lioness in japan

Staying home on a Friday night never sits well with most people. Hell, I bet lots of you do but you won’t admit it. I used to stay home on Friday nights while I was busting my arse at a certain publishing house. Standing around at a hip bar in heels with martini in hand while pretending to be interested in the men your friends are cruising wears thin quickly when you’re exhausted. For me, Saturday nights were meant for dressing up, heading out and eating well.

I don’t have the exhaustion of a full-on week but I thought I would try to get some work done so my weekend would be free to explore Tokyo and hang out with a few new friends I’ve made here.

One thing I love is cooking and trying my hand at Jap recipes is always a fun thing to do at home. Tonight was udon in miso soup with shitake mushies, baby tomatoes, golden mushies, unspicy green Jap chillies, a poached egg, minced beef, topped with a dash of sesame oil and mirin (Jap seasoning rice wine). I’ve been trying to get my hands on some dashi, a fishy type of seasoning that is produced in tiny grain form, to make more authentic Jap noodle soup but I’m quite happy with my version so far.

Speaking of bastardising food, I made a discovery on Wednesday. After the hash run, one of the American guys, Balding, complained about the beer, “This is not beer, it’s hopushu. It tastes terrible!” Apparently, hopushu looks and tastes like beer but is not classified as beer because a few crucial steps in the brewing process are skipped. In the past, the producers of hopushu can’t be taxed like they would be for beer, because in theory, hopushu is not beer. I took a sip and it sure as hell tasted like it, but was a tad thinner and rough on the tastebuds. Now hopushu is taxed as much as beer, so these alcoholic beverage companies come up with funky variations to get around heavy taxes. The latest one being advertised is a green pea beer-like alcoholic drink. Ew. I stuck to my umeshu (plum wine) soda.

On the social front, one the guys from the hash emailed me to ask if I wanted to hang out on the weekend. No fixed plans yet and may not happen but I felt so happy because I thought I was getting nowhere in making friends in this group. They are friendly peeps but they are already a clique in many ways so it’s natural that it takes time to “break the code” so to speak.