Parfaits

I may have mentioned before that parfaits are easy to find in Japan. I know I've posted pictures of parfaits before, here and there. Now here's a whole post dedicated to delicious ice cream and cake!

Snow

It snowed today. I had heard that it rarely snows in Osaka, and when it does it's very little. I guess we got a bit more snow today than what is usual, so this is probably out of the ordinary.

On the way to school this morning (normally I always bike but today was one of the rare days that I walked, since I figured it'd be safer)

Much of the snow is gone now, and it's no longer snowing. There's a lot of slush and puddles still.

Afternoon classes were cancelled. I was wondering why but I heard that some trains aren't running.

I live in the northeast of the U.S. so this snow is nothing. I know people from Michigan, Sweden, and Finland who are used to much worse as well, but some of my friends from Florida, Thailand, Argentina, and Kenya are seeing snow for the first time.

Valentine's Tarts and Bingo

Seminar house 2 has a few free events every semester for residents. The first one of the spring was making tarts and playing bingo.

I noticed the RAs making the tarts and preparing for this event a few days in advance. Here are some supplies as they were setting up for the event yesterday

Everyone's task was to decorate two tarts. They could keep one and then give the other one away. Everyone gave and received a tart, so in the end they had two again. We passed the tarts around randomly.

Prizes for bingo!

For some reason everyone received free tea before the game started

I won! Actually, I'm sure that almost half the room won, since there were many prizes. We kept going for a while. This is my prize

Other Pictures (1)

I always make posts like this once in a while, and I never know how to title them. From now on I'll just stick with this term and number them like this.
Anyway, this post is overdue! I have to catch up.

sushi

I've decided to make more of an effort to try new snacks and drinks while I'm still in Japan. I didn't like Green Dakara but I liked the other one!

Since Valentine's Day was coming up, stores were full of chocolate-making kits and cute trays for chocolate. In Japan, girls make and give chocolate to boys they like on Valentine's Day.

at Mister Donut

I bought some new notebooks! I love stationary

This is the kind of food I've been making with my very limited knowledge of cooking

These are really good!

I ordered pizza for the first time in Japan. I rarely eat pizza and I tend to be picky, but this was all right. Pizza in Japan can come with different types of toppings (like potatoes or mayo) and it tends to be more expensive.

Right before the semester started I was saying that the weather made it feel like spring and that it was fairly warm and not too cold. Well, that all changed pretty quickly. It got really cold! It still is. One week ago I saw snow in Japan for the first time. Actually, it was more like rain mixed with snow. It was slushing down into my face, which made it hard to see as I was on my way home that night. It didn't stick. There was just a thin dusting of a layer on flower beds and dirt, and it didn't stay there for long.

at the counter, waiting to pay

I haven't seen any grocery store in Japan that uses a conveyer belt, or whatever it's called. Everyone uses a basket, and there's a system of sliding baskets down the counter. The cashier transfers all items from one basket to another, and in between the cashier scans the items.

I had a small bag of rice left from last semester but I was running out, so I bought more rice earlier this week. Since I know I ate more than 6 kg of rice last semester, I figured I might as well buy a 5 kg bag. It's much cheaper than repeatedly buying the 2 kg bags. The only issue was that I only remembered that I needed rice right before I was about to pay, so I already had not one but two large water bottles in my grocery basket. I had to get all this stuff home somehow! I always use my bicycle basket, and whatever doesn't fit in there goes into a large bag that I keep on my shoulder. I had so many big heavy things this time so I tried my best to get all the heavy things into the basket of my bike, since I wouldn't be able to carry them in my bag. Luckily it worked out!

I passed my kanji review test this week, which means I can stay in my class. I don't have to move down a level. I didn't take the reading and writing class last semester and the grammar is more difficult than what we learn in the speaking class, but I'll try my best. We're already learning the kanji for terms like "music therapy" and "modern society"

Normally I only ever get water, milk tea, or CC Lemon from vending machines. Since I want to try new things though, I bought this! It was a good decision since it tasted great!

Sometimes I'm lazy or just tired of cooked eggs so I eat a raw egg on my rice. I like raw eggs. Someone saw me eating this last semester and told me that she's seen characters in anime eat rice with a raw egg and soy sauce. I didn't know that. I've tried it with soy sauce but it's too strong if I add too much. Sometimes I use soy sauce and other times I don't. Also, don't worry about me getting sick. I ate raw eggs (and raw fish) all the time last semester and I'm always fine. People in Japan aren't afraid of raw eggs getting them sick. In fact, eggs usually aren't refrigerated. Egg cartons are stored on regular, non-cooling shelves at grocery stores.

udon at the cafeteria