 |
| Clockwise from top left: kakiage / かき揚げ / deep fried breaded and shredded veggies (carrots, onions, and maybe some sweet potato?) for 100 yen, ika karaage / イカから揚げ / calamari / calamares for 180 yen, microwaveable instant rice for 66 yen, and shredded cabbage / kyabetsu / キャベツ for 50 yen = a pretty good meal for under 400 yen. All from the supermarket. |
Showing posts with label groceries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label groceries. Show all posts
21 November 2012
Bento! #160: Supermarket Stuff
02 September 2010
Very Weekling
It has been 10 days since my last post. I am calling Japan Blog 2.0 quits. I am just too busy nowadays I think. And I think it will be this way until the end of my 3-years here in Japan. I've been here just 4.5 months so far.
But this don't mean I ain't posting nothing no more. I'll still be here. Just not regularly anymore. Certainly not daily, but no, I can't promise weekly posts. My intention also is to post more photos. Or do a videoblog. But I can't promise anything.
And, as you can see, I've been blogging on practically a daily basis for my 1st 4 months here. That is a world record. 4 straight months of daily updates!
Unfortunately, like for most part-time bloggers, and now, the end is near, for daily blogging. I do not have anything in mind yet for Japan Blog 3.0. But I do know that I plan to gather together all my Japan posts into this one blog, which means my posts for my Japan Blog 1.0 (from 2005) will also be found here in the near future.
Anyways, just to let you know, I finished two papers the past week. I had been delaying it because I thought it would be easy enough - supposedly I have the materials to write them. But, no, it wasn't easy. I was just too busy last Thursday and Friday, and then Saturday - Microsoft Word crashed on me! Well I was doing structural analysis and other stuff in the background so that might have added to it. What happened though was that I was already 90% finished on my first paper and boom, I went back down to probably 70% finished. I just thought, 70% is better than 0%. Thank you (or not) for those Auto-Recovery functions of Word. Anyways, I was so on a roll those two days, but when that happened, I just went blank. I just didn't wanna do it anymore. I spent just two hours or less on it during the weekend.
But that is so also because we went to this eat-all-you-can/tabehodai place called "Carnival Buffet." Western food? Nope. It's "Western." (Emphasis on the quotation marks.) It is actually Japanese-style Western food. There's a salad bar, a drinks bar, your choice of ramen, udon, or soba noodles. There are 4 kinds of pizza - two are more like Indian-style pizza. There is curry. Japanese love curry. There was roast beef for a little while. There are these small hamburgers that you heat on a teppanyaki grill yourself. And hotcake mix for making hotcakes for yourself. There was fried chicken and sausages, and pizza - did I already say there was pizza? I ate mostly the fried chicken, the sausages, and the pizza. I have been craving for real pizza. Or the taste of cheese. It was good enough. The fried chicken tastes a lot better (more Western-tasting maybe?) than the fried chicken at the cafeterias here in school. Then there was a salad bar where I had me a medley of fruits and an ice cream. Then "ka-ching!" I thought, I could have a float as well. So I made a Coke (Zero) Float. Yum. I was already "wa chun la" (200% full) just before eating dessert. I was "wa chuns la" (so full, I'm almost like dead) after the float. It was a good ending to a 1500 yen meal.
And then we rode our bikes back home. It was quite a long ride, and then I checked using Google Maps how long our trip was. It was 6.4 km each way! By the time we got back to the apartment, we were back to "wa pao la" (100% full) again.
Anyways, it was probably that long bicycle ride, maybe 40 minutes each way, that got to me. I was so dead tired on Sunday. It was a no-day. I was just at home. But I did find the need to go the grocery store. But I just can't ride the bike again. No sir, not yet. So I took the bus. And then, lo and behold. The supermarket was probably nearly half empty of groceries! I saw two of my fellow students and they confirmed, we should just come back another day. Anyways, I did go back the next day, and it was still probably close to half empty. But there were a number of employees putting some stocks back on the racks. It is so weird. I noticed then that apparently the furniture outlet store right beside it is closed. Is something going on? I really don't know. I wasn't able to find some of the stuff I needed so I went to the nearby grocery store #2, "Coop." It was my first time ever to visit a Coop grocery store. My friend told me about it already but I forgot - you have to pay a hefty amount for plastic bags. Anyways, it was a good thing I had extra plastic bags.
On Wednesday night, I feasted on sweet, sweet Tacos. 12 of them. :-D And then just today, I finalized probably 3 dishes: tokwa't baboy, postek, and sinuglaw. It was my first time ever to prepare tokwa't baboy - not a problem actually. But it was my first time ever to prepare kinilaw na tuna. I wondered how come my kinilaw at first didn't look at all like the ones I order from most restaurants. I think, based on what I read, that kinilaw actually has coconut milk or something. Anyways, I bought so much pork, I converted the kinilaw into sinuglaw, a mix of sinugba and kinilaw. Sinugba of course is Bisaya for inihaw. For the tokwa, I used Japanese tofu, of course. :-)
Wait, Ronjie, you bought so much pork?????? Yes, I bought them last Sunday but because I felt so tired that day, I was able to cook them all only now. It's not that I eat pork only. The last couple of days, I've been eating beef. I had tapsilog the last two days, and Tacos (ground beef) last night. My tapsilog looked better than ever. It is because this time I was able to buy a cut of beef that was more appropriate for tapa. It tasted great as well. Recipe was from my mom. I didn't use patis though.
Last Sunday, my engineering mentor, Doc Benny, arrived here in Tokyo for a 3-day conference and so we met up Tuesday night, together with my former thesis adviser, Prof Fer. We went to the Imperial Palace and the Asakusa area. I didn't realize that the walk to the Imperial Palace was that long. Actually, we did a lot of walking, even just for getting to/from the train stations and transferring between stations. Anyway, the Palace grounds was just so huge a place. Sunset actually caught us there.
When we got to Asakusa, most shops were closed. The good thing was, there were very few people. I didn't think the Sensoji Temple would look so much better in the evening. And then, we had dinner at this ramen and gyoza resto wherein they serve... just one kind of ramen, and gyoza! Their specialty, apparently. Not the greatest, but pretty good. Not so salty ramen. They had beer and Japanese sake (or rice wine; beer is also sake, actually because sake literally translates to alcoholic beverage.) as well; we had a cup each of sake. Pretty strong. And overall, a pretty good dinner: the ambience, the company, the food. It was a fun evening and it was nice to meet up with fellow Filipinos and chat in Tagalog. Doc Benny, who probably spent 6 or more years here in Japan for his PhD and associate professorship back in the 80s, still had very good Nihongo. But he wisely chose when to use it and when not.
So, well, that's it. Back to the books. Stay tuned for updates here and there. God bless, everyone!
But this don't mean I ain't posting nothing no more. I'll still be here. Just not regularly anymore. Certainly not daily, but no, I can't promise weekly posts. My intention also is to post more photos. Or do a videoblog. But I can't promise anything.
And, as you can see, I've been blogging on practically a daily basis for my 1st 4 months here. That is a world record. 4 straight months of daily updates!
Unfortunately, like for most part-time bloggers, and now, the end is near, for daily blogging. I do not have anything in mind yet for Japan Blog 3.0. But I do know that I plan to gather together all my Japan posts into this one blog, which means my posts for my Japan Blog 1.0 (from 2005) will also be found here in the near future.
Anyways, just to let you know, I finished two papers the past week. I had been delaying it because I thought it would be easy enough - supposedly I have the materials to write them. But, no, it wasn't easy. I was just too busy last Thursday and Friday, and then Saturday - Microsoft Word crashed on me! Well I was doing structural analysis and other stuff in the background so that might have added to it. What happened though was that I was already 90% finished on my first paper and boom, I went back down to probably 70% finished. I just thought, 70% is better than 0%. Thank you (or not) for those Auto-Recovery functions of Word. Anyways, I was so on a roll those two days, but when that happened, I just went blank. I just didn't wanna do it anymore. I spent just two hours or less on it during the weekend.
But that is so also because we went to this eat-all-you-can/tabehodai place called "Carnival Buffet." Western food? Nope. It's "Western." (Emphasis on the quotation marks.) It is actually Japanese-style Western food. There's a salad bar, a drinks bar, your choice of ramen, udon, or soba noodles. There are 4 kinds of pizza - two are more like Indian-style pizza. There is curry. Japanese love curry. There was roast beef for a little while. There are these small hamburgers that you heat on a teppanyaki grill yourself. And hotcake mix for making hotcakes for yourself. There was fried chicken and sausages, and pizza - did I already say there was pizza? I ate mostly the fried chicken, the sausages, and the pizza. I have been craving for real pizza. Or the taste of cheese. It was good enough. The fried chicken tastes a lot better (more Western-tasting maybe?) than the fried chicken at the cafeterias here in school. Then there was a salad bar where I had me a medley of fruits and an ice cream. Then "ka-ching!" I thought, I could have a float as well. So I made a Coke (Zero) Float. Yum. I was already "wa chun la" (200% full) just before eating dessert. I was "wa chuns la" (so full, I'm almost like dead) after the float. It was a good ending to a 1500 yen meal.
And then we rode our bikes back home. It was quite a long ride, and then I checked using Google Maps how long our trip was. It was 6.4 km each way! By the time we got back to the apartment, we were back to "wa pao la" (100% full) again.
Anyways, it was probably that long bicycle ride, maybe 40 minutes each way, that got to me. I was so dead tired on Sunday. It was a no-day. I was just at home. But I did find the need to go the grocery store. But I just can't ride the bike again. No sir, not yet. So I took the bus. And then, lo and behold. The supermarket was probably nearly half empty of groceries! I saw two of my fellow students and they confirmed, we should just come back another day. Anyways, I did go back the next day, and it was still probably close to half empty. But there were a number of employees putting some stocks back on the racks. It is so weird. I noticed then that apparently the furniture outlet store right beside it is closed. Is something going on? I really don't know. I wasn't able to find some of the stuff I needed so I went to the nearby grocery store #2, "Coop." It was my first time ever to visit a Coop grocery store. My friend told me about it already but I forgot - you have to pay a hefty amount for plastic bags. Anyways, it was a good thing I had extra plastic bags.
On Wednesday night, I feasted on sweet, sweet Tacos. 12 of them. :-D And then just today, I finalized probably 3 dishes: tokwa't baboy, postek, and sinuglaw. It was my first time ever to prepare tokwa't baboy - not a problem actually. But it was my first time ever to prepare kinilaw na tuna. I wondered how come my kinilaw at first didn't look at all like the ones I order from most restaurants. I think, based on what I read, that kinilaw actually has coconut milk or something. Anyways, I bought so much pork, I converted the kinilaw into sinuglaw, a mix of sinugba and kinilaw. Sinugba of course is Bisaya for inihaw. For the tokwa, I used Japanese tofu, of course. :-)
Wait, Ronjie, you bought so much pork?????? Yes, I bought them last Sunday but because I felt so tired that day, I was able to cook them all only now. It's not that I eat pork only. The last couple of days, I've been eating beef. I had tapsilog the last two days, and Tacos (ground beef) last night. My tapsilog looked better than ever. It is because this time I was able to buy a cut of beef that was more appropriate for tapa. It tasted great as well. Recipe was from my mom. I didn't use patis though.
Last Sunday, my engineering mentor, Doc Benny, arrived here in Tokyo for a 3-day conference and so we met up Tuesday night, together with my former thesis adviser, Prof Fer. We went to the Imperial Palace and the Asakusa area. I didn't realize that the walk to the Imperial Palace was that long. Actually, we did a lot of walking, even just for getting to/from the train stations and transferring between stations. Anyway, the Palace grounds was just so huge a place. Sunset actually caught us there.
When we got to Asakusa, most shops were closed. The good thing was, there were very few people. I didn't think the Sensoji Temple would look so much better in the evening. And then, we had dinner at this ramen and gyoza resto wherein they serve... just one kind of ramen, and gyoza! Their specialty, apparently. Not the greatest, but pretty good. Not so salty ramen. They had beer and Japanese sake (or rice wine; beer is also sake, actually because sake literally translates to alcoholic beverage.) as well; we had a cup each of sake. Pretty strong. And overall, a pretty good dinner: the ambience, the company, the food. It was a fun evening and it was nice to meet up with fellow Filipinos and chat in Tagalog. Doc Benny, who probably spent 6 or more years here in Japan for his PhD and associate professorship back in the 80s, still had very good Nihongo. But he wisely chose when to use it and when not.
So, well, that's it. Back to the books. Stay tuned for updates here and there. God bless, everyone!
23 August 2010
Weekling
I guess from now on I'll start posting on at least a weekly basis, instead of on a daily basis. Blogging about how your life has gone on a daily basis takes a little bit of time - precious time you could use to actually live more of that life. Maybe someone else can just blog about me. Or not. Anyways, the past week was marked by post-Fuji tiredness. "Tiredness is there."
As mentioned in past posts, TPU was closed until last Tuesday. After coming home from Fuji on Saturday and taking a little visit to Tokyo on Sunday, Monday became nothing. As in I woke up really, really late and slept relatively early; I only had one convenience-store meal at around 10pm.
Tuesday in Japanese is "kayobi;" in my case it was "aikiyayobi" - IKEA day. Left home a little past 11am, got to IKEA in time for queueing up at the IKEA restaurant for lunch. I had a quite expensive lunch - nearly US$15 worth - but worth it, I guess. I missed them swedish meatballs with the gravy and raspberry sauce. I wanted IKEA's usual salmon but instead there was only marinated salmon (more like smoked salmon) which came with a few veggie leaves, and me being a Go-Grow-Glow guy, I had to get a couple of pieces of bread to go with it. Whew, the bread was expensive. US$ 1.20 for one, and US$ 0.60 for the other. And there's a charge for the butter: 20 cents (20 yen). Dang. Well, it was all worth it, if only to experience a non-Japanese setting in Japan. After that, I probably spent at least an hour or hour and a half at the showroom and marketplace. I didn't really find much interesting. Actually at the back of my mind, I was like, I'll buy only stuff that I could actually bring home to the Philippines that the Customs wouldn't charge me so much for! After IKEA home stuff shopping, it was IKEA food shopping. I bought IKEA-brand chocolate bars - one dark, one milk, and one hazelnut. I've tried the dark one so far; I love dark chocolate the most and I liked IKEA's. I do still like Meiji's dark chocolate, though. Or Hershey's. Anyways, I also brought home some ready-to-eat meatballs, and ready-to-eat potato gratin. The potato gratin unfortunately got thawed on my way home! IKEA itself is at least 80 minutes from my apartment.
Dinner for Tuesday evening was convenience store food, I think. I also cooked Adobong Manok during the week, which I ate for dinner on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I ate the IKEA meatballs and potato gratin for lunch on the same day. My 2nd try of Adobong Manok wasn't as great as the first, probably because I used different chicken parts this time, or maybe I just missed or over-seasoned with some ingredients. But nonetheless, it was still yummy, as well as the IKEA food. I didn't mind having the same lunch and dinner menu for three days.
On Friday we were supposed to play basketball but the basketball gym was closed, but we were able to play table tennis and so ping-ponging we did. It was fun, we won a "betting" game (guess whose idea), and it wasn't as strenuous on my yet-to-fully-recover knees as basketball is.
For Saturday lunch, I forgot what I ate for lunch, but I think I still had some of the meatballs and potato gratin. They are really yummy. Did I mention they're a bit expensive though? But I think it's not so bad. I ate them with rice by the way and that's why they lasted 4 meals. Oh yeah, I cheated by assuming potato as a Glow/veggie food. :D
Then there was our usual Saturday seminar. I went to the seminar room at 2pm only to find out that it has been moved to 2:30pm! And the presentations and discussions took quite a while this time. We finished at 6:15pm! For dinner, I had convenience store food again. Torikatsu and a really huge burger patty. A few days ago, I had a "yaki" trifecta from the convenience store: yakisoba (noodles, a Japanese-style pancit canton), okonomiyaki ("Japanese pancakes"), and takoyaki (octopus balls, a popular Japanese street/festival delicacy). "Yaki" means grilled, but here, "grilled" means on a flat pan with a little bit of oil. Think teppanyaki grill. "Soba" means noodles, of course. "Okono" means anything you want, but okonomiyaki that you did not cook by yourself usually just contains some vegetables, usually cabbage and onion. "Tako" of course means octopus.
And then Sunday. Woke up early enough and surprisingly a usual 1 hour 50 minute trip from my apartment to Meguro became a 1 hour 10 minute trip - I was too early for the 12 noon mass. So I had brunch first at a place I am very familiar with - McDonald's. Big Macs for only US$ 2.00 each!!! The set though is still around US$ 5.50. Have I told you I don't really like Big Macs? I prefer Quarter Pounders to Big Macs. Can't do without the tomato ketchup and onions. I also like the pickle. Then the mass. My Filipino friends all had to go somewhere, and so I went back to Atsugi. The first thing I did back at Atsugi was get a haircut. The lady barber cutting my hair asked me something in Japanese, pointing to my sideburns, and I replied yes. I thought she was asking if she can trim/cut it. Apparently she was asking if she should leave it as is. Oh well, this is the cheapest barbershop here. US$ 10.00 for a haircut. In 10 minutes. After the haircut, I went to the secondhand store and got me a guitar! It's a Yamaha CG-150, if I remember correctly. It's a classical guitar. This is the first time I will own a classical guitar. And the first time I'll own a "real" guitar brand - a Yamaha. But I still love my 14.5-year-old acoustic guitar. Hmmm, I forgot now what my guitar brand is. But it is made in Cebu, if I'm not mistaken. Now I chose this Yamaha because it's the best among the cheapest priced ones. It's another insurance investment for sanity while I wait for Mara to come here.
The guitar was too bulky, of course, and so I went back to the apartment first, cooled down (high was 34 degrees; cooler than Tuesday's and Wednesday's 37 and 36 degree highs - yes, and I was out during that day!), and then back to Hon-Atsugi with Ali-san to meet up with Okada-san to eat all we can shabu-shabu at Nabezo again. $19 for a dinner buffet, drinks excluded. Not a bad price for here in Japan. And for the ambiance. We again had beef, tofu, and lots of veggies and shrooms as main ingredients for our shabu-shabu.
I was "wa chuns lah" - very, very full. But I still had to do grocery shopping. I went to SATY then and bought 5kg rice, ~8 liters of fluids, around 1.5kg of meat, and some veggies and snacks. That's around 14kg I carried from SATY, to the bus terminal, and finally to my apartment. While I was carrying that heavy a bag, I thought, that must have helped me prepare for my Fuji trip - because I certainly did not feel the 12kg weight I carried then. But, with that comes bad news as well. My trusty TheNorthFace bag which I bought in Hanoi, Vietnam, has started to given in, probably because of that Fuji trip. It is still useable though. And oh I will still use it. I don't think I'll be throwing this one away. It was the only thing that was (physically) with me the whole 14 hours climb up and down Mt Fuji.
As mentioned in past posts, TPU was closed until last Tuesday. After coming home from Fuji on Saturday and taking a little visit to Tokyo on Sunday, Monday became nothing. As in I woke up really, really late and slept relatively early; I only had one convenience-store meal at around 10pm.
Tuesday in Japanese is "kayobi;" in my case it was "aikiyayobi" - IKEA day. Left home a little past 11am, got to IKEA in time for queueing up at the IKEA restaurant for lunch. I had a quite expensive lunch - nearly US$15 worth - but worth it, I guess. I missed them swedish meatballs with the gravy and raspberry sauce. I wanted IKEA's usual salmon but instead there was only marinated salmon (more like smoked salmon) which came with a few veggie leaves, and me being a Go-Grow-Glow guy, I had to get a couple of pieces of bread to go with it. Whew, the bread was expensive. US$ 1.20 for one, and US$ 0.60 for the other. And there's a charge for the butter: 20 cents (20 yen). Dang. Well, it was all worth it, if only to experience a non-Japanese setting in Japan. After that, I probably spent at least an hour or hour and a half at the showroom and marketplace. I didn't really find much interesting. Actually at the back of my mind, I was like, I'll buy only stuff that I could actually bring home to the Philippines that the Customs wouldn't charge me so much for! After IKEA home stuff shopping, it was IKEA food shopping. I bought IKEA-brand chocolate bars - one dark, one milk, and one hazelnut. I've tried the dark one so far; I love dark chocolate the most and I liked IKEA's. I do still like Meiji's dark chocolate, though. Or Hershey's. Anyways, I also brought home some ready-to-eat meatballs, and ready-to-eat potato gratin. The potato gratin unfortunately got thawed on my way home! IKEA itself is at least 80 minutes from my apartment.
Dinner for Tuesday evening was convenience store food, I think. I also cooked Adobong Manok during the week, which I ate for dinner on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I ate the IKEA meatballs and potato gratin for lunch on the same day. My 2nd try of Adobong Manok wasn't as great as the first, probably because I used different chicken parts this time, or maybe I just missed or over-seasoned with some ingredients. But nonetheless, it was still yummy, as well as the IKEA food. I didn't mind having the same lunch and dinner menu for three days.
On Friday we were supposed to play basketball but the basketball gym was closed, but we were able to play table tennis and so ping-ponging we did. It was fun, we won a "betting" game (guess whose idea), and it wasn't as strenuous on my yet-to-fully-recover knees as basketball is.
For Saturday lunch, I forgot what I ate for lunch, but I think I still had some of the meatballs and potato gratin. They are really yummy. Did I mention they're a bit expensive though? But I think it's not so bad. I ate them with rice by the way and that's why they lasted 4 meals. Oh yeah, I cheated by assuming potato as a Glow/veggie food. :D
Then there was our usual Saturday seminar. I went to the seminar room at 2pm only to find out that it has been moved to 2:30pm! And the presentations and discussions took quite a while this time. We finished at 6:15pm! For dinner, I had convenience store food again. Torikatsu and a really huge burger patty. A few days ago, I had a "yaki" trifecta from the convenience store: yakisoba (noodles, a Japanese-style pancit canton), okonomiyaki ("Japanese pancakes"), and takoyaki (octopus balls, a popular Japanese street/festival delicacy). "Yaki" means grilled, but here, "grilled" means on a flat pan with a little bit of oil. Think teppanyaki grill. "Soba" means noodles, of course. "Okono" means anything you want, but okonomiyaki that you did not cook by yourself usually just contains some vegetables, usually cabbage and onion. "Tako" of course means octopus.
And then Sunday. Woke up early enough and surprisingly a usual 1 hour 50 minute trip from my apartment to Meguro became a 1 hour 10 minute trip - I was too early for the 12 noon mass. So I had brunch first at a place I am very familiar with - McDonald's. Big Macs for only US$ 2.00 each!!! The set though is still around US$ 5.50. Have I told you I don't really like Big Macs? I prefer Quarter Pounders to Big Macs. Can't do without the tomato ketchup and onions. I also like the pickle. Then the mass. My Filipino friends all had to go somewhere, and so I went back to Atsugi. The first thing I did back at Atsugi was get a haircut. The lady barber cutting my hair asked me something in Japanese, pointing to my sideburns, and I replied yes. I thought she was asking if she can trim/cut it. Apparently she was asking if she should leave it as is. Oh well, this is the cheapest barbershop here. US$ 10.00 for a haircut. In 10 minutes. After the haircut, I went to the secondhand store and got me a guitar! It's a Yamaha CG-150, if I remember correctly. It's a classical guitar. This is the first time I will own a classical guitar. And the first time I'll own a "real" guitar brand - a Yamaha. But I still love my 14.5-year-old acoustic guitar. Hmmm, I forgot now what my guitar brand is. But it is made in Cebu, if I'm not mistaken. Now I chose this Yamaha because it's the best among the cheapest priced ones. It's another insurance investment for sanity while I wait for Mara to come here.
The guitar was too bulky, of course, and so I went back to the apartment first, cooled down (high was 34 degrees; cooler than Tuesday's and Wednesday's 37 and 36 degree highs - yes, and I was out during that day!), and then back to Hon-Atsugi with Ali-san to meet up with Okada-san to eat all we can shabu-shabu at Nabezo again. $19 for a dinner buffet, drinks excluded. Not a bad price for here in Japan. And for the ambiance. We again had beef, tofu, and lots of veggies and shrooms as main ingredients for our shabu-shabu.
I was "wa chuns lah" - very, very full. But I still had to do grocery shopping. I went to SATY then and bought 5kg rice, ~8 liters of fluids, around 1.5kg of meat, and some veggies and snacks. That's around 14kg I carried from SATY, to the bus terminal, and finally to my apartment. While I was carrying that heavy a bag, I thought, that must have helped me prepare for my Fuji trip - because I certainly did not feel the 12kg weight I carried then. But, with that comes bad news as well. My trusty TheNorthFace bag which I bought in Hanoi, Vietnam, has started to given in, probably because of that Fuji trip. It is still useable though. And oh I will still use it. I don't think I'll be throwing this one away. It was the only thing that was (physically) with me the whole 14 hours climb up and down Mt Fuji.
11 August 2010
One Day till Mt Fuji???
On the topic of
bicycle,
busy,
groceries,
international students,
pinoy food,
school
I woke up really late today because I stayed really late last night at the office, to finish as much as I can before TPU closes tomorrow! And today, we'll be doing some shopping for gear and necessities for our Mt Fuji climb. Supposedly I should be at the office already by 10:30am to help Kim-san move to his new desk - because he's graduating already! He'll be Dr. Kim soon. Anyways, Kim-san's current area is an ideal position and so one of the next senior students, Jiang-san, had already "reservate" the area so he was moving there. Meanwhile, I "reserved" Jiang-san's seat. So when I got to the office I moved my stuff first. I knew I was going to be busy today and so I ate my 2nd batch of franksilog (frankfurters, sinaing/rice, and itlog/egg) at the office. I also started copying files to my hard drive so that I have the option of doing some school work during the summer break while TPU is closed and the electricity is down (hence I cannot access my school PC even remotely).
But wait, when I arrived at the office, there was "bad" news. The last couple of days we were weary of this typhoon that started from around north of the Philippines and which has made its way to Korea and forecasted to hit Japan from the west. There was a chance it could make the weather really bad on Thursday and so Kim-san, our Mt Fuji trip organizer and 2-time Mt Fuji climber, postponed our bus reservations a day later. Yay! One more day of rest before Mt Fuji.
At around 3pm, it was time to go for our Mt Fuji shopping already. 5 of us went by bicycle. We first went to the 100-yen store at AT. My Fuji trip buddies bought flashlights, gloves, sunglasses, and hats/caps. Next stop was downtown Atsugi where we wanted to buy Oxygen supply cans. The store which sells them was closed! So we went to SATY, a mall / department store, hoping to find those O2 cans there instead. No luck. Instead, there were some jackets selling for only 500 yen. Wow, that is extremely cheap! 3 of us bought jackets. I didn't bring the jacket up to Fuji though because it is not water-proof. The other 2 did. My trip buddies also bought sunscreen lotion. So anyway, next stop was the shoe store. As expected, I didn't have any shoe size so I had to make do with my Nike running shoes. 3 of my trip buddies were able to buy hiking shoes at relatively cheap, sale prices at around 4000 yen. Wow. I have this difficulty of finding shoe sizes in Singapore and in Japan. I had this problem years ago in the Philippines but thankfully now, there are more people with big feet like me and so they do sell the larger sizes but mostly only for non-formal footwear like sports shoes and sandals.
Anyways, after that we went back to AT to buy food and drinks for our climb. Actually earlier today I received my online order of Nature Valley granola bars
from Amazon.co.jp. Plus last Sunday when I did my grocery shopping, I already bought 4L of this Gatorade-like Aquarius sports drink by Coca-Cola, but more similar and more in competition to Pocari Sweat. So, I only needed to buy another carton of juice and milk which I didn't buy last Sunday because I thought my week is only until Wednesday and that Thursday and Friday will be devoted to the Fuji climb. Anyways, I saw one pack of Dried Green Mangoes for sale and I bought it. :-D
Actually, whenever I do get a chance, I buy these Philippine-made products (like these dried mangoes and Magic Flakes) so that hopefully they would think there is a market here and so they would continue to import from the Philippines.
And so, that was the shopping we did. We all went back home of course, and then I had my last batch of BBQ ribs. Ate it together with steamed pechay. Then back to the office, to do my last minute work before TPU closes tomorrow. I stayed quite late at TPU, along with probably 4 other guys. Literally there was no tomorrow, not until 6 days from now.
But wait, when I arrived at the office, there was "bad" news. The last couple of days we were weary of this typhoon that started from around north of the Philippines and which has made its way to Korea and forecasted to hit Japan from the west. There was a chance it could make the weather really bad on Thursday and so Kim-san, our Mt Fuji trip organizer and 2-time Mt Fuji climber, postponed our bus reservations a day later. Yay! One more day of rest before Mt Fuji.
At around 3pm, it was time to go for our Mt Fuji shopping already. 5 of us went by bicycle. We first went to the 100-yen store at AT. My Fuji trip buddies bought flashlights, gloves, sunglasses, and hats/caps. Next stop was downtown Atsugi where we wanted to buy Oxygen supply cans. The store which sells them was closed! So we went to SATY, a mall / department store, hoping to find those O2 cans there instead. No luck. Instead, there were some jackets selling for only 500 yen. Wow, that is extremely cheap! 3 of us bought jackets. I didn't bring the jacket up to Fuji though because it is not water-proof. The other 2 did. My trip buddies also bought sunscreen lotion. So anyway, next stop was the shoe store. As expected, I didn't have any shoe size so I had to make do with my Nike running shoes. 3 of my trip buddies were able to buy hiking shoes at relatively cheap, sale prices at around 4000 yen. Wow. I have this difficulty of finding shoe sizes in Singapore and in Japan. I had this problem years ago in the Philippines but thankfully now, there are more people with big feet like me and so they do sell the larger sizes but mostly only for non-formal footwear like sports shoes and sandals.
from Amazon.co.jp. Plus last Sunday when I did my grocery shopping, I already bought 4L of this Gatorade-like Aquarius sports drink by Coca-Cola, but more similar and more in competition to Pocari Sweat. So, I only needed to buy another carton of juice and milk which I didn't buy last Sunday because I thought my week is only until Wednesday and that Thursday and Friday will be devoted to the Fuji climb. Anyways, I saw one pack of Dried Green Mangoes for sale and I bought it. :-DActually, whenever I do get a chance, I buy these Philippine-made products (like these dried mangoes and Magic Flakes) so that hopefully they would think there is a market here and so they would continue to import from the Philippines.
And so, that was the shopping we did. We all went back home of course, and then I had my last batch of BBQ ribs. Ate it together with steamed pechay. Then back to the office, to do my last minute work before TPU closes tomorrow. I stayed quite late at TPU, along with probably 4 other guys. Literally there was no tomorrow, not until 6 days from now.
08 August 2010
Grocery+Mass+That's it
Too tired from the last two days. But, I had to do grocery shopping. And go to mass. I went to AT by bicycle, and bought freshly made tempura with rice from the grocery for lunch supposedly. But I didn't have time for lunch. I then had to prepare and go to the 5pm mass at the Piarist Catholic Chapel near Komabatodaimae (Front of the Komaba Campus of the University of Tokyo) station in Tokyo. As usual, it was a short mass and I was a little late because I took the 3:50pm bus from the apartment. I arrived during the 1st reading. When I got home, I had the tempura for dinner. And, because of the 3 straight days of exercise, I just had to sleep. But wait, there's more! Actually before sleeping, I marinated the ribs I bought in home-style BBQ sauce with ketchup, soy sauce, vinegar, pepper, sugar, and garlic. I can tell it was yummy. Can't wait to cook it. I also bought furankufuruto (frankfurters) from the grocery. Can't wait to eat this.
31 July 2010
Success!
On the topic of
food,
groceries,
japan,
pinoy food,
problems
I was able to sleep relatively early last night (before 1am), and woke up quite early today, maybe around 7am! And so I was able to go to school early. I did feel hungry early though, like it was only 11:30am. So I went home for lunch at 12am. Actually I passed by the convenience store first to buy salad. I finished the last of my chicken adobo. Then... I fell asleep, this was probably around 1:30pm.
At this point, there was no word yet from my friend as to what time and where is the meet-up for watching the fireworks in Tokyo and so I didn't try so hard to fight the urge to sleep. I woke up maybe around 5:30pm and I have a ~2pm message from my friend saying we should meet up around 5:15pm. Oh no! I missed it. I mean if I still went on, I would have made it to the meet-up place at 7:30pm. My friend called and said it'll probably be all over when I get there. So... I have to wait another week before the next one. So there's going to be one here in Atsugi next week, but apparently there's another one in Tokyo as well!
Anyways, after waking up, I went to the grocery, and bought quite a lot of stuff today. I'm out of cash already! I'll have to donate another 105 yen to the bank ("overtime fee" for withdrawing from the ATM on a Sunday).
I also bought me a "chi-zu piza" (cheese pizza) which is actually a Japanese style pizza with nori (seaweed, similar to the one used for sushi rolls), teriyaki chicken, tuna, corn, and mayo. I had it for dinner while I was boiling chicken for... boiled chicken! (Because I don't have all the ingredients to make tinola.) I also boiled pork to make... nilagang baboy. :-D And then ginisang giniling with gulay; pechay to be exact. I finished everything at around 12pm.
Ah, August and Everything After. :-)
25 July 2010
Where did my Sunday go?
Woke up really, really late - 2pm. Caught the 3:50pm bus, just in time to make the 4:14pm train going to Komabatodaimae station for the 5pm English mass at the chapel, just less than a 5-minute walk from the Komabatodaimae station. When I got to Hon-Atsugi station to board the train, it hit me. I haven't eaten lunch yet! It was going to be another 45 minutes travel going, plus the 30-minute mass before I can eat. Can't wait! So I grabbed me a chicken sandwich at BK. Took me 15 minutes (including the wait)! So now I was going to miss half the mass. Oh well.
I tried doing my grocery shopping at the SATY (department store) basement this time around. I noticed that the prices are generally more expensive (like the cheapest 1L of milk and 5kg of rice is 99 and 1850 yen respectively, versus 88 and 1650 yen respectively at Atsugi Trellis), and my bill was nearly 6000 yen (or around 4150 yen without the 5kg rice). I guess overall it wasn't bad. I didn't buy any breakfast or snack food though. I did forget to buy tomatoes for cooking; I only got me some cherry tomatoes for a salad. I am to prepare chicken adobo (my first time to), pork steak, and grilled salmon. I'll eat these with veggies on the side, of course. I bought pechay and some kind of lettuce, as well as the cherry tomatoes. I didn't find any peeled and ready-to-eat, sweet baby carrots though I still have half a small pack of it at home. Thankfully the bananas here (by Dole) are all not-so-ripe yet, unlike at AT were usually the bananas are good for only a day.
Today was hot as usual. My inner shirt caught some sweat and I was not able to change shirts immediately when I got home; I almost caught a cold. Good thing I noticed it early enough and so I changed when I did notice that I was about to catch a cold. The heat and humidity is really a little bothersome.
Of course I only cooked the adobo and the pork steak. The grilled salmon is reserved for when I am about to eat them. Which maybe the next day. :-D
I tried doing my grocery shopping at the SATY (department store) basement this time around. I noticed that the prices are generally more expensive (like the cheapest 1L of milk and 5kg of rice is 99 and 1850 yen respectively, versus 88 and 1650 yen respectively at Atsugi Trellis), and my bill was nearly 6000 yen (or around 4150 yen without the 5kg rice). I guess overall it wasn't bad. I didn't buy any breakfast or snack food though. I did forget to buy tomatoes for cooking; I only got me some cherry tomatoes for a salad. I am to prepare chicken adobo (my first time to), pork steak, and grilled salmon. I'll eat these with veggies on the side, of course. I bought pechay and some kind of lettuce, as well as the cherry tomatoes. I didn't find any peeled and ready-to-eat, sweet baby carrots though I still have half a small pack of it at home. Thankfully the bananas here (by Dole) are all not-so-ripe yet, unlike at AT were usually the bananas are good for only a day.
Today was hot as usual. My inner shirt caught some sweat and I was not able to change shirts immediately when I got home; I almost caught a cold. Good thing I noticed it early enough and so I changed when I did notice that I was about to catch a cold. The heat and humidity is really a little bothersome.
Of course I only cooked the adobo and the pork steak. The grilled salmon is reserved for when I am about to eat them. Which maybe the next day. :-D
17 July 2010
So close, yet so far away
On the topic of
around atsugi,
bicycle,
food,
groceries,
pinoy food,
problems,
weather
The date was set, 12noon to eat lunch at a Thai restaurant near Hon-Atsugi. I wasn't really invited, so I "thickened my face" (hahaha, that's a Filipino expression and it's supposedly in Filipino) and volunteered to come with. 12noon came... and went. It was postponed for Monday lunch. I was hoping to start this true long weekend right. True because on other long weekends we would have a seminar on Saturday, making it only really a two-day weekend. Right because it is a long weekend, and Monday's holiday is called Marine Day (or "Sea Day") and technically I should be out enjoying the sea! I haven't really dipped in saltwater this year, have I? Yes or no, I want to now!!! It is so hot. It is so summer! Can't wait to make a full turn of all 4 seasons. Can't imagine winter! 1 degree Celsius!
Anyways, so we're here in the now, without any lunch date anymore. It is sad. So I had to pamper myself. I got me a Salt & Lemon Chicken, "Poteto," and Corn Syrup. Also known as Salt & Lemon McChicken, French Fries, and Coke (which comes with high-fructose corn syrup). Well, the chicken tasted great. Tasted salty and lemony in just the right kind of way. I'm lovin' it. Oh, this is the nearby McDonald's I talked about 3 months ago on this same blog. Pap-parap-pap-pa...
Actually while I headed for McDonald's, I knew there was another restaurant beside it, named "Skylark Gusto Cafe/Restaurant." On its windows were posters of what looks like Tapsilog. Mmm, I thought about trying that out first. Maybe they have healthier food than McDonald's. So I parked the bike, got inside, and... There was what seemed like a line of people queued up to sit. But there was no attendant. There was one person that seemed to be the maitre'd, but he ignored me. I really didn't know what was going on. It seemed like there were so many empty tables. Then again, it seemed like there were few wait-people (waiters and waitresses) and maybe they're too busy. I stood there for a minute and nothing. So I guess it was a sign: "Go pamper yourself at McDonald's." Why are things good to the senses (in this case, the sense of taste) bad for the body?
From McDonald's, I thought I was already halfway between TPU and the grocery so what the heck, I thought I should go grocery shopping already. And so I did. I bought stuff for making Nilaga, Ginisa, and... I'm still debating whether I'll make Lechon Kawali or Pork Steak.
Anyways, I did not yet cook anything today though because I felt so exhausted. I took lunch at McDonald's around 1:30 or 2:00pm. I got to the supermarket around 3pm and left maybe around 4pm. It was clear skies and a sunny day. It was really, really hot! And that, plus playing basketball last night, probably contributed to my exhaustion.
I was also thinking about going to the Toys R' Us here in Atsugi. Yes! Yes, there's a "Toizarasu" here in our small little town! Well, Atsugi, land area-wise isn't small. Hey and we have plenty of McDonald's here. So we're not really small. But anyways, again I was too tired to go there. It's a 20-minute ride on slope (downhill going to, uphill coming from) each way to the place. Hopefully Monday. Tomorrow is the 3rd Sunday of the month which means downtown Atsugi (after mass) for me. :-)
By the way, dinner was konbini food. I craved for egg. I haven't eaten egg in a while. So I got some salad with half an egg in it. And I also got this gyudon (rice topping), which also has some egg. :-D I was surprised to learn that the dressing that comes with the salad is a Ceasar. Love it! :-)
Anyways, so we're here in the now, without any lunch date anymore. It is sad. So I had to pamper myself. I got me a Salt & Lemon Chicken, "Poteto," and Corn Syrup. Also known as Salt & Lemon McChicken, French Fries, and Coke (which comes with high-fructose corn syrup). Well, the chicken tasted great. Tasted salty and lemony in just the right kind of way. I'm lovin' it. Oh, this is the nearby McDonald's I talked about 3 months ago on this same blog. Pap-parap-pap-pa...
Actually while I headed for McDonald's, I knew there was another restaurant beside it, named "Skylark Gusto Cafe/Restaurant." On its windows were posters of what looks like Tapsilog. Mmm, I thought about trying that out first. Maybe they have healthier food than McDonald's. So I parked the bike, got inside, and... There was what seemed like a line of people queued up to sit. But there was no attendant. There was one person that seemed to be the maitre'd, but he ignored me. I really didn't know what was going on. It seemed like there were so many empty tables. Then again, it seemed like there were few wait-people (waiters and waitresses) and maybe they're too busy. I stood there for a minute and nothing. So I guess it was a sign: "Go pamper yourself at McDonald's." Why are things good to the senses (in this case, the sense of taste) bad for the body?
From McDonald's, I thought I was already halfway between TPU and the grocery so what the heck, I thought I should go grocery shopping already. And so I did. I bought stuff for making Nilaga, Ginisa, and... I'm still debating whether I'll make Lechon Kawali or Pork Steak.
Anyways, I did not yet cook anything today though because I felt so exhausted. I took lunch at McDonald's around 1:30 or 2:00pm. I got to the supermarket around 3pm and left maybe around 4pm. It was clear skies and a sunny day. It was really, really hot! And that, plus playing basketball last night, probably contributed to my exhaustion.
I was also thinking about going to the Toys R' Us here in Atsugi. Yes! Yes, there's a "Toizarasu" here in our small little town! Well, Atsugi, land area-wise isn't small. Hey and we have plenty of McDonald's here. So we're not really small. But anyways, again I was too tired to go there. It's a 20-minute ride on slope (downhill going to, uphill coming from) each way to the place. Hopefully Monday. Tomorrow is the 3rd Sunday of the month which means downtown Atsugi (after mass) for me. :-)
By the way, dinner was konbini food. I craved for egg. I haven't eaten egg in a while. So I got some salad with half an egg in it. And I also got this gyudon (rice topping), which also has some egg. :-D I was surprised to learn that the dressing that comes with the salad is a Ceasar. Love it! :-)
03 July 2010
Long day
On the topic of
groceries,
pinoy food
Saturday was. Woke up late. Had lunch of frozen, ready-to-heat-then-eat ulams. Then off grocery shopping. Then cooking. It probably took me 4 or 5 hours total to cook 3 dishes. And it was very tiring. I prepared nilagang baka, nilagang manok, and picadillo (also known as "giniling").
I was supposed to cook nilagang baboy, but when I got to the supermarket, they surprisingly did not anymore have the boney/ribs part of pork that I usually buy for nilaga or sinigang. So I settled with beef. I think I bought beef that was intended to be as a steak though. Hope it comes out well. Actually it doesn't look like nilagang baka. Then again, it's been a very long while since I last had nilagang baka and I don't really know what it looks like. I have a lot of lettuce and pechay as veggies in this nilaga.
I was also supposed to cook tinolang manok, but since I can't find any chayote, and of course green papaya, I settled with just a plain boiled chicken dish. I like the chicken soup that is a result of this dish but it's all chicken. So I also bought some more pechay for blanching or steaming, to go with this nilagang manok.
And the picadillo. It always tastes good. One of my favorites. I like that it is easy to eat, too.
One of the "toy" purchases I made this Saturday, particularly from the 100-yen store, is this microwave rice cooker thingy. It can cook at most one cup of rice. I tried it out and voila, rice! And it cooked in the microwave for just 18 minutes. But actually, I think I did not put enough water in it. So it turned out a little on the crunchy side; not how I want rice. But of course, food is food and it is always a blessing. :-)
I also bought a microwave steamer thingy. I'll try it out on veggies or dimsum next time. Today I didn't pass by the office at all. We didn't have any seminars or what.
I was supposed to cook nilagang baboy, but when I got to the supermarket, they surprisingly did not anymore have the boney/ribs part of pork that I usually buy for nilaga or sinigang. So I settled with beef. I think I bought beef that was intended to be as a steak though. Hope it comes out well. Actually it doesn't look like nilagang baka. Then again, it's been a very long while since I last had nilagang baka and I don't really know what it looks like. I have a lot of lettuce and pechay as veggies in this nilaga.
I was also supposed to cook tinolang manok, but since I can't find any chayote, and of course green papaya, I settled with just a plain boiled chicken dish. I like the chicken soup that is a result of this dish but it's all chicken. So I also bought some more pechay for blanching or steaming, to go with this nilagang manok.
And the picadillo. It always tastes good. One of my favorites. I like that it is easy to eat, too.
One of the "toy" purchases I made this Saturday, particularly from the 100-yen store, is this microwave rice cooker thingy. It can cook at most one cup of rice. I tried it out and voila, rice! And it cooked in the microwave for just 18 minutes. But actually, I think I did not put enough water in it. So it turned out a little on the crunchy side; not how I want rice. But of course, food is food and it is always a blessing. :-)
I also bought a microwave steamer thingy. I'll try it out on veggies or dimsum next time. Today I didn't pass by the office at all. We didn't have any seminars or what.
12 June 2010
Happy Independence Day!
On the topic of
food,
groceries,
nihongo,
pinoy food,
school
...to all our Filipino compatriots (what a word) all over the world and in the Philippines. :-D
Woke up rather late - 11am. Then I had lunch at the regular cafeteria and had bah-gah to poteto to chikin (burger, fries, and (fried) chicken) with side veggies, miso soup, and then pineapple for dessert. Then seminar at 2pm. Ended quite early compared to the previous ones. Then I went to Atsugi Trellis for groceries. My total grocery bill was 5000 yen! But now I have stuff to cook sinigang again, postek again, adobong baboy, and Hainanese chicken. Yup, Hainanese chicken, baby!
Then I got home and cooked. Well, just the Hainanese chicken and the postek. For dinner though, I had my last serving of picadillo and I attempted an okonomiyaki with it using my last two eggs (yikes!) which were set to expire tomorrow. The eggs here have machine-stamped expiration dates on them! Anyways, I failed in my okonomiyaki attempt. I didn't know what it turned out to be. But it is still food to be thankful for, of course. :-) Oh and my last picadillo didn't have enough flavor (i.e. salt) and so... Well it wasn't bad, considering it was only intended to fill my stomach, after I already had a plate of mixed sushi. I bought sushi at the supah (supermarket/grocery), 10 pieces with maybe 4 different kinds of fish, an egg sushi, shrimp sushi, octopus or squid sushi and I don't know what else. But it was yum-my. With the wasabi of course.
At the supermarket, it was my first time to see what I think was wasabi in its raw form - Japanese horse radish. Interesting.
Anyways, the Hainanese chicken I prepared didn't look like the Hainanese chicken I eat at restaurants. :-( One difference is that I didn't buy whole chicken, but instead bought and cooked chicken breasts. That makes a big difference. But I hope it tastes great. I might still buy cucumber for garnishing. By the way, I followed the recipe here: http://chinesefood.about.com/od/poultryreceo/r/hainanchicken.htm.
One of the ingredients was sesame oil. Coincidentally last Thursday's Nihongo class, sensei taught us what sesame is in Japanese, and then I asked what sesame oil is in Japanese because I already knew I needed to buy some. But alas, I forgot the Japanese word for it and so I had to ask. Unfortunately I left my English-Japanese dictionary (on my Palm TX) at home. Fortunately, I bought my Japan-based cellphone which includes a very convenient English-Japanese dictionary! And so I looked up sesame oil, but there was only an entry for sesame. They understand what "oil" means anyway. I showed some employee the Japanese characters for sesame and he said "goma no oil" meaning "oil of sesame." I said yes. Checking now, sesame oil is actually goma abura in Japanese. Anyways, he gave me a bottle and I wasn't sure if it was correct... But alas, it turned out to be sesame oil indeed. Indeed, indeed.
Gosh I'm tired already. And tomorrow is going to be a long day as well. I still have stuff to buy at the grocery. Oh and it's Open Campus here in TPU tomorrow. Yup, on a Sunday. And oh yeah, I also did the laundry today. Another 3 batches (2 colors, 1 whites). Something gave in in my washing machine during washing of one batch of colors - the lint collector - and so there was lint scattered all around the cotton clothes. I had to wave them off of the clothes before I hung the clothes.
Amunip-amunip-amunip. That's all folks! :-D
Woke up rather late - 11am. Then I had lunch at the regular cafeteria and had bah-gah to poteto to chikin (burger, fries, and (fried) chicken) with side veggies, miso soup, and then pineapple for dessert. Then seminar at 2pm. Ended quite early compared to the previous ones. Then I went to Atsugi Trellis for groceries. My total grocery bill was 5000 yen! But now I have stuff to cook sinigang again, postek again, adobong baboy, and Hainanese chicken. Yup, Hainanese chicken, baby!
Then I got home and cooked. Well, just the Hainanese chicken and the postek. For dinner though, I had my last serving of picadillo and I attempted an okonomiyaki with it using my last two eggs (yikes!) which were set to expire tomorrow. The eggs here have machine-stamped expiration dates on them! Anyways, I failed in my okonomiyaki attempt. I didn't know what it turned out to be. But it is still food to be thankful for, of course. :-) Oh and my last picadillo didn't have enough flavor (i.e. salt) and so... Well it wasn't bad, considering it was only intended to fill my stomach, after I already had a plate of mixed sushi. I bought sushi at the supah (supermarket/grocery), 10 pieces with maybe 4 different kinds of fish, an egg sushi, shrimp sushi, octopus or squid sushi and I don't know what else. But it was yum-my. With the wasabi of course.
At the supermarket, it was my first time to see what I think was wasabi in its raw form - Japanese horse radish. Interesting.
Anyways, the Hainanese chicken I prepared didn't look like the Hainanese chicken I eat at restaurants. :-( One difference is that I didn't buy whole chicken, but instead bought and cooked chicken breasts. That makes a big difference. But I hope it tastes great. I might still buy cucumber for garnishing. By the way, I followed the recipe here: http://chinesefood.about.com/od/poultryreceo/r/hainanchicken.htm.
One of the ingredients was sesame oil. Coincidentally last Thursday's Nihongo class, sensei taught us what sesame is in Japanese, and then I asked what sesame oil is in Japanese because I already knew I needed to buy some. But alas, I forgot the Japanese word for it and so I had to ask. Unfortunately I left my English-Japanese dictionary (on my Palm TX) at home. Fortunately, I bought my Japan-based cellphone which includes a very convenient English-Japanese dictionary! And so I looked up sesame oil, but there was only an entry for sesame. They understand what "oil" means anyway. I showed some employee the Japanese characters for sesame and he said "goma no oil" meaning "oil of sesame." I said yes. Checking now, sesame oil is actually goma abura in Japanese. Anyways, he gave me a bottle and I wasn't sure if it was correct... But alas, it turned out to be sesame oil indeed. Indeed, indeed.
Gosh I'm tired already. And tomorrow is going to be a long day as well. I still have stuff to buy at the grocery. Oh and it's Open Campus here in TPU tomorrow. Yup, on a Sunday. And oh yeah, I also did the laundry today. Another 3 batches (2 colors, 1 whites). Something gave in in my washing machine during washing of one batch of colors - the lint collector - and so there was lint scattered all around the cotton clothes. I had to wave them off of the clothes before I hung the clothes.
Amunip-amunip-amunip. That's all folks! :-D
29 May 2010
Glourious Sinegang!
On the topic of
food,
groceries,
laundry,
pinoy food
Okay now, don't hit me on the wrong spelling. That's called literary license. Ehehe. If that's not enough reason for you, how about discrimination - why can Brad Pitt's Inglourious Basterds use "wrong" spellings?
Anyways, that is what it is. I thought I should title today "Unusual," in contrast to yesterday's title "Usual," and let the Sinigang be a surprise. But it is just too important a milestone for me here.
I got up the usual time. Took my usual breakfast of coffee and something. Today's breakfast something is a few pieces of Oreo cookies. Then I did my laundry. It's a gloomy, overcast day the whole day today (daytime high was 19 degrees = 66 degrees Fahrenheit), and even a little bit of rain later in the day - but no worries, the washing machine spin-dries the laundry dry enough for hanging indoors. Of course they won't dry as fast as when they're under direct sunlight. But I had to do this today because tomorrow I will most likely go to Meguro church again for the 12:00nn mass and then meet up for lunch with my fellow Filipinos taking or finished taking or yet to take their PhDs here in Japan.
Anyways, I had two batches of clothes hanging to dry already, and one more batch was still in the tub but it was already 12:00 noon and so I went to the DIY shop. Again. To try to buy a stove. Again.
But this time I came prepared. I learned that there are two types of gas lines here: the city gas ("toshi gasu") and the propane/LP gas ("puropen gasu"), and that my apartment uses the city gas line. I even have a document that says what gas type exactly. There are sub-types of city gas, like "12A", "13A", etc.; mine is 13A. So I found my stove type, and got the cheapest one, although it was only 200 yen / 100 pesos / 2 dollars cheaper than the next one. I noticed that one brand would have two different types of the same style of stove at the same price, one for propane and one for city gas. So of course I took the city gas type of stove.
When I went to the cashier, I tried to confirm that what I was getting was correct. I asked the cashier if it's okay, and she said yes. Then I showed her the document, and again she said yes, it's okay. So I said, okay I'll buy it.
And there was the start of today's miracles.
I also bought a tube to connect the stove to the gas line. The stove, by the way, cost around 5600 yen / 56 dollars / 2800 pesos. Imagine that.
Anyway, next stop was the 100-yen store, to get some "accessories" for the stove, like these aluminum-material table top surface protectors and aluminum-material tilamsik protectors. I didn't need pots or pans or those big spoons for cooking (what are they called again?), because the person who used to live in what is now my apartment left his cooking stuff there. That person is also Filipino, and well not for any reason but just to make sure, I soaked all stuff that I got for free (like those pots and pans, etc.) and that I didn't buy myself in boiling water, then scrubbed them clean, so they're all like new. :-D I didn't also need to buy cooking oil, because there was already cooking oil. The next thing to buy was... Food to cook!
So down to the grocery store I went. And I went crazy. It's difficult being deprived! My total grocery bill today was 4003 yen, if I remember correctly. That's around 2000 pesos or 40 dollars. I bought pork, beef, eggs, veggies, and spices for making sinigang, nilaga, picadillo, pork steak, and tapsilog. I wasn't so sure which was beef and which was pork. I was only 98% sure, and so there was a 2% probability I was wrong and I could just be wasting money. But anyways, I asked other shoppers around... "Is this pork?" ("Botaniku desu ka?") "Is this beef?" ("Gyuniku desu ka?") So I became 99% sure. I was only 100% sure once I've cooked and tasted them!
Anyways, I guess the little doubt was fine. I also bought three 1-liter cartons of milk, and bananas, and a few other items. I think the total weight of everything I bought today was around 10kg. And I only had one basket on my bike. So anyways, it was a difficult bike ride back home, going slightly uphill with all that weight on the bike (some also on my backpack). And then it was starting to drizzle. Just very tiny drops though, like the ones that come out from hairspray cans. I don't know the effect though on the fresh veggies and meat I bought, if they got wet. Oh, and on the stove!
Anyways, all those worries were secondary. My primary focus was the food that I was going to prepare and eat that evening. I got home around 4pm. I left home to go to school at around 8pm, after taking dinner and cleaning up a bit. (I haven't yet washed the pots and pots... :-D)
Guess what I cooked!
Sinigang?
Nope.
Anyways, that is what it is. I thought I should title today "Unusual," in contrast to yesterday's title "Usual," and let the Sinigang be a surprise. But it is just too important a milestone for me here.
I got up the usual time. Took my usual breakfast of coffee and something. Today's breakfast something is a few pieces of Oreo cookies. Then I did my laundry. It's a gloomy, overcast day the whole day today (daytime high was 19 degrees = 66 degrees Fahrenheit), and even a little bit of rain later in the day - but no worries, the washing machine spin-dries the laundry dry enough for hanging indoors. Of course they won't dry as fast as when they're under direct sunlight. But I had to do this today because tomorrow I will most likely go to Meguro church again for the 12:00nn mass and then meet up for lunch with my fellow Filipinos taking or finished taking or yet to take their PhDs here in Japan.
Anyways, I had two batches of clothes hanging to dry already, and one more batch was still in the tub but it was already 12:00 noon and so I went to the DIY shop. Again. To try to buy a stove. Again.
But this time I came prepared. I learned that there are two types of gas lines here: the city gas ("toshi gasu") and the propane/LP gas ("puropen gasu"), and that my apartment uses the city gas line. I even have a document that says what gas type exactly. There are sub-types of city gas, like "12A", "13A", etc.; mine is 13A. So I found my stove type, and got the cheapest one, although it was only 200 yen / 100 pesos / 2 dollars cheaper than the next one. I noticed that one brand would have two different types of the same style of stove at the same price, one for propane and one for city gas. So of course I took the city gas type of stove.
When I went to the cashier, I tried to confirm that what I was getting was correct. I asked the cashier if it's okay, and she said yes. Then I showed her the document, and again she said yes, it's okay. So I said, okay I'll buy it.
And there was the start of today's miracles.
I also bought a tube to connect the stove to the gas line. The stove, by the way, cost around 5600 yen / 56 dollars / 2800 pesos. Imagine that.
Anyway, next stop was the 100-yen store, to get some "accessories" for the stove, like these aluminum-material table top surface protectors and aluminum-material tilamsik protectors. I didn't need pots or pans or those big spoons for cooking (what are they called again?), because the person who used to live in what is now my apartment left his cooking stuff there. That person is also Filipino, and well not for any reason but just to make sure, I soaked all stuff that I got for free (like those pots and pans, etc.) and that I didn't buy myself in boiling water, then scrubbed them clean, so they're all like new. :-D I didn't also need to buy cooking oil, because there was already cooking oil. The next thing to buy was... Food to cook!
So down to the grocery store I went. And I went crazy. It's difficult being deprived! My total grocery bill today was 4003 yen, if I remember correctly. That's around 2000 pesos or 40 dollars. I bought pork, beef, eggs, veggies, and spices for making sinigang, nilaga, picadillo, pork steak, and tapsilog. I wasn't so sure which was beef and which was pork. I was only 98% sure, and so there was a 2% probability I was wrong and I could just be wasting money. But anyways, I asked other shoppers around... "Is this pork?" ("Botaniku desu ka?") "Is this beef?" ("Gyuniku desu ka?") So I became 99% sure. I was only 100% sure once I've cooked and tasted them!
Anyways, I guess the little doubt was fine. I also bought three 1-liter cartons of milk, and bananas, and a few other items. I think the total weight of everything I bought today was around 10kg. And I only had one basket on my bike. So anyways, it was a difficult bike ride back home, going slightly uphill with all that weight on the bike (some also on my backpack). And then it was starting to drizzle. Just very tiny drops though, like the ones that come out from hairspray cans. I don't know the effect though on the fresh veggies and meat I bought, if they got wet. Oh, and on the stove!
Anyways, all those worries were secondary. My primary focus was the food that I was going to prepare and eat that evening. I got home around 4pm. I left home to go to school at around 8pm, after taking dinner and cleaning up a bit. (I haven't yet washed the pots and pots... :-D)
Guess what I cooked!
Sinigang?
Nope.
Nilagang baboy?
Nope.
Picadillo?
Nope.
Pork steak?
Nope.
Tapa, sinangang, and itlog?
Nope.
All of the above!
Kidding. I cooked Sinigang, then rice, then Picadillo. :-D
The Sinigang looked like the real thing. I bought "buto-buto" or boney pork parts - I think they're from the ribs part. I also had okra (lady fingers), sitaw (string beans), labanos (but I used "Japanese radish" - which I think is just the same as labanos, except it's larger in size), a couple of green peppers, tomatoes, and onions, and of course Sinigang Mix. The difference? I can't find kang-kong, or patis, so I settled for some cabbage and just salt. Actually it lacked a little bit of saltiness but in general, I loved it. I've never been this full since coming here. Getting full by Sinigang is not like any other feeling in the world. I am truly thankful for the things that has lead me to this moment.
Oh, but wait! The Picadillo was still cooking. I got it wrong actually. But I think it's fine considering it has been a long while since I last cooked Picadillo. I think I was still in high school then - more than 17 years ago now? On the contrast, this is already the 2nd time (and yes, only the 2nd time) I cooked Sinigang - the 1st and last time being around 5 years ago. Both times, I used Sinigang Mix, of course. But the first time around, I didn't check to see if the meat was tender enough, so it turned out a little too chewy. And I think I didn't have labanos back then.
Anyways, my Picadillo turned out too salty. The first thing I got wrong was I put too much oil for sauteeing the onions, garlic, and tomatoes (i.e. the ginisa part). So it took a long time for them to release their taste and aroma. Anyways, so I put the meat in. But the next thing I got wrong was I put too much water after. So it took a long time for the water to come down to a level such that it doesn't look like a soup. Anyways, like I usually do, I season to feel (not to taste). When I put in salt and soy sauce, there was still so much water. When a lot of the water has evaporated, it turned out a little too salty! My remedy for this is that I will eat them with rice anyway, which should tone down the saltiness a bit. If it is still too salty I guess I'll need to add more water and then just heat again. Hope it doesn't turn into soup, though!
Today, I "seasoned to feel" also because I didn't know exactly how much weight of meat I bought! Can't find any indication of weight in the labels. But anyhow, the Sinigang I prepared is good for 2 meals (so 1 more Sinigang meal to go). The Picadillo I prepared I think is good for 3 meals. So assuming I will eat them for dinner, I have food until Wednesday evening.
By the way, one other new thing I tried today is to eat at the foodcourt on the 3rd floor of Atsugi Trellis, same floor as the 100-yen store. I tried this McDonald's-like Japanese fastfood place, I think it's called Dom-Dom. They have this promo, 100 yen off this 550 yen set meal that includes fries and drinks and this chicken sandwich. I got lost in translation for a little while with the cashier who was trying to ask me something but I didn't understand her. Anyways... The chicken sandwich was sooooo juicy and sooooo yummy, I wanted more. Medically that translates to: too oily, too fatty, and too much sodium. But it was really soooo juicy and sooooo yummy and well it was toooooo small actually in size, and that is one other reason why I wanted more! This is a must try. It's a new kind of chicken sandwich experience I've never had with any other chicken sandwiches.
Then again, who cares about chicken sandwiches if you've got Sinigang, right? :-)
16 May 2010
Laundry, Bike, Mass, Grocery
Woke up quite early and did my laundry. I think I should do my laundry weekly, at least for my colored clothes. The washing machine is too small for 2 weeks worth of my colored clothes. It was sun-shiny the whole day. Yay!
Lunch was my own cooked rice, and this Okra dish and this mixed fried stuff (sausage, burger, chicken, hashbrowns) I bought from our friendly neighbourhood convenience store.
Then I went by bike to the Atsugi Trellis (or AT), but only just to park there. I took the bus going to downtown Atsugi, then walked as usual to the Atsugi Catholic Church. I hesitated on bring my bike all the way to the church because I didn't know if there are areas particularly in downtown Atsugi where bikes are not allowed. I think there might not be any. Anyways, it's also a 30-minute bike ride from home to the church. Quite long. It's downhill going there, but it's uphill coming back! So by parking the bike midway, it wasn't as tiring, and at the same time I saved around 90 pesos in bus fare! Actually, me not being used to riding the bike, my knees are feeling a little tired even after just 15-minute bike rides to AT (and another 15 back)!
Then Mass. I learned that the priest's name is something like Father Brunsfield or something. There were battalions of Filipinos in church today. Most churches here don't have weekly masses in English, so many Filipinos tend to attend mass in different churches. I think a lot of the people in attendance today were from outside of Atsugi. Anyways, the usual "issues" you would encounter in the Philippines: you can actually HEAR people "whispering," friends who see each other only once a week so they "catch up" on each other's stories, and then lots of babies crying, and toddlers and early elementary school kids running around... during the mass! I think the priest noticed the unusually noisy crowd today and asked to have a moment of silence after communion. Didn't work. My theory: English is not the Filipino's first language! It didn't register. The priest was too kind to not insist on the moment of silence, or to ask everyone to keep the noise down if not totally out. If I had another choice, I wouldn't attend mass there again! While I try my best to listen to the readings and the homily and to all the prayers, it can be really distracting. Specially in such a small church.
One other thing I noticed was that many songs were unfamiliar. Personally I knew "As The Deer" and "You Shall Be Clothed in Power from On High," but I don't think the others knew those songs. I didn't know many of the other songs. And then, like the choir in Tachikawa, the choir doesn't adjust to the situation. Back in Tachikawa, the song ended already but the guitarists kept on playing; they insisted the song should end in the way they think it should or in the (only) way they know how. Unnecessarily took up people's time. When you are leading people into prayer or a choir and a people into song, you stay aware of what's happening. You don't just pray. You don't just play the music and sing. Anyways, of course I will still attend mass in Atsugi during the 3rd Sunday of the month. In fact, I would really like it if there were masses in English every Sunday in Atsugi! Oh and as usual, the priest briefly spoke in Japanese during his homily, to the ~three or more locals present.
Anyways, so back to AT I went. Bike's still there. Great! And I dropped by my favorite store - the 100-yen store - and bought a couple of pitchers. On my previous visit I bought these filters you attach to the faucet. From what I know, tap water here is safe to drink. Whenever I drink straight from the tap, I don't have any problems at all. But I noticed that when I refrigerate tap water and drink it later, there's some kind of smell and taste that comes out. I thought it was just the container... But it was really bad! But when I started to use that filter - no more of that bad taste and smell. So now I plan to store water in the fridge in the new pitcher I bought. Actually the other pitcher, I will use for making iced green tea.
How to make iced green tea: steep one green tea bag in a mug of hot water for around 3 to 5 minutes, remove the tea bag, put the green tea in a 1 liter pitcher, add water and ice until you have a liter of green tea, then add 1 teaspoon of brown sugar (or to taste). Voila! Tastes like C2. I'm excited about this. I've done this before. Now, I can save on some vending machine expenses. :-D
Anyways, so I did my groceries and only had this on my list: banana, ketchup, and juice. And then the "difficult" part about doing the groceries: you tend to buy more than what you listed! But it's not that I won't consume these other things I bought. I bought my dinner for tonight: sushi, teriyaki chicken, cherry tomatoes on the sides, and banana. But actually I also bought my dinner for the succeeding nights: ready-to-heat-then-eat takoyaki balls, pizza, side veggies, shrimp cake, and... I forgot what else. There are so much interesting stuff here, food-wise, and not just the usual Japanese food, but also Japanese-style food. Like their desserts and stuff. Last night actually I had this interesting ice cream sandwich that cost around $1.30 equivalently. Yummy. Very, very yummy.
Well the plus side about all this is that my refrigerator isn't so lonely anymore... (Yeah right!) Ehehehe. :-D
And then so I got home, took my hung-dry clothes inside the apartment (but I didn't fold them yet - I don't know if they're all dry already), packed some rice and then ate dinner here at my desk. Yikes, the biking today and yesterday is really draining, but I welcome it because I think it's good for my health. I hope to bike more regularly!
That's it for now. Time to chat with my love. :-D
Lunch was my own cooked rice, and this Okra dish and this mixed fried stuff (sausage, burger, chicken, hashbrowns) I bought from our friendly neighbourhood convenience store.
Then I went by bike to the Atsugi Trellis (or AT), but only just to park there. I took the bus going to downtown Atsugi, then walked as usual to the Atsugi Catholic Church. I hesitated on bring my bike all the way to the church because I didn't know if there are areas particularly in downtown Atsugi where bikes are not allowed. I think there might not be any. Anyways, it's also a 30-minute bike ride from home to the church. Quite long. It's downhill going there, but it's uphill coming back! So by parking the bike midway, it wasn't as tiring, and at the same time I saved around 90 pesos in bus fare! Actually, me not being used to riding the bike, my knees are feeling a little tired even after just 15-minute bike rides to AT (and another 15 back)!
Then Mass. I learned that the priest's name is something like Father Brunsfield or something. There were battalions of Filipinos in church today. Most churches here don't have weekly masses in English, so many Filipinos tend to attend mass in different churches. I think a lot of the people in attendance today were from outside of Atsugi. Anyways, the usual "issues" you would encounter in the Philippines: you can actually HEAR people "whispering," friends who see each other only once a week so they "catch up" on each other's stories, and then lots of babies crying, and toddlers and early elementary school kids running around... during the mass! I think the priest noticed the unusually noisy crowd today and asked to have a moment of silence after communion. Didn't work. My theory: English is not the Filipino's first language! It didn't register. The priest was too kind to not insist on the moment of silence, or to ask everyone to keep the noise down if not totally out. If I had another choice, I wouldn't attend mass there again! While I try my best to listen to the readings and the homily and to all the prayers, it can be really distracting. Specially in such a small church.
One other thing I noticed was that many songs were unfamiliar. Personally I knew "As The Deer" and "You Shall Be Clothed in Power from On High," but I don't think the others knew those songs. I didn't know many of the other songs. And then, like the choir in Tachikawa, the choir doesn't adjust to the situation. Back in Tachikawa, the song ended already but the guitarists kept on playing; they insisted the song should end in the way they think it should or in the (only) way they know how. Unnecessarily took up people's time. When you are leading people into prayer or a choir and a people into song, you stay aware of what's happening. You don't just pray. You don't just play the music and sing. Anyways, of course I will still attend mass in Atsugi during the 3rd Sunday of the month. In fact, I would really like it if there were masses in English every Sunday in Atsugi! Oh and as usual, the priest briefly spoke in Japanese during his homily, to the ~three or more locals present.
Anyways, so back to AT I went. Bike's still there. Great! And I dropped by my favorite store - the 100-yen store - and bought a couple of pitchers. On my previous visit I bought these filters you attach to the faucet. From what I know, tap water here is safe to drink. Whenever I drink straight from the tap, I don't have any problems at all. But I noticed that when I refrigerate tap water and drink it later, there's some kind of smell and taste that comes out. I thought it was just the container... But it was really bad! But when I started to use that filter - no more of that bad taste and smell. So now I plan to store water in the fridge in the new pitcher I bought. Actually the other pitcher, I will use for making iced green tea.
How to make iced green tea: steep one green tea bag in a mug of hot water for around 3 to 5 minutes, remove the tea bag, put the green tea in a 1 liter pitcher, add water and ice until you have a liter of green tea, then add 1 teaspoon of brown sugar (or to taste). Voila! Tastes like C2. I'm excited about this. I've done this before. Now, I can save on some vending machine expenses. :-D
Anyways, so I did my groceries and only had this on my list: banana, ketchup, and juice. And then the "difficult" part about doing the groceries: you tend to buy more than what you listed! But it's not that I won't consume these other things I bought. I bought my dinner for tonight: sushi, teriyaki chicken, cherry tomatoes on the sides, and banana. But actually I also bought my dinner for the succeeding nights: ready-to-heat-then-eat takoyaki balls, pizza, side veggies, shrimp cake, and... I forgot what else. There are so much interesting stuff here, food-wise, and not just the usual Japanese food, but also Japanese-style food. Like their desserts and stuff. Last night actually I had this interesting ice cream sandwich that cost around $1.30 equivalently. Yummy. Very, very yummy.
Well the plus side about all this is that my refrigerator isn't so lonely anymore... (Yeah right!) Ehehehe. :-D
And then so I got home, took my hung-dry clothes inside the apartment (but I didn't fold them yet - I don't know if they're all dry already), packed some rice and then ate dinner here at my desk. Yikes, the biking today and yesterday is really draining, but I welcome it because I think it's good for my health. I hope to bike more regularly!
That's it for now. Time to chat with my love. :-D
24 April 2010
1st Presentation Day
On the topic of
food,
groceries,
presentations
Today is "seminar" day, the 2nd one I'm attending - and the 1st time I'm presenting in. I am to talk about my previous research work (i.e. my master's thesis) and to give a little personal background about myself. I was not able to check how long I took but it was more than 25 minutes! Generally they were lax about the time because this time around, there were just 4 of us presentors, versus 7 previously, and the Professor did not have any meetings to run to. Actually the Professor asked a lot of questions, at least to the other presentors, 2 new PhD students like myself, both from India, and one short-term fellowship researcher from Italy but taking her master's in New York. My presentation went quite well, I think. I liked the comments and questions asked. Prayers do really work. :-) Anyways, maybe it also helped that I showed the Katakana and Kanji forms of my name on my very first slide:
ロンジ アキノ being Katakana for "ron-ji a-ki-no," and
秋野 being Kanji for "akino," which means "autumn field." I like!
Kanji are like Chinese-style characters, each representing one word, but usually many Japanese words as well as names would be compound words, such as "akino," represented by two Kanji characters. Katakana characters represent one syllable each, except for the one that represents "n," and are used for foreign or borrowed words. Hiragana characters meanwhile are similar to Katakana but they are used for Japanese words with an equivalent Kanji; they are used to teach the Japanese language to young Japanese children as well to foreigners starting to learn the Japanese language.
I tried looking for Kanji for "ronji," and I found one for "ron," which means "discussion," or "theory." Can't find a suitable one for "ji" that should relate to "discussion" in time for my submission of my presentation, so I did not write any Kanji for "ronji." Anyway, I found one now (based on one dictionary) for "ji," which means "love" as a noun, or "be affectionate" as a verb. So here's "ron-ji":
論慈
ロンジ アキノ being Katakana for "ron-ji a-ki-no," and
秋野 being Kanji for "akino," which means "autumn field." I like!
Kanji are like Chinese-style characters, each representing one word, but usually many Japanese words as well as names would be compound words, such as "akino," represented by two Kanji characters. Katakana characters represent one syllable each, except for the one that represents "n," and are used for foreign or borrowed words. Hiragana characters meanwhile are similar to Katakana but they are used for Japanese words with an equivalent Kanji; they are used to teach the Japanese language to young Japanese children as well to foreigners starting to learn the Japanese language.
I tried looking for Kanji for "ronji," and I found one for "ron," which means "discussion," or "theory." Can't find a suitable one for "ji" that should relate to "discussion" in time for my submission of my presentation, so I did not write any Kanji for "ronji." Anyway, I found one now (based on one dictionary) for "ji," which means "love" as a noun, or "be affectionate" as a verb. So here's "ron-ji":
論慈
So, my full name now, Japanese style is: 論慈 秋野. Cool! :-)
Anyways, for lunch, I had cafeteria food. Did i say that already? I took a couple of dishes that I have tried before. I should take a picture of them next time. I can't take photos quickly, because my phone, being on Windows Mobile, has a big problem - or have I said this already? It has around 7Gb free internal memory and 7Gb free external memory (micro-SD card), and yet its camera doesn't work because "Camera requires 5Mb." Don't buy anything with Windows Mobile. They will solve this soon, but at the cost of many of us who own already such phones. And they probably did not plan to solve this problem soon unless somebody told on them! Anyways...
For dinner I went to the supermarket at Atsugi Trellis, hoping to catch some late night discounted food, but alas, the ones with discounts don't look too yummy. I ended up with buying sushi, and... pizza! :-D Bacon and corn pizza. Truly un-Italian. :-D Anyways, the sushi I bought this time around is half as cheap compared to that one I bought a week ago, and I noticed that the difference was that in the more expensive one from last week, there were to kinds of sushi that had some kind of roe in them. One is an orange "sago"- or tapioca-looking roe, and the other is like yellow-brownish gooey stuff. Yummy though, for me. I love sushi. And I love pizza, nevermind the bacon and corn toppings. Bacon is always yummy. Sushi and pizza in one meal. Yum. I was thinking I should have bought Coke, but nah, it's a good thing that I didn't.
I went up to the 100-yen store, but they were already closing! I didn't know they closed shop at 8pm. I had a list of things to buy, but time was just too short.
At the supermarket, I also bought milk - 3 1L cartons! Because they were on sale, only 98 yen, or around 44 pesos each! Imagine that, something other than electronics that is cheaper here than in the Philippines. I wonder if I could live on milk alone. Haha. I also bought an orange juice carton, and a "mango blend" 1L carton. I tried the mango, and well, it's not like the mangoes we have from the Philippines. But anyways, it's still mango, and I love mango.
Wow, the title of this post is now inappropriate. But it is what it is. Ja mata. :-)
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