Overdue Updates

I have been super delinquent on the blog, partially because I'm constantly pretty busy with the workload and all, and partly because the first month wasn't quite as "action-packed" as my previous experiences in Japan.  Whereas summer programs for undergrads hold your hand as they inundate you with cultural activities, IUC is much more hands off.  Its class, and a lot of it, and then students are otherwise on their own for the remaining 10% of daylight hours.

I've been here now just about 5 weeks, and the concept of "I live in Japan" is starting to sink in.  A little.

I spend a lot of time thinking about / finding / preparing / cleaning food.  My fridge is less of a "living fridge" and more of a "beer fridge", so the size of it (plus the size of the kitchen) makes it hard to prepare and store food in bulk.   But I make a lot of tofu dishes, and for the first time in my life I'm cooking fish by myself.  Breakfast is usually a rice bowl with kimchi, natto, fried eggs, and wasabi furikake, plus a banana.  Lunch is whatever I can buy for cheap at a cafeteria or conbini near school, and dinner is whatever recipe I look up, which is often based around what weird stuff is on sale at the supermarket.

My food budget on the scholarship would be around $20 / day, but with the current exchange rates thats more like ¥1600.  Actual parity means it feels like $16 (if we establish the amount of noms I get on a US $1 menu as equivalent to a ¥105 rice ball).  I eat a lot in general, but on judo days I'm guessing I take in anywhere from 3000-4000 calories, so I have the mental rule that I'm only allowed to buy things that have a 2 Kcal : ¥1 value.  Cost of living around Yokohama/Tokyo is very very high.  If I have time to cook properly, that's fine, but busy days are a lot harder.  Even a cheap restaurant uses a majority of my daily food budget, and a round trip to Tokyo often ends up around $12 in transportation.

Speaking of Judo, I did join a new dojo last week, although not the Kodokan.  This one is also pretty far, but there's a lot of adults (including a couple very prestigious ones... the head instructor is a 7th dan blackbelt, and another one won the National Championships of the Police Judo League).  In randori I'm finally to the point where I've been able to get in a few throws on the blackbelts, although the net total of throws is still very much me being thrown.  But apparently 小内刈 (ko-uchi-gari) is my best move now, which is surprising because it seemed like one of my worst before. 

Adventures:
We had a day off from class to go on field trips sponsored by the center: I went to the Cup Noodle Museum (where I had noodles) and Kirin Beer Factory (where I had beer).

 The "My Cup Noodle" attraction: I drew Nyan Cat and Noodle Cat

 A visual timeline of all cup noodle products and labels

Magical art noodles flying through the air

 Met up with Elizabeth (Carbone) Igarishi two weekends ago, and we went out to the beach at Kamakura and the Daibutsu statue.

Went on a single day retreat to a Buddhist Temple, also near Kamakura.  Turns out I'm really bad at meditating.

More to come later.  I'll be less bad at updating.