Observation for the day: Japanese women seem to either age young or not at all. It was rather startling, my first few days in Hikone, seeing what looked like rather aged women with very small children. They were too young to be grandmothers, and I spent several days wondering whether Hikone had a prevalence of helpful older aunts or having children really late was really popular around here or something. Then I started noticing that among the older woman, there were some who had remarkably youthful (i.e. fairly unlined/wrinkeld) facial features. And for those who didn't, on some, it looks like their skin is doing a damn fine job of trying to slide off their faces. I suppose it could just be me. I'll have to see how old people appear to me after I get back. Men don't seem to be so afflicted, but then again they usually don't travel with children in tow to make a point for comparison.

Perhaps not an earth shaking observation, but it is something to ponder in idle moments. Not that I had a lot of those today. Played Dance Dance Revolution for hours. I think that there is a very good chance that my feet will fall off when I stand up. When I wasn't dancing, I did some thinking. About money mostly. I forgot to go to the bank today, so I'm left with about 1000 yen or so in odd change. Hopefully I'm not going to have to buy anything tomorrow, aside from maybe some snackies for dinner. As well, I had the rather sobering thought that in a week and a half, I've managed to run through a third of the money I brought with me. *sigh* I was doing so well, finance wise. Well, I had my little splurge, and I hope that I enjoyed it because I'm going to have to be steadfastly frugal in order to insure that I don't run short of funding before the end of my stay. At least, if they have an extra host family for me to do an extended home stay, I won't have to worry about food costs so much, and I already bought/was given a plethora of items to give as gifts, so I don't have to worry about those cutting into my pocketbook. I just have to remember, as much as I want video games, and manga, and posters, and figurines, and etc it's not going to kill me to just pass them by. Well, maybe I'll pick up a few more manga volumes. They are deliciously cheap over here. What would normally cost me something $15-20 stateside, I can pick up here for $2-6. The caveat being that it's all in Japanese. I can read 75-100% of the text (some manga includes the hiragana alongside the kanji for ease of reading). Of course, there is a rather large gap between reading and understanding, like how I can read Latin, or Spanish just fine but I can't understand a lick of it. That (as well as lack of a system to play it on) it what has kept me from buying any of those pretty, enticing Super Robot Wars games… self control is a bitch.

Since in my DDR inspired delirium I forgot to mention it yesterday, cooking classes went very well. All the food prepared was delicious, the pork okonomiyaki my group made especially so. For a little bit of explanation, okonomiyaki is sometimes referred to as Japanese pizza. That's something of a misnomer, since there is almost no relation at all between the two, except that like pizza, you can top okonomiyaki with almost anything you want. You start out by shredding some cabbage, which you drop into a bowl of okonomiyaki batter (you can buy it in just add water variety, much like pancake mix). You then mix in some eggs, as well as tempura rice, pickled ginger, or what have you. You then pour it onto a griddle and fry it up. While the bottom side is cooking you drop whatever toppings you want onto the top. When the bottom is done you flip it, and when the top has finished you eat it. Short, simple, and oh so tasty. I am definitely making some when I get back. I'm sure the local Asian groceries have okonomiyaki mix, and whatever else I may require.

Because several people have asked, and I am too lazy to simply e-mail it to them all, here is my address in at JCMu:

English quote of the day (seen on the bottle of water I bought) Fiber Water. Now what I really want to know is: did I buy a bottle of tasty water, or two liters of laxative?

-Also-

This cute mild curry uses 100% Japanese apple and cheerful hamster. (Seen on a notebook with a curry advertisement on the cover)