It's really c-c-cold!

Life could be a little wonderful if I were a polar bear. It's so freakin' cold outside (still can't beat Siberia's -68C, but I think -19C is still pretty bad) and I unfortunately forgot to wear my mufflers and my hat today because I thought I was going to be late for lunch with everyone. As usual, I was the first to come. I should have waited for the next bus so I could better equip myself. Meh.

I just can't survive without soup.

Herbal Chicken Soup

This is probably the most disgusting-looking soup if you're not familiar with the concept of Chinese herbal soup. Well, you probably won't see all the ingredients used if you eat herbal soup in a restaurant.

The taste? Kinda like an acquired taste. I have the taste buds of a grandma, so I like it LOL ♥

By the way, the food at the new Korean restaurant near my university did not taste good. I don't think I'm returning to that place for lunch, considering it's quite far from my departmental building. I guess this is the side effect of being able to cook decent food at home: I refuse to eat anything that taste worse than my cooking.

Okay, got to resume doing my assignment. Will be back again after the finals! Wish me luck!

Read More

Sleepy winter

As winter comes, I become really lazy. And I turn into a real glutton. 5 pm feels like 8 am, and the darkness just makes me feel that it's time to sleep.

Low productivity.

As I promised last time, I'd post some pictures when I was in Japan. Roaming Tokyo area in 6 days (or maybe it was 5 days, including travel time and all that) was really tiring.

The weather was great (the coldest winter in Tokyo is only about 5 degrees C!), the food was great, and of course, lots of cute things around ♥

One of my most favorite food was omurice (rice covered in omelet). I don't know why, but the omelet feels really light and fluffy, and I'm not really exaggerating but the egg kinda 'melts' in the mouth.

By the way, there is a funny (maybe more like embarrassing, but either way, it's funny) behind this omurice. I was hungry and decided to eat at Ootoya. Ootoya is a restaurant chain that serves traditional Japanese foods. I went through the menu, and somehow I couldn't pick anything until I saw omurice. I was thinking, "hey, I haven't had omurice at all", so I decided on that.

I went to the cashier to order the menu, and the guy asked me to reconfirm if this menu was the one I selected (apparently this is a customary habit in Japan - whenever you go to a store, they'll always ask you to reconfirm that you got the right stuff). He asked me if I ordered okosama omurice, and I said yes. At this point, I understood well that it's a kid's menu (okosama means kid). He didn't say anything else, or prevented me from ordering that menu, so I went ahead and paid for the omurice.

And then I sat down.

When the omurice came, the guy at the cashier (who turned out to be a server as well) told me that this menu is meant for kids under 13, this was the only time he would let me order it, and there should not be a next time.

And I can only say "sorry", and then I munched the omurice.

But really, I like kid's portion. I like kid's menu in general. They have nice plates, and the serving size is just right for me.

I wish I can return to being under 12 years old again haha! I'm such a big kid :)

Read More

Love from Japan

It's quite late, but I went to Japan during my Thanksgiving Break. Yes, it's a short Saturday-to-Saturday break, but I think I spent my days there pretty efficiently (like, from dawn till dusk?).

During those days, I visited quite a lot of places near Tokyo. The weather is perfect (around 9-17 degrees C in general), although it rained on some days.

At first, I was still too shy to speak Japanese on the plane. My first language wasn't Japanese, by the way, and I haven't had any formal Japanese classes. Surprisingly, as I landed on Japan, words started flowing. At the very least, I could 95% understand whenever I ask for directions or buy foods. I could even ask "what's in that food" and be able to understand what the shop keeper says!

Most of the time, people started to notice that I'm not a native speaker when they asked me to take a photo for them. Instead of counting from 3, 2, 1, I started counting from 1, 2, 3. That is a definite Indonesian habit. I only realized this when people took a picture of me and they count from 3 to 1.

If I were a spy, my cover would have been blown (LOL).

In terms of food mannerism, I think I don't really have a problem. I was still a little surprised when they eat noodles while slurping really loudly. It was rather enjoyable - normally my mum would scold me if I slurp noodles because that would be considered as rude. So, yeah, it was really fun to slurp the noodles as I lift the bowl to gulp the soup. Note: you don't drink the soup with spoon. You drink it straight from the bowl.

Another interesting point is oshibori or hot towel. I'm not sure if it's only me and my family, but we only use hot towels whenever we're done with our food (normally in seafood restaurants where using hands to eat is necessary). It feels good to wipe your greasy mouth when you're done eating. But in Japanese culture, they use oshibori before they eat.

By the way, I was praised for my chopstick-wielding skills. The guy at a nabe restaurant was rather surprised to see me handle the veggies in the pot using my chopstick for some reason :)

Even though I've been eating like a crazy pig, I only gained 1 kg in total. Surprising, huh? I would have gained 3 kg if I were in US. I don't know if it was because I kept walking from morning till night every day and burn my calories, or the food there is naturally low in fats. I personally think that the food is far less greasy than US foods. I can't really say that they have small serving sizes - they're actually quite big.

However, the over usage of salt is just too scary!! They use sauces in everything, and to me, they're really too salty!!

Will post some photos soon... I'm getting really busy with finals and assignments. And to think that I'm still having problems with my sleeping schedule thanks to jet lag, I can't say I can survive the last two weeks of school pretty easily.

Read More