Homework and Cooking

Today was so productive! I'm really proud of myself.

After having a really nice chat with Erin and Nikki I got to talk to Mom and Dad bright and early in the morning. I had a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast, and went back to bed at 8:00.

Around noon I woke up and headed to campus, where I sat outside and had some udon noodles, rice, and pumpkin croquette for lunch while I did some art history reading for the week. Then I went to the library, which was the main reason I had gone to school. I needed some more books for my art history paper that's due on Thursday, so I found them, did the reading in the library, organized all my papers in my files since the first half of the semester is over, and got ready to head out.

I wasn't able to check out the books, though, which was disappointing. Apparently international students are only allowed five books out at a time, and I've reached my limit. So I guess I'll have to just be a bit creative in how I put the information into my paper. It shouldn't really be a problem, but I was a bit surprised. Five books is not a lot for kids taking four college classes. I wonder why they have that restriction? It sounds like the Japanese students get to check out more than five books. Hmm....

Anyway, after that I swung by the grocery store on the way home. I've been trying to eat more veggies lately, so I shopped for a lot of produce. I found a nice package of fresh-sliced pineapple. The tomatoes were on sale, so I got three packs of cherry tomatoes to snack on. I've already eaten one pack. Yum! Much more nutritious than Choco-Chippu, too. I also found cauliflower for the first time here, so I grabbed a head and I plan on steaming it for a side dish sometime this week.

I also decided that I was going to try cooking some fish again. My problem last time was that I had to remove the scales, so I was determined to get a better fish this time. I actually ended up going for the sashimi quality stuff, because those were the biggest de-boned, de-scaled pieces of meat I could find. So--forgive me, foodies--I bought a beautiful slice of toro (fatty tuna belly), which I later totally "ruined" with a lovely marinade and some pepper. The fish ended up being delicious, really. I just felt a bit bad because toro is really such a nice, subtle fish; it was a shame to be slathering it in soy sauce and garlic, really, but it was delicious when cooked. I think I shall do it again. The fish is a bit expensive; for my single serving it was about $4. But still, it was nice to be eating some protein that's not an egg sandwich, and considering that a tuna steak in the States would be about $15 at a restaurant, I'd say it's not too bad.

I was unsure if I would do any sightseeing this weekend, but I have decided to go to Kyōto (again!) tomorrow. This time I'm going to see Kinkakuji and Ryōan-ji. Both these places are really big tourist draws. Around this time of year things get especially crowded at Kinkakuji because of the beautiful leaves, so I'm going to get up early and try to do the whole thing before lunch so it's not too crowded. So it's an early bedtime for me tonight. Tomorrow I'll let you know how the temples were.

Oh, I'm still working on getting pictures uploaded from last week's trip to Kyōto; I've been having some technical difficulties with Photobucket.