My new favourite rice crackers aren't made of rice flour...

I like Nanbu senbei 南部せんべい.

It's made of wheat flour and pressed in a kind of mini grill thing like a waffle maker. Then you hold that over a charcoal fire to bake. It doesn't take long to bake. The most common types are peanut or black sesame. I like both. I made some on Children's Day at the Muroran Folk Museum. They taste great! And theyare also for sale at my local supermarket, to my joy. They're just made from flour, salt and water. Anyway there's so many more kinds of rice crackers out there. I like the chewy ones too. Here's a blog where they talk about diff types. http://washokufood.blogspot.jp/2008/04/senbei.html?m=1

School activities

I am often surprised and pleased at the extracurricular things my schools organise for the students to do. For example they meet with the elderly and talk, they plant rice, they make mochi (rice paste dumplings) from scratch, even pounding the rice themselves. They even replanted the flowerbeds at my school. I thought a gardener did it, but nope! The flowers look prettier now that I know the students planted them.

Me in Autumn. I like this photo for some reason.

Pokemon that don't look good in Pokemon Amie

Espeon and Umbreon aren't well done at all. Neither is Frogadier. Frogadier's eyes are creepy. They don't look like it's character sprite's eyes. And Umbreon's voice is awful. So is it's face. Ditto for Espeon. So disappointed. It's a shame but then when you think about the more than 700 Pokemon which were redesigned for Pokemon Amie I guess it's ok. Sorry to complain but I love those three on my team and I hate using Pokemon Amie with them, it's like, Ugh... Eat the cake hurry up. Ugh stop talking, your voice is terrible. Yuck don't make that face urghhh... Anyway yeah turning the sound off helps but still! Ok rant over.

Japanese abbreviations of English words

Interesting. Although maybe that's only because as an ALT (Assistant language teacher), sometimes I end up sitting in the teacher's room with nothing to do but look around... Anyway despite the firey and passionate debate the sentence above could stir, I shall sidestep the issue of how much initiative can be taken by native-speaking English teachers working in Japan and say : Abbreviations. They are great little puzzles. For example it took me a sec to figure this one. バレ-

But it's short for volleyball. バレーボール。After that, all the other katakana on the board was immediately simple to understand. バスケ was basketball, and so on. It just got me thinking of how different the English abbreviations would be. For basketball, I would probably write BBall or B ball. For volleyball, I would write VBall. And so on. Anyway I'm just waiting for my next class. I don't make lesson plans because I get told what to do at all my schools (during class, sometimes with like 1 minute to go before starting or even during class). And frankly, if I did have to do my own lessons, I would use the books and workbooks and just play a couple of games to warm up. Bingo, pictionary, a spelling game, charades or an interview game using pairs of students. Similar to what my teachers already do. Ok better go, gotta look busy. Ttyl have a good day.

Watermelon icebar in Summer

I finally tried one of these. It tastes more like rockmelon but it's nice, the seeds are chocolate and the rind tastes slightly citrusy.

Bamboo leaf tea

My first years went out to a camping ground, to have a bbq. I saw them out there and one thing they gave me was kumazasacha. Bamboo leaf tea. It looked like a variety of green tea. And it tasted like hot water after green vegetables have been cooked in it. A vegetable-like, faintly grassy taste. It was ok. But it wasn't amazing. What made it good was the knowledge that my kids had picked the bamboo themselves and brewed it into tea. Here's a pic. There's so many kinds of tea in Japan, I'm always being surprised. :)

Yes, tea! By all means, tea!

Haha, the title is something my friend just said to me. Btw she doesn't drink much tea. Anyway, I (besides my other numerous discoveries over the past week) have learned of Sobacha, tea made from buckwheat. Not from the noodles. From the buckwheat itself, at least I think that's what my student was trying to explain. So it's available at Maxvalue supermarket too I think and I will go look for it. Apparently 'soba' is written in hiragana, そば like this, so should be easy for me to find it. Btw I love the app for this blog. And my Japanese keyboard too. It's so much easier to do random stuff now!

Mr Cat

I saw Mr Cat yesterday at a convenience store. He was so underweight, you could see his hip bones. Supermodellll! Just kidding. Anyway I gave him the only food I had, which was a potato wedge. He ate it, so I gave him two more. Then I felt guilty for feeding potatoes to a carnivore so I rushed inside, scanned the shelves and bought a salad with ham in it. I gave him the ham and kept the salad. I'm a vegetarian. I had to go to a meeting. Later on the way home, my bus passed the store. I didn't see Mr Cat. I hope he found another person to feed him. Most people up here in my town don't care for cats very well. Many cats look sick, malnourished or dirty. It's upsetting for me because I'm not allowed pets so I can't adopt any strays. Take care, Mr Cat!!! :(

Apologies for posting random photos of food and drink in the future

What I said. Sorry to all my - wait! Nobody actually reads this blog, I think. Sweet. Ok I can do and say what I want.

Yay!

Pepsi Refresh Shot! Whatever that means.

Is it an energy drink or is it like pepsi and lemon? I dunno and I may try it but not today. It's like 7am and I am so not a fizzy drink person anyway.

New Fanta : Apple

Sokenbicha

Today I'm going to talk about Sokenbicha. The name has the words beauty and tea in it. 

They are blended tea and herb cold tisanes made by Coca Cola of all ppl. Coca Cola make a lot of low calorie tea drinks here in Japan.

I'm going to try them. I wanted to try all of the different ones but I have only seen three kinds. Well I will try 'em anyway.

Anyway there are apparently five blends in the US which are sold, check wikipedia for more information. Here is a bit of the wiki article: 

In the US, Sokenbicha is sold in the following five varieties:

• Revive – Crisp Oolong Tea blend with natural botanicals. Ingredients include: Oolong Tea Leaves, Black Tea Leaves, Rose Petals, Rose Hips, Ginseng.
• Defend – Mild Oolong Tea blend with natural botanicals. Ingredients include: Oolong Tea Leaves, Black Tea Leaves, Guava Leaves, Ginseng.
• Purify – Aromatic Green Tea blend with natural botanicals. Ingredients include: Green Tea Leaves, Oolong Tea Leaves, Black Tea Leaves, Chamomile, Aloe.
• Shape – Bold Barley Tea blend with natural botanicals. Ingredients include: Roasted Pearl Barley, Roasted Rice, Pu’er Tea Leaves, Green Tea Leaves, Roasted Brown Rice, Young Barley Leaves.
• Skin – Full-bodied Barley Tea blend with natural botanicals. Ingredients include: Roasted Pearl Barley, Roasted Rice, Pu’er Tea Leaves, Green Tea Leaves, Roasted Brown Rice, Young Barley Leaves, Cinnamon, Ginger.