for the love of FOOD
Host mom is especially busy with her schoolkids before break and is coming home around 9 or 10 a few times this week. Instead of putting off dinner to an ungodly hour like we usually do, she finally got the idea to give me cash for each day she returns late so that I can go out for dinner, buy some pre-made food at the convini or make myself a meal at home.

Can I get a WHAT WHAT!!! (That's a good thing, by the way.)

As much as I love having food cooked for me (especially free food), both the hours my host family keeps and the food they serve can be a bit tiresome. I've passed up many an evening's chance to go out in lieu of eating the free food I get at home. I love eating at restaurants. I love sampling depato-chika cuisine. And damn, if I have the time, I sure love cooking for myself.

Tonight I made beans and rice. I haven't had beans and rice for... seven months now? ACKKKK. With the price of veggies and canned goods here, I was surprised that I crammed my total in under the 1000 yen per-meal budget my host mom has assigned me. Celery here costs $2 for a few sparse stalks. I passed on the celery but got a truckload of other veggies and even a container of cumin for future use. Lord knows my family doesn't stock CUMIN. It's too... ethnic.

I had planned to turn up the tunes and dance around while I cooked, but unfortunately (or fortunately?) Host Sister was home. So I did the polite thing and offered her some of the finished product, THEN turned up the tunes and danced around while cooking, which was made somewhat more awkward by her lingering pacing throughout the living room and repeated trips to the kitchen sink where she exhaled hard countless times and consumed innumerable glasses of water. Yes, I appreciated her telling me it smelled good but I mean, really, I'd only just put the onions in the pan. I don't think she liked it either... I bet it's too spicy for her tastes... but secretly I was hoping she wouldn't because it means MORE FOR MY LUNCH TOMORROW!! YATTA!

I think I'll either go out for ramen in Ikebukuro with the next day's ten bucks... or maybe I'll make spaghetti.

The best part? This is going to become a semi-regular thing. As much as it's sort of sad, I'll readily accept the change in pace (and cuisine) this opportunity provides. It means I don't have to be such a stinge when friends ask me out for dinner.

MMmm... tanoshimi shiteru no! (Yahoo!)