Ugly Japanese (?)

Last weekend, Nomi-san, Diaby-san and I went to Tachikawa to find a laptop for Diaby-san at Biku Kamera. Unfortunately, the prices were expensive for Diaby-san's budget. He was only willing to spend Y80,000. So we had to wander around.

Strolling around Tachikawa, we stumbled across an HMV. I checked for boxed sets (hehe!) . They were a bit expensive! Oh well. But the better discovery was that on the top of the HMV was an Orion Bookstore which had an English section. Diaby-san bought 2 Japanese-French dictionaries, while Nomi-san bought 3 english novels. Then we were supposed to look for the Book Off in Tachikawa, but ended up in a used bookstore where I got Oishibo vol.1 for only Y180. I was quite pleased!!!

Later that night, Freddy, a German in the fourth floor celebrated his birthday. We bought drinks. Ker Wee and I ended up spending Y1000 each. The party was fun. I got to chat with a Japanese girl, Aya-san. She invited me to play badminton with her and her friend. I said yes but I don't have a racket here. Oh well.

I also chatted with my German classmate, Dorufu-san. He had very interesting beliefs. Some I may not agree with, but I try not to impose myself on others. He talked about religion, death, life among others. Ker Wee and I left the party a bit early. For me, I had to go to Church the next day. So I left around 11 pm.

Went to Church on Sunday and the church was suprisingly sparse as opposed to Easter Sunday. I liked it. After church, I tried to check out the Filipino wares across the street. Filipinos peddled Filipino wares after mass. Saba cost about Y500 a bunch, which I was thinking at that time expensive but now that I think about it, might have been cheap. I'll try to check again the next time!

After church, I went to Shinjuku, one of the shopping districts in Tokyo. I think my life here is soo predictable. I only went to CD shops and bookstores. I went to Kinokuniya and another bookstore in Lumine near the JR station. I found more titles for food manga! Yay!!!

I ended up not eating any lunch in Shinjuku because everything was expensive, and I didn't want fast food. So I just bought an Thai brand of Instant noodle and popcorn to get change for my Y10000 bill.

On the station, I was stopped by a Japanese policeman who first talked to me in Japanese. I told me I couldn't understand. He asked me in English to show him my passport and alien registration card. I was a bit scared, but was lucky enough to have brought them with me. After seeing them, he let me go. I was a bit shocked, since I never thought I would be "profiled" as a suspicious looking person. I've only read in the newspapers of how Filipinos were "harassed" like this and now it happened to me. I told Li-san about this incident and she said it was normal. Oh well!

On a brighter note, I found an eki-ben store (Eki Bento) in the station which sold a bento box shaped like Pikachu for Y1000. I wanted to get it, but the stinginess in me prevailed.

On the way home, I went to Book Off and got "Addicted to Curry" vol. 1. I was shocked to discover that it had adult themes. As in explicit scenes!!! Too bad. It had curry recipes in every volume pa naman! Oh well, I'll try to figure out how to sell it back and get something else!

Monday afternoon was also fun. Assist, a group that helps foreign students had a welcome party for Y500. I stuffed my self silly with the food. Takaw! I thought to myself, I should get my money's worth. hehe! I got to talk to Nobu-san, an Assist member who toured me around campus, Sakaguchi-san, Assist President, Natsuka-san and a freshman who could only speak Japanese (we could hardly understand each other). But it was enjoyable.

Last night, I tried my hand at cooking pasta. I bought some groceries at Seiyu and went home. I think I might have went a bit overboard on the groceries. I bought another packet of pancake mix, I am finally going to try Bulgarian yogurt (which Angeru-san is proud of) and a box of cereals.

I never realized how time consuming it was to make it. I didn't want to cook with meat since I was scared and would probably just overcook or undercook it. So I used eggplants (small Japanese ones), tofu (the type used in soups with the skin on), garlic (Li-san was right, Japanese garlic does not taste like anything), and a mushroom that I liked (looks like bean sprouts). I had a can of tomato sauce and I just boiled everything in my new frying pan. I was edible (I think). My mistake was that I made huge chunks of eggplant so it took a long time to cook. Anyway yay for me! One serving of pasta is too much for me so I put the leftovers in the ref.

Coincidentally, Hailley (?), was also going to cook pasta. She used carrots, some greens, sweet potatoes. I noticed that she sweated her vegetables first (I have to try that the next time). She probably knows how to cook these since she's vegetarian. She also told me that she was almost going to drop her research proposal when serendipitously, one of her Japanese classmates had contacts to the people she wanted to interview. She is doing something on traditional Japanese tattooing and its implications to Japanese society.

After dinner, I re-read my exercises for reading class (which I have a bit of difficulty with). Did a chapter of Minna no Nihongo and our exercise book and slept.

Ah, my wonderfully predictable life!