The Welcomening

Let's starting!

I guess I will start out with my mission statement:

To share my experiences with food and Japan with the people I love and complete strangers.

For example:



This is one of my favorite things I've ever made - a result of improvisation in the kitchen. It's Chilied Kabocha Mashed Potatoes and Sauteed Asparagus. Kabocha and Asparagus are by far my two favorite veggies. I liked this so much because there was a nice blend of Spicy, Sweet, Salty and Green flavors. Also, it was one of my first vegan creations - so it's got a special place in my heart.

See, that was painless and a nice quick foodening.

Also, I might share little gems about living in the Japans:

Yesterday, I went to apply for the application to take the test for my drivers license (you read that right). Unfortunately, my application for the application was rejected. Why? Bad timing and two massive bureaucracies working in unison to hassle me.

Before I left for Japan, I had to renew my driver's license because it was going to expire on my birthday last year. Usually, you can't renew you license until shortly before it is due to expire - they made an exception for me because I was going to leave the country before the renewal window would open for me. How nice of the DMV. Little did I know, there was a huge international conspiracy going to aimed at screwing me over.

Fast forward to yesterday, when my friend Eiko and I went to the DMV in Obihiro to apply for the application to take the test to get my Japanese Driver's License (since I'm an American, my international permit only is valid for the first year of my visa, thus I have to get a Japanese license in order to drive). However, in to apply for the application, the issue date on your license must be more than 3 months prior to your arrival in Japan. Thus my application (squared) was rejected and I now have to jump through some serious (and seriously time consuming) hoops to apply for my application.

It seems like there is a lot of back-scratching going on between the two institutions. The DMV is hell, internationally.

There you go. I hope you enjoyed the knowening.