Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Okinomiaki

I've stayed at Yoshimi's house a few days in a row a couple times, and they are starting to feel like a second host family, they are so nice and hospitable. And Yoshimi is hilarious, I love her. She is going to study english in college, so me being there was good practice for her.They have two dogs, a big labrador named Andy and a tiny old girl named Shizu. They remind me of my dogs when they play like this. At first Andy looks really skinny, but he's actually quite strong and healthy. When we take them on a walk it's more like he's walking us.

Here is Andy right before we went on a walk. The litte bag is for his poo. haha. It's so cute, he literally walks us the whole way. And he has his own chair, and if you tell him to he jumps up there.



Here is a picture of Yoshimi and I, and her sister; Satomi.

On one of the days I stayed at Yoshimi's I helped Yoshimi and her mom make Okinomiaki, a popular food that is basically a pancake made out of cabbage, fish, meat, shrimp, and some kind of batter. Then you cook it and cover it with a sweet brown sauce, drizzle it with some mayo(I know, I was surprised by the mayo), and top it off with some fish flakes. I didn't really like the fish flakes, so I put ginger on mine instead. It was really really good. While we were cooking Andy was staring at me longingly out of his cage in the living room.


You can see Yoshimi's mom; Rika in this photo. She is so nice and cute. She always teaches me how to cook, and even though she knows very little English, we have become very good at charades.



After that delicious lunch, we went to downtown Gifu to meet up with Yoshimi's friend, Yuka. We met up and went to Karaoke, where Yuka amazed me with her karaoke skills and excellent english.

Then we took a bus to the mall to see High School Musical 3, which is super popular in Japan. It was quite hilarious, and I was laughing out loud in the theater, but then I realized that no one really laughs in japanese theaters, it's dead quite. haha so I stopped laughing. I don't know why it was so funny to me, maybe because it makes High School seem really glamorous.

The next morning I had ice cream from a bag! It was really good.


Here is shizu being cute. She reminds me so much of my dog, Big Mac.

I had so much fun, and I told Yoshimi that if she comes to America, she can stay with me.

7 comments:

  1. We LOVE HSM3!!! XuMei has it on her iTouch and was watching it to fall asleep last night.
    It seems like you do Karaoke every day? Is this true?
    How funny that it is so rare here and so common there.....
    I want to open a Karaoke bar in Corvallis!!!!
    Let's do it!

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  2. really??? I think they did too many songs, it was so long. And Zac efron is makes me uncomfortable. haha.
    Yeah its really cool, karaoke is cheap and there are places everywhere. we go there for like 5 hours strait and just hang out. A lot of places serve food and drinks, too.
    We should open one! haha. I'm going to miss them when I leave.

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  3. I can't believe how cute the little Shizu is! I miss Big Mac just being away for a few days.

    It was great skyping with you last night! My neck is feeling better than yesterday - I just might get lucky this time.

    Are we going to be shopping at Ujajimiya (sp?) when you get home? Will you cook some of these lovely dishes for us?

    Only four weeks left until you come home! Not that I am counting or anything like that......

    I am happy to see some photos of you on this post - I know it's hard when the camera is yours....

    Love and miss you tons!

    Mom

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  4. Yeah I'm gad we could skype.
    My neck hurts too, because we went to a concert yesterday and I got crowdsurfed over a million times. haha.
    We are totally going to Ujamjimaya when I get back.
    haha I haven't cooked anything while I've been here, so I don't know. I guess I could try? I just helped stir and stuff, and I could try making okinomiaki but It would not be very good. haha. I could just make you guys rice balls.
    love you
    -Sara

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  5. We will be thrilled with anything - and maybe we could learn some stuff together?

    Crowdsurfing huh? Wow - you are a celebrity!

    Love, Mom

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  6. What do you mean like take a class?
    I want to start eating like I do here when I get back, because I'm feeling really healthy. haha. I will still eat the fatty american food, of course, but I want to carry on the breakfast of fruit and yoghurt, maybe we could learn how to make the yoghurt? It's so delicious and easy. And I want to eat more Rice. Do we have a rice maker?
    Actually I didn't crowdsurf, it is too scary. People break bones and sstuff. I just got like kicked in the face by people who were crowdsurfing. haha.
    love Sara

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  7. We do not have a rice maker, but I'm not opposed to getting one. And now that you are driving, you can keep the fruit bowl full also!

    Love you!

    Mom

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