Okay. It's been almost five months since I've updated this "daily" blog. Five. Months. I'm so sorry. I know it doesn't really make sense to publish these posts after this long time, but I already saved so many drafts and it would be a huge waste not to post them. So, I guess I'll just post random old posts in the next few hours? Days? Weeks? Hopefully catch up at some point.
Class ended over two weeks ago btw....
If I ever do catch up with the current date, then I'll post about the food and adventures of my after-uni time in Japan ✨
Cooking at home for lunch. Udon with carrot, onion, egg, and sausage, with the potato wedges from the day before, since I couldn't finish them before
Food functionality class in the afternoon
Then a classmate asked me out to join him and another classmate for dinner at a Ramen shop. Originally wanted to go to a different one, but it was full and we didn't want to wait, so we ended up at ToriDori (鶏々)
Ordered some ramen (chicken broth shoyu) with additional chashu. But was honestly a bit disappointed by the taste
Did some exercises in the evening and then just slept, was so tired
Working on food safety homework (summary of the class)
Working on global issues assignment
Was too lazy to cook and wanted to have more time to focus on assignments, so I ordered pizza from Domino's
Ordered Jaga mayo pizza bento (with jaga being potato. And no I have no idea why they put potato on pizza, but it works), so pizza and a side, potato wedges in my case. Also ordered mozzarella cheese sticks that actually tasted pretty delicious, and Domino's current special shake, Espresso shake, with whipped cream. The shake was extremely delicious. Very sweet, but also so creamy and coffee-ey
In the evening also had this sweet potato tart, tasted great, 4/5
While watching last episode of BoJack Horseman season 1
"Taiwanese sesame dumpling pie" from Misdo as breakfast. With sesame paste inside, taste was nice, and the dough was crunchy, but overall only 3/5
Global issues class about Africa and their development, with challenges and opportunities. And Vertebrate Evolution class about dinosaur ancestors - not dinosaurs! Even though they look like them -
Rice, natto, sausages, Komatsuna (小松菜) salad, kidney beans, and corn for lunch in the lunch break. Especially the salad combination was nice. Forgot to take the photo before starting to eat...
Saw duckies on the river on campus 🦆😍
And nice view onto Mount Tsukuba from my dorm 🍂
Cookie cream puff with nuts and almond custard after class. Though tasted like caramel custard. Surprisingly delicious, even though it's from Lawson konbini. Dough was pretty nice, and filling tasted good, surprising 4/5
Felt so incredibly tired from my trip yesterday that I took a nap... For a few hours 😅
Pancake with sweet potato whipped cream and paste after waking up. Weird taste and texture of the pancake and just overall, 2/5, pretty disappointing
Cream collons recommended by a friend. They're okay, creamy and crunchy, but mediocre in taste, 3/5
"Creamy dessert" with whipped cream, some pudding, brownie and cake pieces. Really delicious, except for the brownie pieces that tasted weird, easy 4/5
Recently got Camembert from Lawson, just to try out, in the hope it'd better than the usual "cheese" that I can get here. But- This is barely cheese, and definitely not Camembert, I mean, look at this?? It's like they only took the inside of the Camembert but also tried to produce it as cheaply as possible. That being said, it's still better than the 6P cheese I got before, but still... (to Japan's defense, I know they're not a cheese eating culture... So I can't blame them too hard...)
Worked on the global issues assignment during the night (since I woke up late), some good progress, though not enough...
Cooked dinner after doing homework: Udon noodles, carrot, Komatsuna salad, corn, garlic, some soy sauce, pepper, eggs, sausage. Wanted different taste, but was still nice. But too many flavours, many suppressed by the others, bit of a waste
It's sad. First time I'm hearing about "Forest Resource Sociology". And I'm all like "???!!!?!" *excited face*. I mean. Resource sociology??! Sounds super interesting to me. And then there's your associate professor, who even encourages you to walk up to the professor who's responsible for the lab of forest resource sociology. And you're still reluctant to go but in the end your prof convinces you to just go ahead. And then you talk to the prof of forest resource sociology to tell him how interested you are in this field and his research and that you'd like to learn more about it. Only for him to tell you in the Japanese-friendliest way that his English is bad and that he can't really explain and basically tells you to please go away, in the politest, unstraightforward, Japanese way possible.
Sucks if you can't speak Japanese and the prof can't speak English. He seemed like he'd be great to talk and exchange with....
But at least I can say I tried and had enough courage to approach this random prof. Thanks to my associate professor. He really is the best. And 優しい人, as every single person is describing him, is a complete understatement but also the absolute best fitting description.
For context. My associate professor invited me to a party this evening. A party for students who successfully submitted their thesis this semester and also just other students under four different professors, all belonging to the Agro-Bio resource sciences field (including my prof). Graduate, undergraduate, and research students. Mostly Japanese students, but also from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan. A very interesting mix of people.
It's sad. First time I'm hearing about "Forest Resource Sociology". And I'm all like "???!!!?!" *excited face*. I mean. Resource sociology??! Sounds super interesting to me. And then there's your associate professor, who even encourages you to walk up to the professor who's responsible for the lab of forest resource sociology. And you're still reluctant to go but in the end your prof convinces you to just go ahead. And then you talk to the prof of forest resource sociology to tell him how interested you are in this field and his research and that you'd like to learn more about it. Only for him to tell you in the Japanese-friendliest way that his English is bad and that he can't really explain and basically tells you to please go away, in the politest, unstraightforward, Japanese way possible.
Sucks if you can't speak Japanese and the prof can't speak English. He seemed like he'd be great to talk and exchange with....
But at least I can say I tried and had enough courage to approach this random prof. Thanks to my associate professor. He really is the best. And 優しい人, as every single person is describing him, is a complete understatement but also the absolute best fitting description.
Woke up too late, so left my home really late for my trip, so everything got so late (and dark)
Went to Lawson to get snacks and some drink. They're having special offer right now that you get two bottles of GEORGIA Coffee when you buy something. So now I have two bottles of coffee/latte at home xD
Was video calling my family on my way, chatting and showing them around (in the dark...)
Photos of the landscape will follow but for now, look at Neko-chan! And the little goat that I found randomly. I still have no idea why it was there... But it was on a leash and there was a stall with chickens nearby
Had hamburger steak and beef steak, and chocolate banana parfait at Steak Miya. The steaks come with noodles (lol) and corn. It gets served on a sizzling hot plate. The waiter pours the sauce freshly over your steak if you want and they even wipe clean the sides of the plate, lol. The hamburg was really nice and juicy, the steak was okay. Could have gotten salad from the salad bar but only realised after ordering the parfait, so I was too full for salad.
Mister Donut has a special offer currently, Pokemon themed donuts. Of course I had to try it out! Passed by a shopping mall with a Misdo on my way back and was lucky enough to get some pokemon donuts even though it was almost closing time
The pokeball donut was good; the red was some fruity tasting sugar crystals but the white side tasted better, being some kind of creamy chocolate glazing; 3/5. The pikachu donut had Japan's favourite combination as a filling: white cream and custard cream, with chocolatey glazing, was very delicious, 4/5. The "traditional" or "old-fashioned" donut was surprisingly delicious, simple but great, 4/5. Glad I got them, so much better than the Halloween special editions. And all the designs are とてもかわいい。(fourth piece is for tomorrow)
Delicious sweet potato pudding. They used actual baked sweet potato paste, and only milk, cream, eggs, and sugar, no artificial ingredients and you can really taste the quality. It's like fluid baked sweet potato... 👀
It's produced in my prefecture Ibaraki and from a shop in Tsukuba apparently, even though I bought it at the Kasumi supermarket. It's so special that they had to stress it on their package xD But it really does taste delicious, so 4/5
Meeting up with friends in the morning. Played the card game Saboteur
Wanted to get ingredients for chili con carne at the supermarket. Friend joined me
At home, cooking chili con carne. Very delicious!
Bit of assignments
Then sleep because so tired
Continued with assignments, finally uploaded vertebrate evolution homework
Snacks while doing assignments:
Inside mochi, outside sweet potato and red bean paste. Way too sweet, sweet potato better than red bean though 2/5
Sandwich with yokan (red bean paste). Also way too sweet, but sandwich bread was quite nice, 2/5
Cheese snack that friend recommended. Because outside is white I thought outside would be cheese. Or maybe dough stuffed with cheese. But it's basically fish cake with "cheap" cheese. Just tasted weird and not like cheese. Gonna try frying though, maybe I'd like it more
Planned to get lunch before going to class, but woke up too late...
So instead had this blueberry & cream cheese crepe from Ministop. The cream cheese filling was amazing, but the blueberry one pretty disappointing, crepe okay but nothing special, so overall only 3/5
In FallB we don't have GIGI environment part anyway, only the human part (I guess the environment is not as important, right??????), so no more Friday morning class
Instead started my day with renewable energy class. About biogas reactors and production methods. Knew some of it already from a class at BTU, so it was actually more interesting to me (because it was easier to follow)
After class finally wanted to go to the restaurant I had planned to go to... But I didn't double check and instead of getting katsudon that I was craving for I accidentally went to a gyudon chain (Sukiya) next door... I only realised I went to the wrong place went I had sat down and the staff had already brought me water, so it would have been awkward to just leave at this point...
Got myself a small gyudon (beef on rice) with kimchi (spicy fermented cabbage) on top
Was raining and foggy the whole day, looked so beautiful
When I went home I started feeling dizzy and getting headache... Dunno if it was from the gyudon or something else
Decided to just lie down and then also tried to do some assignment. Decided to not go to my usual aikido because I didn't feel well...
But then suddenly a friend called me and asked if I wanna get dinner together. Felt a bit guilty to say yes, since I said no to aikido.... But didn't wanna miss this chance. And we wanted to meet up only later, so I reckoned I should feel better again by then
We went to a Ramen shop called Hariken Ramen (which they themselves translate as hurricane apparently?). I got dry soba with pork and thick "rich" shrimp flavoured soup (濃厚つけそば・エビ風味). The soup was extremely delicious, so thick, and the meat was also delicious, the soba noodles were good too, tasted nice to dip them into the soup
At home, first time trying Japanese Baumkuchen. Had accidentally gotten one with banana flavour, instead of standard one. But either way, if you expect German type of Baumkuchen, it's pretty disappointing
Didn't understand a thing in Programming class as it was based on last lecture and I didn't attend last lecture.... And it seems like it's getting less and less students in that class.... No wonder 😅
Felt so tired for most of the day, so I stayed in bed during the lecture...
First snack of the day: Camembert something sticks?? I still haven't figured out what it is exactly, but it's delicious
Then cooked lunch. Tried out new noodles that I got a while ago, cooked them in mozzarella water, with some onion. Was actually very soft, juicy, and delicious! Together with some leftover karaage from yesterday
Sociology class about society and culture, and a discussion about cultural appropriation
Trying these chocolate cookie sandwich for the first time. It's chocolatey and with oats, and not sweet at all, the taste is amazing, and nicely crunchy, 5/5 also for the simplicity. But- why is every single sandwich wrapped again in plastic?? This is so typical Japanese...
Coming home, working on sociology report (about symbolic interactionism) - deadline being tonight midnight; only had half of the minimum words yet when starting working on it
Sugar and butter bread chips were delicious too. Not healthy at all but they feel nice to munch on while doing assignments, 4/5
Fried banana with oats and peanuts and honey yogurt as a treat after finishing my assignment
Global issues (academic writing) class in the morning. No more GIS class, since it's only during FallA. For academic writing, we have to further improve our draft until next week and write a conclusion
Enjoying the autumn leaves together with one of my classmates
Had the remaining bean stew from yesterday as lunch today
Maron & Maron dessert. Fluffy dough, nice chestnut cream and white whipped cream, and some chestnut stuff on top. Was so delicious and creamy, 4/5
Food safety control class was about nutritional analysis and categorisation. Thought we'd go over time, because there were four PDFs, but we just skipped fourth one and ended only five minutes over time...
After class I went to Ministop konbini. Wanted to print something but they didn't have the format I wanted. So instead got something for dinner and some snacks
Meat balls, scrambled eggs, and scrambled meat? (no idea, lol) on top of rice, and some chicken and fish cake karaage
Last food of the day was a persimmon I got from the botanical garden last Sunday, harvested by myself. Lots of black spots that I had to cut out but eating something that you harvested yourself just always tastes good
Plain yogurt with an almond/cashew/cranberry/raisin mix, banana, and oats, as first meal of the day
Exchanged bed sheets and did laundry
Working on Global issues assignment (writing a second draft for our term paper)
Was snacking a lot while working:
Chocolate cake dessert, which is chocolate pudding with a chocolate cake top layer. Was nice, but not as great as I had imagined, 3/5.
Cheesy pasta snack. Was kinda weird and nice at the same time. Definitely good to snack while searching up information though
Strawberry jam & margerine sandwich (or literally "ケーキサンド" - cake sandwich xD), from Ministop. The bread was nice white bread, and the margerine and jam mixed well together, just wished there would be even more margerine to make it more creamy. 3/5.
After submitting my draft before midnight, I finally had time to cook
Wanted make some thick soup. But ended up just being a stew with beans, pumpkin, carrot, and onion, and some basil and pepper. Then used up some "fish juice" that I had kept from frying the fish previously, mixed it with an egg, and put my last few mini mozzarella in between, to make an omelette roll
Dinner was nice, though very differently from what I had intended
Guest lecture: Kao Cooperation, for GIGI human part, about their ESG (environmental, social governance) strategy
Lunch: Ham & cheese tortilla wrap from nearby Ministop
Vertebrate Evolution class about amphibians, reptiles; synapsid, dinapsid, anapsid; End Permian Mass extinction; dinosaurs.
Our professor forgot to upload the weekly homework last week, so now we have two homeworks in one week....
Planned to go to today's weekly CASA club meeting, but was too tired to go
Did some homework for GIGI human part: short weekly assignment, and this time also preparation for next class, where we had to answer two short questions
Barely worked on global issues (academic writing) assignment, which is a more in depth draft, even though deadline is Tuesday midnight....
Used Uber Eats to order some dinner at Pizza Hut: a gratin, rice pizza (lobster & teriyaki), and Apple pie. The gratin was nice, the rice pizza has potential but I'm convinced I could do it better myself at home but was worth a try, and for the Apple pie the filling was very delicious but the dough wasn't satisfying
Later at night had this chestnut cream puff. The cream filling was actually quite nice. The dough was dull as usual, but this time the cream mixed so well with the dough that I didn't mind much, just that the texture was a bit weird, 4/5.
First snack of the day was this Turkish snack that a friend gave me recently (coconut + pistachio)
Cooking and watching Arcane season 2 episodes 1&2 while eating
I made udon with carrots, some pumpkin, onion, and garlic and put some chicken meat cutlet from the supermarket and fried it with egg, was delicious
Start writing Sociology report. Topic: modern sociological concept; I chose to write about symbolic interactionism
Enjoying some sweet potato (蜜芋) brioche horn (or cornet コロネ, I guess). Brioche was okay but not the best, bit dull, the sweet potato was too sweet and not natural, and the white whipped cream (ホイップ) was honestly the best. Still 3/5, all three parts combined were nice.
Some gaming in between to relax
Eating chocolate ice cream while continuing writing for a bit. It's nice, rich ice cream, 4/5.
A friend asked me out to go to the totan cotton café (トタンコットンカフェ) together in the morning
Getting there, there were a lot of people. We had to queue up and got a QR code that we could check to see how long it would take approximately until it's our turn. When we got there, we had to wait around an hour, so we decided to go to a nearby park, Sorimachinomori Park (反町の森公園), to chill and chat on the observation tower. The weather was nice to do exactly that!
Finally at the cafe, I ate the best pancakes so far. With caramel, walnuts, and bananas, so very delicious, honestly worth the wait
On my way back home, biking through the botanical garden that's nearby the dorms, enjoying the sun and plants
Officially there's no class today, since it's examination day for some. But our sociology prof decided to do our substitute lesson today... So I still had class. Only half of the students showed up though, lol. I was the note taker for today's discussion round, about research integrity and unethical behaviour
After class immediately rushing to Aikido, as it officially starts at the same time as class ends, but didn't wanna miss the training today
After aikido went to the Kasumi supermarket to get some groceries and something for my dinner
Got myself a nice salad and some discounted fried chicken fillet pieces, tasted all good
Also snacking sweet potato snack in the evening. Was way too sweet though
