherever it is that you're staying.

Leaving Soon!

So today is the first of September and I leave for Tokyo (by way of Dallas) in the early morning of the ninth. I have just over a week to go and then school will officially start for the year on Wednesday. Of course that means a week of placement tests, hastily buying books when I figure out which classes I'm taking and trying to settle in in a country whose language I really don't speak. 

I'm sooooo excited right now! 

And look, I even have Japanese enabled on my computer so I can type in it! Yay! 日本語(Japanese Language)　氷の火(my blogger name it means Icy fire) みんなさん、ブラグで読んだ　ありがとう！Everyone Thanks for reading my blog!