Personalized

JAPANESE

I recently lost my PASMO card while shopping in Matsuya.  I went into the Ginza station lost and found and reported my loss. Because I had personalized my card, they said I could have a replacement made if I waited 24-48 hours and I wouldn’t lose the balance I still had remaining on my card. I ended up getting the replacement card for 1000 yen because I use the subways a lot to get around but about 5 days later someone from the Ginza station called and informed me that the card had been found and returned to them. I told them I would be there on Saturday around 12:00 to pick up the old card. I had this entire conversation on the phone…. In Japanese. When I hung up, it hit me that this had occurred. I have to say, it was pretty cool. Living in the Gaijin Ghetto, you aren’t necessarily under any pressure to learn Japanese or make it better because, well, a lot of people speak English here. I keep listening to Japanese talk radio hoping one day it will magically make sense to me. Right now, I just get a lot of dates and times.

M-SAIZU

What is up with all the skinny ass girls here? And while I’m talking about it, the men here are skinny too! I also don’t understand how I can be sitting next to a chick who’s leg is at its widest point the same thickness as my wrists and is at the same time wolfing down a man-size bowl of ramen. I don’t get it. The other day at the gym, I saw a similar sized woman getting dressed and putting on SPANX.

Spanx

I’ve never seen Spanx look baggy before and besides, I was getting a little peeved that people who can’t be more than a size 0 and who could shop in Children’s departments are allowed to buy these things. Thank God I have a positive self-image of myself. Granted, I can be guilty of obsessing over wrinkly knees and a new mole/freckle, but I’m not going to walk around and talk about losing weight in front of people who really need to lose weight. In America, all I ever heard people say was, how small I was, well here in Tokyo, I am M-Size. Medium. I like my body. It’s not perfect. Since I have discovered that I am M-size all over (including when buying shoes), I like to think of myself as Aristotle’s Golden M-size. I have breasts and hips and occasionally fried foods. I like to drink and eat what I like. My sister and I have talked about the misery of people trying to be sizes smaller than their bodies want them to be. Life is too short. M-size me all day. As far as I’m concerned, M stands for Mighty happy.

COOKING

Since moving here, I have revived my love for cooking. Much of the credit goes to Hema Parekh for inspiring me to go to the store and buy local ingredients and cook vegan meals for my family and be confident that if you make it they will eat it (especially if no one else in the household cooks). Sometimes I go full Vegan and sometimes I add a little flesh to give my omnivores a sense of fulfilment. I hope you all don’t mind, but I am really proud of some of the dishes I am creating so I will occasionally include photos of what I make. Here are a few:

Tuna Onigiri

Vegetarian Soba in Hot Broth

I know it looks busy, but this is one of the benefits of home cooking. If you were to go to a restaurant and ask for all this extra ingredients it would cost a fortune! So yummy on a cold day.

Vegetarian Yakisoba

One day I asked Cliff and Chase what they wanted for dinner and Chase said, “Make some fushi mom!” This is what I refer to as fake or vegetarian sushi. So I did!

Fushi and Sushi

I was worried that they wouldn’t like the fushi so I broke down and purchased yellow tail and salmon as filler. They ate it all!

Have you ever had that experience where you go somewhere and you think, “I could make this myself!” During my excursion at Disney Sea, Chase begged me to buy him something that looked like mango frozen on a stick. I don’t think I am cheap by any means, but I just couldn’t bring myself to pay 500 yen for something that looked so simple, so I promised him I would try making it myself and if he didn’t like the results, next time we came, I would buy it for him.

Mango Pop

I think that is the face of one satisfied customer.

RECIPE:

1 Large Mango Slice

1 Chopstick

Wrap with Saran wrap and Freeze until frozen.

Eat when ready

Until next time…