Sleepover

Yoko invited me to her grandparents house in Ibaraki prefecture over the weekend, so we went up there together on saturday. The town they live in is located out on the countryside, with rice fields and mountains surrounding the area, about an hour away from Matsudo. The house is a really nice traditional japanese one, very big and around 100 years old. Rice paper doors makes it pretty cold during the winter but that gives you an opportunity to use a kotatsu, which I've been wanting to try ever since I first watched the fruits basket anime. It's really cozy sitting with your legs under the table, getting warm while eating dinner or watching a movie.
Yoko came back from her studies in Scotland over the holidays, and with her she brought some scottish food, haggis. Being made out of sheep's intestine and stomach I was too cowardly to try it when I was in Scotland myself, but this time I actually did try it. Not bad! It actually tasted similar to something I've tried before, but can't remember what it is.
Also got to eat some kinako mochi, something they traditionally eat in Japan during New Years. Was very yummy. Yoko's mom gave me some to take home when I went back to Matsudo on sunday. Japanese families are very friendly and generous, I love that about them!

Knit Hat

I always play with my gifts the day after christmas.

Christmas in Tokyo

Haven't felt much christmas feeling this year so I haven't really missed spending christmas at home. Christmas wouldn't have been the same anyway since my family decided that we shouldn't buy any gifts for each other. But wrapping and giving away gifts are so much fun! I like receiving too of course! And my sisters would have left early and that would have been boring if I'd been home.
Something I'm actually glad that I missed this year is the food. I'm tired of eating (almost) the same food at all our special holidays. Pickled herring, meatballs and sausages are usually on the table during christmas, easter and midsummer. Why not make something different? I would love to eat thanksgiving food instead of christmas ham. When I have my own family there won't be any traditional swedish food on the table!
Yesterday I started making my untraditional christmas food. I made orange cinnamon chicken with couscous. Hiroshi made lomi lomi (raw salmon mixed with choppen onions and tomatoes) and haupia (coconut pudding) and Mark mashed some potatoes. Yummy.

Too much time

I've already gotten a bit bored. I have too much time on my hands, I don't know how to spend it. Usually I just spend time at facebook but there's only so much you can do there before it gets boring too. Yesterday I spent an hour or so at Starbucks reading a book. That book is finished now.
At least I'm going somewhere today! Going to eat some thai food with Reiko in Shinjuku today, and before that I'm planning to go to a turkish food shop and see if they have some halloumi there. I hope it's not too expensive. Last time I found the greek cheese here it costed me around 60 swedish crowns! It's expensive in sweden too but not that expensive!
Going to take a look around in Keio department store as well and see if I can find any clothes I like but it's not very likely. Sigh. I hope this fashion dies out soon!

Blogger is getting boring too without comments. If you're reading the blog, please write something! Brighten my day a little!

Mission: Explore Tokyo

I have already done more than I thought I would do this first week without school, and it's only been 3 days. And I'm enjoying myself. But I expect to get more bored soon when I run out of things to do and places to visit. Also, the people who are still in Japan for the holidays will probably be busy when I want to play. But I'll try to keep myself busy exploring Tokyo.

Monday I went out for a cup of coffee with a japanese girl that I met at the Starbucks close to my school a few months ago. We hadn't really talked much before, mostly just said 'hi' to each other when I came in at Starbucks while she was working. But when we were having coffee we found out we had many common interests. She too wants to live in Hawaii someday :)

Spent a few hours in Harajuku/Omote-sando yesterday with classmate Laura. I was unable to find a new sweater, again, but found some christmas gifts instead. We ate dinner at a pizza place called Pizza Express, which was actually a pretty fancy place despite the name that makes you think of fast food. Had a salad that was a bit pricey, but oishii (yummy)! Dinner size salads are difficult to find in Tokyo since japanese people doesn't see it as a main course, just as a side dish.
Also spent a long time at Kiddyland, a toy store with 5 floors. Laura filled up her basket with a lot of stuffed animals that she will give her friends for christmas. Crazy.
I bought myself a pok-pong, a small voodoo looking doll from Thailand that is pretty popular in Japan right now. Been wanting one for ages but they are pretty expensive so I never bought one until now.

Nice view from Pizza Express.

...

I had a panna cotta for dessert.

I love my pok-pong!

Stockholm

Yesterday I met up with Stefanies hostmother Katoh-san for lunch. We went to a swedish restaurant called Stockholm where we ate from the smorgasbord. There was pickled herring, meatballs, sausage, salmon, liver paté and many other dishes on the table, but what I liked best was something that I'm not sure was swedish at all. It was pumpkin, salami and something else mixed together. Yummy. Since coming here I've started liking pumpkin a lot, and I'll try to eat it more often when I go back to Sweden again. Might be difficult though, I think they only sell pumpkins during fall around halloween.

Pass

Wrote a japanese test today. It will determine if I can go on to the next level or not. I'm sure I'll pass it, even though the listening part was difficult. The people on the tape talked really fast and used many words that I don't understand. The pause between the listening exercises was nonexistent so there was no time to think over your choices.

To pass you need at least 60% on the test, otherwise you'll have to repeat the same class again. Which can be very boring. But I don't need to worry about that anyway since friday is my last day! Been pretty dissapointed with school this time around because it hasn't been as fun as the first time I came here, when I was studying with my first class and with better teachers. We always had so much fun during lessons. Miss those times!

Notes.

A Bit Strange

One thing I love about Tokyo is that there are so many strange and crazy people here. I saw loads of them both in Shibuya yesterday and in Harajuku and Yoyogi Park today. One old man we walked by was wearing a wedding cake like hat with lots of figures and dolls attatched to it. And around his ears he had hung small glass bowls with goldfishes in them. That's something you don't see everyday!