Tag: english

Cooking (again and again)

I realised that i like to cook. This way i’m able to create something without getting annoyed by the small troublesome results. Of course, the same goes for writing, but writing needs a subject, while cooking only needs the ingredients, that could be bought anywhere, and not a whole load of inspiration like writing.

Today i made something i wouldn’t usually think of, the so called “drunken chicken”. The reason is pretty simple: when i went to buy some orange juice, somehow a can of beer caught my attention and i decided to buy it—exceptionally for cooking purposes. And what else, than the drunken chicken then, chicken cooked in beer (and a few other ingredients). I cooked much, because when i mentioned it, many people said that they wanted to try it… I still have a bit left, probably i’ll eat it tomorrow. (Or could give it to somebody interested, just mail me about it…) As usual for what i cook, it was not exactly beautiful, here’s how it looked in the pot…


華果西遊記

Today we went to a kabuki play near to the National Theater, and it was great. The title is as it’s in the title of this post, read Kaka-Saiyuuki. A show outline of the story goes something like Genjou (Sanzouhoushi) is travelling to India, when he and his companions pass a place where only women live… (Side note: kabuki is performed by male actors only.) The queen and his sister treat them well, but they turn out to be spider spirits, and capture the travellers. But Songoku, the monkey god saves them, showing off his great powers. (I think the Dragon Ball Songoku is based off him, so is the Monkey King in the Forbidden Kingdom.) Even though i hardly understood a word of what they said, i got the main idea of what was going on, and it was very entertaining. (Made easier by an english summary of the plot on an info sheet.) Really great experience.


Okay

Today could’ve been better. Just i should’ve gone to bed a bit earlier, not at two (again). Anyway i managed to wake up so that i had a bit of time to have breakfast (really fast), and then classes. In the lunch break came the first adventure: i had to initiate a bank transfer. That in itself wouldn’t have been a problem, but i also had no idea what my pin code was for the cash card, since i never used it until now. This made it interesting to solve in an hour. And yet, i even had lunch, an instant ramen i bought at the kombini. After classes i decided to do something about my fingers—the skin started to get very dry and ragged on the end, and soon it became painful as well, so i asked at the office where’s a doc for such problems, went there, waited over an hour, had the examination, and was relieved. Lucky, it’s no infection or fungi, it’s just dry. Very. I got some ointments for it, i hope it’ll be of use. After i got back i went to play futsal at the gym, and it was great (first time with the new shoes). Won about half of the games we played, scored a couple of goals, and got home totally tired. I had a shower, and am planning to make greek salad. I’d just need a bowl for that—the one i’d use is still occupied by the cottage cheese remaining from yesterday. Have to figure this out.


Techno

This was unexpected. Yesterday after school i went around to check out a few thing, and met Theo, Ruso and Kang-san on the way back. They looked so cheerful i had to ask where they were going, and was informed that in Kichijoji they’re doing a girl party.

Then Thiwanka asked if i wanted to “go clubbing” in Shibuya with them (the above mentioned girls, though Theo didn’t show up), and after a short consideration (i’m not exactly the disco king) i still decided to go, since even that’s better than staying home bored. And i don’t regret!


Diary

Today i tried to wake up at eight, but after a well aimed hit at the alarm clock i fell back and because of that was a bit late from the church. The Hachioji pastor came to preach. It was good. After that i came home and started wondering what should i make for lunch. I ended up with the idea of some fruity stuff, of fruits of land and sea. The final one ended up like this…

I bought an apple and a mango (i still have to figure out what to do with the remaining halves), already had orange, lemon and kiwi, so i put some of these to cook with the rice, and cooked some with the seafood. It was peppered octopus, shrimp with paprika and tuna with oregano. In the end i added some yoghurt and a few olives. When i was about halfway through i realised something missing so i added two teaspoonful of corn as well (so it’s not on the photo). It was really good, very-very (almost too) filling.

Now come something, guitar, and/or studying, if i figure out what i should be studying.

It’s also funny that really since i’m here i write a lot about food. Something like Cory’s blog.


What’s with karaoke?

Karaoke is always a challenge for me. First, it’s not that easy to sing for a long time without losing my voice. Though that’s usually helped by any drinks, there’s another difficulty: finding the songs to sing. Not as if there aren’t enough choices, usually i couldn’t even guess the actual size of the machine’s music library, but to find something that not i alone would enjoy singing is not easy, due to the usually very varied musical tastes of the others. I could go on singing heavy metal, hard rock and punk all the time, but i don’t think many would enjoy it at all. It’s not easy at all to find the “good songs”, but if i can, usually they’re great success (see Nellie the elephant by The Toy Dolls (who “packed her trunk and said goodbye to the circus”) or Hot dog by Limp Bizkit (just “if i say fuck two more times, that’s forty-six fucks in this fucked up rhyme”). Too bad machines usually don’t have Skindred (for We want would be great to sing) or the huge european pop hits of the ’90’s, such as Eiffel 65’s Blue or they only have just a few songs, which usually don’t include those i consider really good (for example Skinnydippin’ by Vengaboys). But for next time i really will write a list at home before of great songs and last with them from dusk ’till dawn!


Story of my life

The past two days i was totally Shikamaru. On wednesday, though i wanted to sleep early, i ended up reading kanji and words for the thursday mid-term exam, which turned out to be the usual difficulty. It was just as hard as expected, and because it matched the expectations, looking back it seems easy. Then yesterday too i wanted to sleep early, exactly because i didn’t have enough the night before, but no luck, just after midnight classmates phoned me that it’s Thiwanka’s birthday and we celebrated, so i ended up sleeping around two. Today i had to wake up earlier because of the school trip, we all the pre-undergrads went to Tama-newtown to check the sky-dome and a “music box” museum, it was fun. Then our class had lunch in an italian-ish (イタリアっぽい?) restaurant, looked around town and came back. I was so low on batteries that i just lay down for a sleep, something i don’t usually do. After i just had a tea and a stick of dango (紅茶を飲んで団子を一本食べた), and tried to wake up for the party which is to begin in ten minutes…


Suzumiya Haruhi no Yūutsu S2E1: Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody

Today i watched the first episode of the second season of my favourite anime, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱). I call it second season in lack of a better word, because it was aired together with the re-air of the “old” series. The first new one is based on the Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody, which i haven’t yet read, but will for sure. It was great, as usual, though i already new the story (from the manga), so it was like watching it again. The quality is still the same, so i loved it. That’s it for short.


Overdose

My massively overdosing vitamin c seems to work… At least, today i felt like when i’m ill, but i’m going out of it. Tomorrow i’ll just stay still in the classroom, try to cough and sniff as little as possible, because everyone would freak out.

Today (yesterday) i ate the second half of what i cooked yesterday, and it was still very good. To make it even more filling (this time the rice was plain), i cooked omelette with olives, and it ended up quite good as well. All day i’ve been reading wikis about the bigfoot, Cthulhu and stuff, playing the guitar and i also made my homework on time, which is not usual. I should’ve only written half a page, and that’s how much it was in my notebook, but when i copied it on the assignment sheet it ended up a bit more than one page.

I’ve realised that i’m dreaming a lot these days. Luckily not daydreaming, but almost. I asked Rado if he bought his plane tickets already, because i remembered asking him that before and him replying “of course, why, you haven’t?” and me freaking out, but that all turned out to have been a dream. But at least when i have such memories with home friends, i know what to think, because meeting them live right now is quite improbable…

But i really need some sleep now. Just have to wash the dishes before. And myself as well. So… good… ni—


Lunch

One more Gastrovale post, here is today’s lunch. It’s rice with some instant topping (couldn’t yet figure out its exact name), shrimp cooked in oil and wine, corn and tomatoes with nori on top. Drank orange juice with ice. It was good…