Prefabricated sandwiches rock.

I just felt that everyone should be made aware of that fact.

At this point I' m sure everyone is asking what precisely am I smoking, and how much they'll have to pay me in order for me to smuggle some back for them internally. Rest assured, I am as drug free as ever (interpret that as you may). Right now all that I'm high on is life, and a really good piece of melon bread. All you Ranma 1/2 readers out there might be able to guess what I'm talking about, if you recall the short-lived bread feud between Ranma and Ryoga. Whenever I read that scene, I always wondered what the beef (so to speak) was over a bunch of flavored bread. Coming from my bleached white bread junk food background like I do, I assumed that food stuffs with names such as melon bread, chow mien bread, etc. meant a bread product chemically flavored to have a taste vaguely resembling the item in its title. I have now had the veil stripped from my eyes, and what I see is a glorious sight indeed. I bought some melon bread on impulse, which had the kind of green coloration I expected from the anticipated pseudo-melon flavoring. I opened it with scant expectation of anything particularly memorable… Then I discovered that the bread was sliced, like a sandwich, and tucked away within were heaping helpings of delicious melon custard. Ditto for the chow mien bread (except for the custard part). Oishii!!! Okay, maybe calling them sandwiches (even prefabricated) is something of a misnomer, but it's more than a simple baked good; a delicious meal unto itself, it is… uberbread.

Oh yeah, today was my first day of classes too. Those went well. Three hours in the morning, with an hour break for lunch, than another hour of class in the afternoon, or a special activity. Tomorrow it's Japanese cooking lessons, which of course I'm looking forward to. Being a master of improvisational cooking is fine and all, but it'd be nice to get fewer comments along the lines of 'it tastes a lot better than it looks.' For dinner I improvised up another batch of beef curry noodles with vegetables, which, partly because I had a third less curry than I needed, is probably about the most hideous thing I've created all year. It's probably for the best that I forgot to add the mushrooms. If I could cook Japanese style for real, well if nothing else it'd mean that I could move out of the instant ramen aisle at the grocery market.

Speaking of grocery shopping, I've finally gotten comfortable enough in that particular environ that I barely even felt the impulse to just grab the closest thing off the shelf and run. Finally did some solid evaluations of prices, which once again made me realize how much I took US prices for granted. One kiwi (dessert) 98 Yen (current exchange rate 124 Yen to the dollar.) One red bell pepper (vegetable in my curry dish) 98 yen. One red apple: 98 Yen. Ground beef, 1kg: 548 yen Look on my face when I fell butt first through a display of 10,000 Yen square watermelons: priceless.

Produce mishaps aside, I'm starting to work out how to feed myself without breaking the bank. A quick look in my wallet confirms that I still have about $180 of the initial $300 I changed at the airport left (really impressive if you stop to think about the bar tab I ran up on my Friday night out; actually, since both my parents and grandparents are probably reading this, don't). Unlike Stateside, there is neither shame nor stigma (or significant health risk) to basing a diet mainly off of instant foods. With economy of time, cost, and space taken into mind, entire meals are packaged in just add hot water form. So long as I don't mind a diet heavy in noodles and rice and short on fresh meat, I'll be okay.