Shopping & Cooking

I was tired of shopping at 7-11s and am-pms and other convenience stores across the road from me and I had heard from a housemate that there was a proper supermarket nearby somewhere. So I asked one of them for directions and set off with high hopes.

Got lost and did a full circle back to the guesthouse... Hmm... So I went to the neighbourhood Koban (police boxes which are manned 24 hours; there's one in every neighbourhood) and asked them for directions. One of them spoke a bit of English so I followed "Straight... right.... straight" and got lost again. I decided to give up searching and go back and ask at my guesthouse again. But everyone was out! I tried to find a map on the internet, but none to be found!

Then I found the map Sakura House gave me to find my guesthouse. Aha! It wasn't labelled on there but I took it back to the Koban and they pointed it out to me. By this time it was dark but I finally found it! Daimaru Peacock. I bought loads of stuff - including my favourite cereal, which was really expensive but I didn't care! I love it! I got lots of stuff I'd needed for a while, like water and milk, and other things like fruit and meat, which aren't available in the convenience stores.

Then I totally destroyed my arm muscles on the walk back to the guesthouse. It's only about 10 minutes walk, and it's a nice route past Suitengu Shrine, but ow! It was cold too so my hands were red with white lines across them.

I wanted to cook my first proper meal, it wasn't going to be Japanese (we'll get to that!) but I wanted something that you don't pierce and cook for 2 minutes on full power. I made myself a beef casserole with rice and bread. It was a struggle, as we only have one saucepan and two hobs. So I had to cook the rice in a bowl in the microwave and keep topping it up with water from the kettle (which took up one of the hobs). But it went beautifully after the initial difficulty. I made far too much, of course, so I was absolutely stuffed by the time I finished it, but pleased.

It settles you in to a place, I think, shopping and cooking. A nice activity to try to make yourself feel like you fit into an area.

Still got to sort my bank account and phone, but it will come.