Kelly in Japan

Shodo, Fish, and Polite Children

// February 22nd, 2010 // Uncategorized

Today I was riding my bike home and I passed a little girl playing outside. She seemed very interested in me (foreigners are still a rare commodity, I guess), so I gave her a friendly smile. She responded with a full-on bow! Not the half-bow, mind you, but the my-back-is-parallel-to-the-ground bow. I thought it was hilarious, and I gave her a grave half-bow back from my bike.

I felt inspired to cook something healthy for dinner tonight. I went to the gym (which is located in a grocery store - it’s a long story), and as I turned around the escalator I noticed that they had some recipes for you to take which featured the grocery store brand of ingredients. I chose one that looked tasty (and easy), then went to the gym and asked my friend Mio, the gym girl, to help me sound out the kanji. After working out, I bought the ingredients, came home, managed to sort through the instructions, and finished with a legit, healthy Japanese dinner for me and Kory!

We had marinated buri (barracuda!), na no hana (rape blossoms, which, by the way, were also featured in this week’s Flower Arrangement Club) with green onion, lotus roots with mushrooms, and rice with pickles. I didn’t make the rice or the pickles. I do want to learn to make those pickles at some point, though; they are super delicious!

Today was the last shodo class for the year. I was sad. I hope I am able to join a class next semester. Otherwise I’ll just have to practice at home.