In The Kitchen

Thanks to a lot of rest (all day!) I am still awake and it is 10:46pm here... Being sick has its ups and downs. Upside is that I got a lot of much needed rest today, I even got to watch Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Downside is that with all of that rest I am still tired but can't sleep because I have gotten so much in the last 24 hours.

Another downside is that I am also the type of person that gets sick right as something fun and exciting is about to happen. Like I said before I was supposed to go to Nara (Japan's capital before Kyoto) tomorrow but that has been postponed to early October... My Okaasan and Otousan keeps saying that the best time to do things is in October and that is when we are planning to do a lot of things: ex. visit Nara, visit Kyoto, climb a mountain, go to the beach, visit Tokyo (?), etc. Ummmmm I really want to do all of that stuff but where are we finding the time? The list is actually a lot bigger than that, those are just the things that came to mind right away.

As for tomorrow, instead of going to Nara [with my Ojiisan (grandpa), cousin, Okaasan, and Otousan] my Ojiisan and Obaasan (grandma) will be coming to our house around noon to see how I am feeling and bring KFC for lunch. Not my idea of food to eat while I am sick but I am feeling a lot better and good ol' American (fast) food doesn't sound too bad right now.

Speaking of food, that is exactly what I have been meaning to blog about. I honestly believe that by watching what goes on in a kitchen you can learn a lot about a culture. For starters, in Japan it is the woman who does the cooking. My Okaasan will spend 30 minutes to an hour in the kitchen every morning preparing our Obentos (lunch) and at least an hour at night preparing a home cooked meal for dinner. If Otousan is home she spends even more time making sure that his favorite soup or an extra dish of sorts is made because he likes to eat a lot. I learned about this hierarchical way of living in my Asian Cultures class that I took this last spring and how it goes way back in Japan's history of the husband being the at the top of the order and the wife serving the husband, then kids, then herself. This is something that I was sort of expecting but still a bit strange to get used to. I literally shocked my host family by saying that at home it is my dad who does the cooking and laundry.

I love watching and even helping my Okaasan cook in the kitchen. It is interesting to me because for some traditional meals everything is so precise and only certain dishes are made. Other, more regular dishes, are made and kind of just put together as she cooks. She is amazing and never seems to use any recipes, I think I have seen a cook book once and that was only for a split second before you put it back in the cabinet. I swear she must be magic because I have no way to fathom how she remembers or knows how much of anything to add as she cooks. If I am to bring any recipes home I will definitely have to keep spending time with Okaasan in the kitchen so that I can learn how to tell how much of an ingredient to add because I don't think that she has any written recipes.

Okaasan is also very organized in the way she prepares a meal. She has a set plan of what she is going to cook and when she will start each dish and can tell me (within 5 minutes give or take) when the meal will be ready. She also manages to wash the dirty dishes between preparing each course and the kitchen is so organized that she moves seamlessly through the little space and has no issues preparing such a big meal in such a tiny area.

Each meal has many dishes and a good meal has many colors involved (fruits, vegetables, soups, seasonings, etc). The very first meal that I helped prepare with Okaasan I wanted to document with a picture. As I pulled out my camera Okaasan kind of laughed and said that "this is not a very colorful meal" like it wouldn't be as good of a meal because it lacked color. I was quite proud of my first meal and it all tastes good to me, color or not!

The picture to the right was the first meal I helped cook and I must say it is one of my favorites so far (curry is still my #1 though). Okaasan cut the nashi (pear) and made the fried chicken- by cutting up the chicken into bite size pieces and marinating it in an eggy/flour/seasoned mixture and frying it twice. I prepared the eggplant and cheese- cut slits on top of each half of an eggplant and poured a little oil on top, put it in the microwave for a couple of minutes, took them out and add a lot of cheese in order to completely cover the tops, then stuck them into the toaster oven for another couple of minutes until all of the cheese was melted. I also prepare the french fries (they call french fries potato but they have a completely different word for potato...)- these were pretty simple just take the pre-cut french fries from the bag and put them into a sort of hot oil for 3 minutes to fry them, then take them out and add a salt/pepper mix and voila!

As for another culture insight in the kitchen, gohan (rice) is served in every meal. Rice holds a significant role in the long history of Japan and remains a staple food today. It is a good thing I really love gohan!

As I look through my pictures to try to add visuals of the wonderful food that Okaasan makes I realize that I am definitely lacking in that category. I have a couple of pictures of Shiho making Okonomiyaki ("Japanese Pizza"- soooo good but nothing like pizza) but otherwise nothing... I will have to work on taking more pictures and adding them to the post that I will create later about foods I have eaten at different restaurants.

One last thing I would like to quick note, as I look at my clock and am about to wrap up this post, is that in 15 minutes (it is 11:45pm on August 14 here) it will be August 15. That will mark my one month of being on exchange and living in Japan. It is a crazy sensation to realize that I have been here that long and have experience so much... but still have a long way to go, especially with the language. My Okaasan and Otousan keep telling me how proud they are of me with how much Japanese I have already learned but I still feel very inefficient with my little knowledge and know that there is still a long way to go before I will be able to actually communicate with anyone here. Okaasan and Otousan keep saying to take the language in little steps and that it will come eventually. I know they are right but it is still frustrating to me to know that I don't understand many things that are said in just normal everyday conversation. Oh well, it is just part of exchange and I can't wait until the day when I can sit and have full conversations in Japanese with my family and friends.

Another quick thing about my one month mark is that I will finally allow myself to Skype and otherwise communicate with other friends and family besides my immediate family. Rotary at home kind of set the goal for the exchange students as a way to avoid spending too much time on our computers rather than participating in life in our host countries. It was never a rule but I agreed with that idea of needing to stay involved in my new culture and surroundings. I kept my goal of not communicating with anyone besides my immediate family (who I have only skyped with twice?) for an entire month and now I look forward to gradually starting to communicate with others. I am very excited to hear about different college experiences, from friends in different countries, life back at Northfield High School, and everyday life from other loved ones.

This month of "silence" was difficult at points as I realized that my friends and family were moving on and having wonderful new experiences that I wouldn't be apart of but for the most part I was actually okay with not communicating. I have been kept very busy here and feel that I have adjusted to life better here because of my lack of connection back home. So, as the minutes tick by to my one month mark I must say "sweet dreams and goodnight" because tiredness has finally caught up with me and I can feel my eyelids growing heavier.

Sayonara from Osaka, Japan.