家ー　My House

I live on the first floor of a building comprised of six apartments. My apartment is pretty large, considering Japanese standards for people living alone. Of course, I am out in the country so houses and apartments tend to be much bigger here since there is more room available. My place has three rooms and a separate kitchen and bathroom. Also the room with the toilet is completely separate from the room with the shower, it is very common in Japan to separate these two functions of the "bathroom area." Also there is no dryer, all the clothes are hung out to dry in a little room on the balcony area. Here in Japan they are very particular about sorting the trash, everywhere. At home, the office, in public areas- you just sort your trash. And if you put something in the wrong bin, you will be kindly corrected and shown where to put trash correctly. Taking your trash out to the road is also serious business. If you sort your trash wrong and/or take it out on the wrong day(?) the trashman will leave it there and stick a yellow tag on it explaining what you did wrong. And it will be left there until you solve the problem.

Kitchen

Trash- burnable, non-burnable, steel cans, plastic bottles, and the fifth I am not sure what it is for...

Clothes drying room

My bedroom/all-purpose room since it is the only one with AC/heat

Bento I took to work one day

I have also been cooking a lot now that I have my own kitchen again. I am excited to learn more about Japanese foods and how to prepare them. I even make my own bento (Japanese lunchbox) to take to work. The other day when the boss saw that I had made my own bento he was impressed and later brought me three goya fruits, known in the Western world as "bitter melons." He explained how I needed to cook them and remove the seeds and that chanpuru is a popular Okinawan dish that features goya. He asked if I would like to try cooking them and of course I accepted his gift! Here are the results of my cooking experiments:

Chanpuru- the Okinawan dish

Onigiri (rice balls)- salmon, seaweed, and green tea/plum flavored

Ramen- Classic.

Tofu, vegetable tenpura (I bought that already made though), salted salmon and somen noodles

Breakfast- cut fruit and rice porridge. Added WAY too much dashi stock the first time I made it, man was that salty!

Chicken teriyaki, sauteed spinach and mushrooms, tangerine, and somen