雪大好き！(I Love Snow!)

Oh yay! ^^ The Japanese blizzard is the normal snowfall for an Alaskan. I hear tell that Kushiro doesn't usually get snow until after New Year's, but here we are with 6-8 inches in three days. Today has warmed up considerably, though, and I'm pretty sure there will be ice tomorrow. I don't think it's likely that the snow will completely disappear, though.

Yesterday I joined Sato and a couple of the other Okinawans for dinner. :D While Sato and Rei were cooking (it was at their house), Dai and I played Momotarou Densetsu X. It's an awesome game. The graphics are nothing special, but they don't need to be; for what the game is, it's just fine. We didn't bother with the story stuff, and Dai explained the things I couldn't read to me.

Basically, you start out rich and try to get richer. You're riding around on a train (though you can switch to airplane or ship at appropriate spots. You ride around Japan investing money, losing money, getting money, getting cards with varying effects, and trying not to go broke while trying to reach a goalpoint. The goalpoints are randomly decided at the beginning and after one has been reached. If you reach a goalpoint, you get insane amounts of money. The game lasts a set number of years (with each round being one month) determined at the start of the game.

The game got cut short by dinner.

Taste-O-Meter!

Nikuimo: 5
Beef-flavored potato slices with noodles and carrots. :D Oh yeah.

Sanma in some really tasty sauce: 5
I pretty much summed it up in red.

After that, we got into a four-player game of Momotarou Densetsu X. :D That one got finished, but Sato dropped out early on to join her neighbors in making a snow cave (called kamakura in Japan). I got third place out of four in spite of reaching the first goalpoint, and then we went outside to help with the kamakura.

They didn't have it big enough to start, so we ended up starting to carve out the inside while using the carved out snow, some fresh snow, and several buckets of water to pretty much double the size of the kamakura. It was a lot of fun. :D They were utterly shocked when I threw off my cloak in annoyance to work in a T-shirt, but unless a nasty gust of wind came along (which did happen a couple of times) the constant movement kept me fine.

I helped with that until 2:30 AM, at which point I was like, "I should go home... I have class in the morning." So I did. But just before I left I was invited to their Christmas party, for which I will likely make some grilled cheese sandwiches. Somehow, with all the weird things they have come up with for food, that's something that really intrigues Japanese people.

Other Than That

I have also been doing a little bit of experimentation with food. Manju is awesome stuff. Manju is a hot, juicy dumpling whose innards are filled with something tasty. The ones I have seen thus far have anko, pizza (pepperoni and tomato sauce), or spiced beef and onion in the middle. ^^ Manju has just come up, but it's already going on the list for no more Taste-O-Meter! entries because manju is good if you like what is inside of it.

Realizations of the Period

1) If I spend more time at school, my heater spends less time on and my gas bill goes down.
2) If I spend more time at school so that my heater spends less time on and my gas bill goes down, my apartment doesn't generally stay as warm and getting up in the morning can suck.