Sunday, Weekend 1 August 31, 2008

Making Takoyaki Mix!

Today we had Takoyaki for lunch! It is pretty much the same thing as Okonomiyaki that we had when I was in Nagoya (the big pancake on grill thing) except you put it in this little special griddle that makes them into balls that you eat. It was yummy. And that ^ is Yuka, the younger sister.

Last night we ate gyoza, which was fun. I helped okaasan to make them! You make a mix of meat and veggies, then you get some small flat flappy bread circle type things, wet them down, put the mix on them, then you fold them closed in a special way, then you fry them or grill them. We did both! I liked fried better of course lol. I also tried natto, the sweet beans. Though I was able to eat a whole serving, it IS pretty gross and I wouldn’t recommend it. After dinner, independance day was on tv and I watched it.

Then, randomly, at around 9pm or so mom and dad were like ’see you!’ and headed towards the door. I was like ‘eh? you guys are leaving?’ and mom said ‘yeah, we will be back tuesday night, so Yuka and Yukina will take care of you till then!’

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WTF?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Oh well, whatever I guess! So us three are fending for ourselves now!

I also watched Liar Liar with Yuka today (Yukina watched a little, but she stays in her room almost all the time unless she is doing chores, which she does most of them; cleaning, clothes washing, trash sorting (you have to sort trash into burnables, plastics, and bottles) she is pretty amazing! Yuka has been doing most of the cooking though. I wish I could help, but the name of the game for me at this point is usually just quiet observation.) Yes I did just have a parenthetical statement inside of a parenthetical statement. Yuka thought liar liar was funny, we rented it at the rental place last night at my suggestion so I was glad of that.

I was thinking:

Words can deceive, but actions never lie. In America we express politeness through actions (holding doors open, etc.) while in Japanit is expressed through different verb conjugation. However, in Japan people rarely say to another that they care about each other, it is shown through what you do FOR one another. Perhaps in America we are too quick to give words to our ‘love’ and we deceive even ourselves. What a tragedy. Perhaps in the future I will try and show my friends and loved ones how much I care before I say it.

Saturday, Weekend One August 30, 2008

8/30

Awesome times today. I gave Yuka and and Mom english lessons. Trying to describe the difference between ‘cloud’ and ‘crowd’ was hilarious. They can’t tell at all. We then talked about how mom wants to go to the states and needs a homestay – they were asking if my parents took homestay students, I said I didn’t know. They asked if my parents lived by themselves and when I said that they did, they both exclaimed at how lonely that must be. Then they said “oh but american people love each other, so maybe they aren’t so lonely.” Yuka said “my parent’s aren’t all ‘rabu rabu’ (love love)” “yes,” said host mom “dad and I don’t love each other, it is just a beneficial arrangement.” all in seriousness, then in joke: “the only thing dad loves is probably the TV.”

We went out to the supermarket this afternoon, there was a machine to change the brown rice into white rice – amazing! Then we bought ramen and snacks for lunch and came back! Yipeeeeeeeeeeeeee…

Tonight, I am going to try eating ‘natto’ … considered to be the one food that no foreigner can stomach without gagging. Even many Japanese can’t touch the stuff. It is basically sweet beans with a wierd sticky substance in the whole mix to connect it all. Apparently it smells really really strong. We will see what happens!