Hiroko-san

Today, I went to Nakameguro to visit Hiroko-san, the lady that stayed at my house about 7 years ago.

First, she and her husband Yuji took me to this gyoza restaurant. She ordered so much! I feel like I ate at least 2 if not 3 days worth of food...But it was all delicious and traditional Japanese food, so I was happy. First, there was fried gobo root. It was really yummy. I think in English, it's called burdock. Before it's chopped into long slices, it looks like this:

We also had a bowl of nori (seaweed) soup, and there were two types of rice: one with chopped up pickles and another with pork. There was also a dish of sliced chicken with onions and an orange mayonnaise-like sauce, a dish of really thinly sliced carrot with tiny fried fish on top (the fish were really so tiny that I didn't know that they were fish until I looked closely and saw that they had eyes, which was kinda creepy and cute at the same time haha--they were crunchy and yummy), and finally an order of 30 gyouza. It was...a lot, even though everything (except the gyouza) came on tiny plates. Plus, afterwards we went to Hiroko-san's apartment and had some English tea with grapes and Japanese pears. Hiroko-san kept saying "Eat this! Eat this! And more of this!" and she served me so much haha...She talks a lot and her husband talks very little, but I had a conversation with both of them.

Hiroko-san's apartment is very small and her living room is filled with lots of little things that she buys on her trips. She loves to travel. She used to be an airline stewardess apparently. She also remembered that I used to draw a lot so I showed her and her husband somethings online, like my manga that I draw and the game that I translated. She and her husband were super impressed haha...After feeling second to Stephanie all this time, I guess it felt pretty good to be praised by someone.

Also, apparently Hiroko-san volunteers in this place where foreigners can go to practice conversation and talk about whatever they want. There's only an 100yen entrance fee and people can talk or read together and snacks are served at the end. I thought it sounded like a great place to practice speaking. Since I don't have class on Tuesdays, Hiroko-san said I could come see how it is next Tuesday around 6pm. She said Stephanie was also welcome haha.

At the end of my visit, Hiroko-san took me to the grocery store that she usually goes to and showed me around, explaining the different foods that we passed by. Since I don't cook, she recommended that I go to the grocery stores like Tokyu and pick up the lunch boxes that they sell there for relatively cheap and no preparation work except perhaps microwaving. She also recommended the bento shops where you can choose your own side dishes and make your own personalized lunch box. I think there's one of those right next to Mita campus. I've decided that I'm not gonna stock up on food anymore, because although I like cooking for other people, I really don't like cooking for myself. Plus, I don't have anything to cook with except for my kettle which can boil things like eggs. I think from now on I'll just live on the grocery store lunch boxes and from time to time restaurants with friends haha.

Anyways, sorry for going on and on about my day today...it's been a while but I have some photos today! Me with Hiroko-san