So, apparently I’ve lost 9kgs since I came to Japan…. That’s more than 10% of my pre-Japan weight! If I keep up this (arithmetic) rate, I’ll have almost completely disappeared by the time my fellowship ends!
I am feeling pretty healthy, though, much healthier than I felt at Amherst, I think. I’m getting lots more sleep than I did at Amherst, and eating healthier food in better portions, usually home-cooked or good restaurant food instead of mass-produced all-you-can-eat dining hall food and deliveries. I’m also getting plenty of exercise from biking around everywhere. The only things I should work on are getting some more serious exercise (like finally getting around to seriously trying to find a basketball club or place to play) and making sure to eat breakfast, since I often only end up eating a brunch and a dinner meal every day.
Speaking of food, Sawa and I made two purchases that I think will revolutionize our eating. One was a Zagat’s guide to restaurants of Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe (the Kansai region). It’s always so hard to find an objective opinion about what places are good and reasonably priced, so now that we have this guide we’ll hopefully be able to avoid going to crappy restaurants and make the most of our time and money eating out here.
The other was a cookbook of your most basic Japanese dishes (in Japanese). I’ve been wanting to learn this kind of thing since I got here, but we didn’t have a convenient cookbook that had all the recipes laid out and well-explained. The plan now is for Sawa and I to choose a meal together the night before it’s my turn to cook, and for me to read the recipe (doubling as Japanese study) and then try cooking it myself the next day. Gradually, I should learn both all the words I’ll need to know for Japanese foods, and how to cook them! Yay!
I was very proud of myself because I made this delicious, nutritious past meal from scratch.
I just bought a few vegetables I thought would be good with pasta, sautéed some onions and spices in garlic, cooked the vegetables and threw them in the pasta. It was great, if I do say so myself! The only problem was that eggplant was supposed to be the highlight, but I forgot to add it… Also, it could have used some delicious cheese. There’s still enough vegetables for another batch, so next time I’ll make sure to add those.
I also finally retrieved my bike. It cost ¥2300, but it was so worth it! Biking is so incredibly useful in Kyoto, and when you don’t have one it feels like suuuuch a hassle having to walk around.
Just when I was about to go to sleep, the ryosei decided to head off to a sento. Since I’d been wanting to go with them the last few times (they go almost every other day) but always been too busy/sleepy, I decided to go. It was great, as always, especially downing the ice-cold iced coffee afterwards.
I finally planned my class for tomorrow. I’m going to try to introduce them to critical thinking and have the whole class try to construct essay outlines on both sides of the essay question I gave them and see which side seems to have a better argument. Also, we’re going out to class karaoke in the evening, which should be awesome!
Oh, and here is a photo from the horse races last weekend.
And here is a photo of the sweet, sweet, long-awaited espresso machine. It makes me ever so happy.
