Thursday, September 17, 2009

When in Rome..

Togane City is full of restaurants, of course mostly Japanese, usually specializing in one dish, i.e tonkatsu (breaded, deep-fried pork cutlet), yakitori (barbecued, skewered chicken), ramen (noodle dish), etc., but also a few Italian. Eating out is pretty cheap, around 500-1000 Yen (30-60 NOK). Still, being "poor" Norwegian students on a tight budget, eating out every day can be be an intimidating thought、so sometimes we try to make our meals at home. I don't really know if we're saving any money on it, though.
I walk around in the giant Japanese supermarkets, noticing how all of the fruit and vegetables neatly stacked are completely identical. Everything is so fresh in colour, flawless and has the same size. It is scary. I wonder about all of the chemicals I'm unknowingly eating.

Yesterday my good friend, neighbor and classmate Catrine and I made Japanese curry. Well, I didn't do so much of the cooking, but I was great moral support. Seeing it was the first time any of us made this dish, we had fun trying to read the package, which was completely impossible, due to our still pretty shitty Japanese skills. We ended up just looking at the pictures, but it turned out pretty good.

The fabulous cook


The awesome moral support


Cartboard boxes make excellent funiture





Today, Catrine and I bought new bicycles that costed almost 9000 Yen (550 NOK). The school is supposed to let us rent them from a company, but it is taking ages because they don't have enough of them (..?). So we figured we'd just go to the store and by them ourselves. You really need a bicycle to get anywhere in a city like Togane. Now we can also use our bikes to get to school, taking around 30 minutes, and saving the train fare money.
Well, I haven't been on a bike since elementary school, so I feel like a kid again. Now I also remember that I am completely talentless on a bike, so I'll probably wind up dying in some accident. Oh, well.



Try figuring out this washing maschine!


Alcohol in this country is unfortunately insanely cheap
A bunch of us went to karaoke yesterday. We paid 3500 Yen (220 NOK) to drink all we want and to have a karaoke room until closing time at 5 a.m. The cheap drink-all-you-want-concept is never good around a bunch of Norwegian students. *Shakes head*

1 comment:

Gee said...

OK first, dont buy food in packs and in cans, try to make the fresh ones, it is healthier on the long run.Buy some Hiziki, it is great with soy sauce (not kikoman , but the real stuff) , onions, carrots and sesame seeds).For drinks, do not buy those chemical things, drink o-sake, as "when in Rome...".
Make good food choices, and your body will than you for it