Eating sushi in Japan

Look what made me stand in some bush with my butt in the air at the school parking lot earlier today


And it's in the middle of December!


Boring, right?


Anyway.

When I was a kid I'd eat pretty much anything. My mom served it, I'd eat it. Fried bugs, durian, fermented shrimp paste, chicken feet. I'd eat it all.

As far as I can remember, I've never said "eww.." to food

.. until I came to Japan.

I've come to terms with the fact that I don't find Japanese food particulary appealing. It's bland, greasy, chewy and slimey - and most of the time pretty grose.

But I still eat it.

Before I came to Japan I was so excited about the thought of getting to taste real, authentic Japanese cuisine. And the past four months that I've been living here, I think I can say that I've tried my fair share of the food that the locals seem to be enjoying.

I feel almost embarassed - and uncultivated - to be saying that I miss the sushi back home in Norway (..!). Here it's not appealing at all.

Today Cat, Ingrid, Lotte, Heidi and I went to Sushiroo, a fun sushi joint where the price is pretty reasonable.

We would sit at our table by the moving thingy and grab the small passing by plates that would tickle our fancy. The cost was 105 Yen (ca. 7 NOK) per plate, so the plates would pile up pretty quickly.

Ingrid

Heidi & Lotte

A yittle gaw

Lotte was attacked by a sneaky piece of wasabi,
and feeling like a horse had just kicked her in the nose,
she had to cry a little

Yum 1: Raw scallops

Yum 2: Scampi with avocado, raw onion and mayo

Yum 3: Ehr..

Glazed sweet potato.
Wa-hey too sweet.
Luckily Heidi came to my rescue
and ate it

Grose 1: What is that? Brain mass?

Grose 2: What is that? Eel?

GROSE 3: Raw squid. Slimey and chewy. What's the point?

Hmm.. What's that?

Looks a little intimidating

It doesn't even want to be held by my pair of hashi

Down it goes

It was just scallops. Cooked, even. Not bad.


Today's fancy dinner: 1600 Yen (ca. 100 NOK).

Lol

Look what momma just posted on her Facebook.

This year's Christmas card.

Snøball, age 12

Proof that my poor ol' cat has always been tormented:

Snøball, age ca. 4

An old picture my kid sister took with her cell phone when she was, like, 7.

No wonder Snowball is always so..


.. grumpy.

Nice kittycat

Christmas Spirit

Christmassy stuff provided by IKEA and care packages from home

Friday afternoon we gathered at Wictoria's crib for some seriously wholesome activities (sounds dodgy, ey?)

We'd bought a ginger bread house puzzle that we wanted to put together while drinking mulled wine (without the wine, so I guess we just had "mulled" then, hardy har..) and listening to Christmas carols on trusty ol' youtube.

Wictoria and the ginger bread puzzle from IKEA

Struggling to get it out?

Benedicte in despair
over the pieces of broken ginger bread
caused by the somewhat violent treatment it got
on the bike ride home from the train station

An almond "in the soaking", waiting to be peeled and shoved into a bowl of risengrynsgrøt

Teamwork
Please notice Benedicte's elegant pink rubber gloves

Mulled wine essential

Hello, frosting!

Merii kurisumasu!

Hello, sugar rush and cheesy smile
Imma be the new Jane Fonda. Just slightly more manish.
Can you feel the burn?
I look scary

Benedicte, drawing
All of my friends are so creative!
I consider myself to be guilty (honored) by association

Normally you're supposed to keep the ginger bread house for a while and let it collect dust. But neither of us wanted to keep it, so...

Wictoria showing off her mad Karate (TaeKwon-Do?) skills

Yeah, act all innocent

Going home for Christmas...

.. yeah right.

Today we were really rebellious. Instead of going home after school we went to.. Funabashi!

Wictoria, Benedicte, Kuniyoshi and I went to Funabashi to see Twilight, and I think we all (well, maybe not Kuniyoshi) were salvating throughout the entire movie. Tsk, tsk.

I'm paparazziing Katinka, don't tell her

Cat wears some serious bling

Kosuka sensee

On the train station at school we ran into one of our teachers, Kosuka sensee. Poor lady turned so shy when I shoved the camera in her face.

So I had to be quick.

Wictoria

Hello, Christmas spirit!.. (?)

Royal Milk Tea and Strawberry flavoured Kit Kat!
Collecting Kit Kat has turned into my new hobby.
I've also tasted Miso-soup flavoured Kit Kat once, it was pretty good

Cake!

Then, people, after the movies we walked to IKEA! It was like being back home in Norway.

Even though IKEA is Swedish.

"Jokkmokk"?

My bedroom.
Of course I keep all the price tags on - don't you?

No, no, no.
What is Wictoria doing in my bedroom

Benedicte's crib.
She doesn't even take her shoes off when she's inside her house

Swedish meatballs!
Haha, I was not at all prepared for the mulled wine to be SO spiked!
Getting drunk at IKEA, only in Japan

Wictoria's new hat.
It's very practical

Today's catch!
(Jada, mamma, jeg vet at det ikke er lørdag i dag)