Settling in

My first few days have been pretty busy. For the first time in my life, I have more storage space than things, so I promptly went out to buy things to fill up the empty space. Some volunteers from the university took us to the local super-store where I was able to buy everyday things like soap, dishes, and groceries. There was even a food court in the basement where the volunteers helped me order takoyaki and melon soda. おいしかった！

It was a little challenging to find everything I needed with my poor Japanese skills, but I did pretty well by looking at the pictures on labels and using my Japanese-English dictionary. I am lucky to have lived near Japantown in San Francisco, so I know how to cook some things like miso soup and Japanese curry.

This is a picture of curry I made and a cute spoon I bought from the 100 yen shop. My room is very plain, so I decided that everything I buy needs to be colorful and/or cute.

Also, check out these huge grapes I bought called ぶどう！ They look enormous even when I hold them with my big man-hands. They are very sweet and I think they taste a little bit like plums, but maybe that’s just me.

Food is pretty expensive, especially meat and produce. Another student who has been here for 6 months claims it’s because they grow everything here in Japan instead of importing from China like most Asian countries do. I try to look at the bright side and say that it will put me on a forced diet and make me look really cute soon. There are some filling and relatively inexpensive things at the nearby convenience stores, so I expect I will be going there for onigiri and instant ramen pretty frequently.