How to Use a Rice Cooker

My parents got tired of me making rice on the stove because I kept burning the rice and also the rice smell bothered them so my dad pulled out our old rice cooker and gave me a basic lesson on how to use it. I gave it a shot and here is how I did it:

Step One: Get out the rice cooker!

Here is our old rice cooker. We have had it for as long as I can remember and I don't think it has been used in the last five years. That is because due to allergies we didn't eat rice for three years and we only ever have it when we eat out (which is not often) for the past two years. It is a Japanese brand, I believe, due to the fact that the inside has カップ (katakana means cup) written on the inside.

This is what the inside looks like. Ours has cup markings on the side and is Teflon coated so DON'T USE METAL WHEN SCOOPING FROM IT.
Step Two: Prepare rice!

I'm making sushi rice so put in a colander and rinse before putting in the rice cooker with water.

I'm still figuring out the rice to water ratio but from what I have seen it is about 1 cup rice to 1.25 cups water.

Step Three: Plug it in and push the button!

So when you plug ours in the light appears next to "keep warm" so to cook your rice you push the button so it goes to "rice cook"

Step Four: Wait!

When the rice is ready the light will switch back to "keep warm" (sorry for terrible lighting. Don't take pictures in the evening)

The moment of truth...

Step Five: Enjoy!

Your rice is now finished! Scoop it into a bowl using a rice paddle or other non metal scooping implement.

Small Thing Number Twelve: Start Thinking About Your Pets!

If you don't have pets this doesn't apply to you, but if you do then this is something you are going to want to think about.

So I live on a farm so there are a lot of animals around but only three are properly mine. I have a cat, Duff, and two goats, Liliann and Phryne.

This is my cat Duff

And here we have Phryne and Liliann.

With cats you can actually take them to Japan but it's not really worth it unless you are staying for over a year. I will only be staying for a couple months so that means I have to find someone to take care of my cat while I'm gone. My parents like her so they are happy to take care of her while I am away. I'm going to miss her like crazy, though. Having a pet to come cuddle with you (or scratch you) is really nice and pretty comforting to be honest.

Now with my goats it gets a little more difficult. They are dairy animals and in the end more of livestock than pets. With me not home, there won't be anyone to take care of them and after my trip to Japan I will be leaving for college, so it doesn't really make sense to have someone take care of them for the time I'm gone. Basically I have to sell them. I raised them from the time they were born and also raised their mothers for about that long. Being bottle raised they are very sweet and act like dogs so I feel more of a connection to them than I do other livestock animals. However, I do understand I can't take care of them past this summer so I have to find someone else who will love them. I can hope to sell them to someone I know but of course there is absolutely no guarantee of that. Anyway, they are due to have babies any day now so I will milk them until I have to leave and then we can sell them.

Just to be clear me having to sell my goats is more of an effect of moving away once I get home. Also goats are a pretty odd animal to own so probably not something you will have to worry about. But anyway, make sure to think about what you want to do with your pets while you are in Japan!

More Fun with Comics

And I'm back with another page of comics! I split everything up so it's easier to read and I can explain them better, but everything here does all fit on one page.

"What kind of tree is this?"

これは木です。＝ this is a tree
So I was showing a Japanese exchange student around our property and was pointing out a tree and then realized I wasn't sure what it was called so I just said it was a tree and we had a good laugh pointing at all the different kinds of trees and saying they were trees.

"That didn't go as planned"

きょう、わたしはごご１２じいえでうばう。＝ today at 12pm I will rob the house (or something like that)
。。。＝　awkward silence
いいえ！＝　NO!
One of my classmates told us a story of a time that some kids tried to rob her house but when they burst into the basement with a crowbar and found her in a t-shirt and underwear eating a sandwich they ran away I just knew I had to make a comic of it. Here is the story shown with my limited Japanese.

"This is my cat"

それはなんですか？＝　what is that?
これは、わたしのねこです。＝ this is my cat.
せんせい＝ teacher
せいせき？＝ grades?
 これは、わたしのねこです。＝ this is my cat.
いま、なんじですか？＝ what time is it?
これは、わたしのねこです。＝ this is my cat.
がくせい＝ student
かみ＝ paper
「ごみばこ」は英語でなんといいますか？＝　how do you say "gomibako" in English?
これは、わたしのねこです。＝ this is my cat.
When I was talking with the Japanese exchange student, who has amazing English by the way, I was saying that the extent of my Japanese was stuff like 「これは、わたしのねこです。」 which translates to "this is my cat," which won't get me very far. These are examples of it not getting me very far. By the way I can actually answer all these questions. The answer to the first one is correct, the answer to the second one is A's, the third one is ごぜん１じ５９ふんです, and the answer to the last one is 「wastebasket」といいます.

I Have My Passport. Now What?

So about a week ago I came home to find two envelopes in my spot at the table, one with my old passport in it and one with my new passport in it. Normally this should take 4-6 weeks but mine only took about 3 weeks, so that's pretty impressive considering this is a government thing.

I opened up the envelopes and the contents of the envelopes looked like this.

The one on the left is my new passport and the one on the right with the holes punched in it is my old passport.

First things first if you are over 16, SIGN YOUR PASSPORT!!! I'm going to do that right now, actually. Just have to find a pen that works...

Now my passport is signed and something I have noticed before is that my old passport is not signed! I was 13 when I got it so that is under the age where you have to sign it yourself but I guess we just never signed it? That passport was used to drive across the Canadian border multiple times and we never had a problem so I have no idea what the deal is. This is my third passport by the way and my first one was signed by my mom because I was very young when I got it and couldn't really write that well.

Anyway, let's move on to all those papers that came with the passports. Two of the pieces of paper are just "if you applied for this, you will receive this in the mail," one is a pamphlet about general passport care and international travel tips, and the last one is information about TSA Pre and similar programs. General passport care is sign your passport, report immediately if stolen, carry a photocopy of your passport and visa with you at all times, and keep the contact info for your embassy with you. The TSA Pre and other Trusted Traveler Programs paper outlines the various types of programs, which are for travel within the US, between the US and Canada, the US and Mexico, and the US and other countries. All are fairly similar in price and application process so basically just pick whatever works best for you if you want to do something like that. I often get selected for TSA Pre anyway being under 18 and all so I can confirm that it is really nice and if I get it and other people in my family don't I will often take some of their luggage like laptops and liquids and such with me simply because it's easier to check through the TSA Pre line. While I do like TSA Pre and my parents are considering getting it for my sister and I, I do not plan on getting the international version for my trip to Japan because I feel it will be easier to follow the masses then to try to maneuver a path that is perhaps a little more convenient.

Host Family or Guest House?

The program I'm looking into, Ojiya Study Abroad, offers both host families or guest houses for you to stay in. Now the question is which one do you want to stay in.

If you stay with a host family, you will get to experience what real family life is like in Japan and will also learn more Japanese by being around it constantly. Most exchange experiences are amazing and while I don't know any people who have been exchange students in Japan there are tons of videos on youtube. Also, when my mom was a kid her family always hosted multiple exchange students from all over the world, including many from Japan. They learned a lot of English and had a ton of fun with my mom's family and all the other exchange students. I recently talked to a Japanese exchange student at my college and she highly recommended staying with a host family.

The other option is staying in a guest house with other foreign students. With this you will have to cook your own meals and experience what life in a house full of young people is like. You will also probably not learn as much Japanese because you will have English speaking people to talk to where you are living. In a lot of ways I think this would be a gentler way to start living in a foreign country but the downside is you also won't learn as much.

For me personally I believe I will be staying in a guest house for a couple reasons, the main one being I have food allergies. My food allergies are major enough that it would have to change the way my host family cooked and I wouldn't want to burden them with that. I already know how to cook, so making all my own meals won't be a big deal for me. My food options in Japan are going to be pretty different than my hippie town so I have been trying my best to simulate what will be available in Japan and am now looking into online stores that will ship to Japan if I need anything.

Scavenger Hunt For Japanese

So I was looking around my house the other day and realized that there is actually a fair amount of Japanese words scattered around. Granted, I am noticing it more because I'm trying to learn the language, but there is still a lot that is just there. Here is my scavenger hunt:

This is my bedroom. I wonder what Japanese we will find in here.

What's this on the floor?

My textbook, workbook, and binder! The binder has my hiragana and katakana chart on it for easy reference when writing things out.

Is there anything on my desk?

There is! It's a cup with the animals on it and both hiragana and katakana for the names. Now I can learn the names of animals while drinking tea.

Is there anything on this side of the room?

Yes! There are books on the nightstand!

I also have a shirt with hiragana and kanji on it. The shirt is from a Japanese company and has a drawing of Mt. Fuji on it. Do you have any clothes with kanji on them?

Is there any Japanese outside my bedroom?

This was on the computer in the office in the hall. The kanji there is the kanji for tree (木), which makes sense considering it is a site for plants.

And across the hall from that is the bathroom. Is there any Japanese in here?

There most certainly is! I just noticed last night that the brush in the shower has two kanji on it, one of them being the kanji for water (水).

Is there any Japanese in the kitchen?

Yes! These are the rice noodles I got a couple weeks ago (still have to figure out what to make with them) and there is some kanji on there, only a little bit of which I understand. Considering the ingredients are rice and water and right next to that they have some kanji, one of which is the kanji for water, I'm going to assume the other kanji is rice.

There is also this bag of I believe dried kelp in the kitchen. Not entirely sure how to use it in cooking but I can actually read the hiragana on there and recognize one word (desu).

How about the dining room. Is there any Japanese here?

There is! I was looking through this Japanese manga magazine to see if I could recognize any words.

Here's a random page. There is a lot of Japanese there but I don't really understand much of it.

But here the girl says "watashi wa," which I do know.

There was also the English manga book of Fullmetal Alchemist on the table and in the front of the book they have the original title in Japanese and all the character's names written out in katakana.

So there's some of the Japanese I found looking around my house. Look around your house and see how much you can find! You will be surprised at how much you can find.

My Japanese 101 Final

As you may or may not have noticed, I didn't post a lot of stuff in the past week. That's because it was finals week for me so I was studying and also working because others wanted to study (Small Thing Number One, folks). Anyway, one of the things I was studying for was my Japanese final, which was a presentation about my schedule. The sentences written here are about as complicated as my Japanese can get, which is still really simple.Translations are provided for the slides so if you don't know Japanese you can still enjoy them.

まいしゅうのがつようびとすいようびだいがくにいきます。＝Every Monday and Wednesday I go to college.
アルバイトにいきません。＝I do not go to my part time job.
(also, that calendar is my real calendar for March. Some of the activities mentioned in Small Thing Number Eleven are in there)

まいにちごぜん８じにおきます。＝ Every day I wake up at 8am.
これはわたしのねこです。＝　This is my cat.
(I don't actually wake up at 8am every day, just on days I do anything useful. Also, "kore wa watashi no neko desu" is probably my favorite sentence right now XD)

まいにちごぜん８じ２ふんにはをみがきます。＝　Every day at 8:02am I brush my teeth.
(and yes my cat is definitely part of everything that happens while I'm at home. There were more slides initially and in every single one where I was anywhere close to my home my cat was in them)

わたしは、おんがくのききます。＝　I like listening to music.
(we also had to add in things we like and don't like. Also, for all those curious, the lyrics are from the kpop song "Blood, Sweat, and Tears" by BTS)

わたしは、くるまをちゅしゃがすきでわありません。＝　I do not like parking the car.
いいえ！＝No!
(parking stresses me out and I don't like parking near other cars. I'm weird)

せんしゅう、わたしはごご１２じ５０ぷんにだいがくでダンス。＝ Last week, I was dancing at college at 12:50pm.
(yes, I do dance in the hallways at school. That particular time because that's the most common break for me to dance in. Also, that's my friend from art class looking at me like I'm crazy)

きのう、わたしはとしょかんでべんきょうしませんでした。＝ Yesterday, I was not studying in the library.
きのう、わたしはいえでべんきょうしました。＝　Yesterday, I was studying at home.
(and my cat appears again)

And that was my final! My classmates didn't cringe so I think it is decent. Also, I got an A in the class so I'm stoked about that :D.

Small Thing Number Eleven: Make Appointments!

By make appointments, I mean make appointments for things you normally do yearly or monthly or however often. For example, hair cuts, dentist appointments, and, if you are like me, orthodontic appointments.While all these things are also in Japan, you will probably want to use the ones you are used to instead of trying to find one in Japan. Basically try to get as many of these types of appointments as possible out of the way before you leave.

I get my hair cut about once a year. It's super long (like down to the waistband of my pants) and cut very simply, so due to it's simplicity I don't have to get it cut very often. For me, as long as I get my hair cut within a couple months of going to Japan and don't stay in Japan for over a year, my hair will be just fine. Most people, however, get their hair cut a lot more often than I do. In this case, I would recommend getting it cut right before you leave and depending on how long you stay, either let it grow out a bit or try to find a hairdresser.

For dental appointments, if you are due for an appointment anytime 4-6 months from when you leave I would recommend you get your teeth cleaned before that. The reason for the long time past when you leave for your trip is because for one you will want to have cleaner teeth when you are leaving for Japan because why not and you also may decide to stay longer than anticipated so not getting overdue on such things is a plus.

And now for the last of my examples, orthodontic appointments. If you are not seeing an orthodontist then this doesn't apply to you but I have braces so this is something I have to consider. With braces, you have to get them messed with every 5-6 weeks, and if I'm going to go to Japan it's going to be for longer than that. You can skip appointments, but it does mean your braces may get a little wonky and you will have to be in them for that much longer. This fall I didn't get my braces messed with for probably three months because right when I was supposed to have my next appointment I went to go work on a trail crew for five weeks. If you are going to be in Japan for 1-3 months, I would recommend just getting your braces tightened the week before you leave and then have another appointment the week you get back. For longer trips, I would consult your orthodontist for what they recommend.

For me personally, I have a hair appointment for next week, which will cover me for at least the next six months. I'm probably due for a dental appointment in the fall, so if I go to Japan this summer I may bump up that appointment to before I leave. As for braces, I've had my braces for 2.5 years already and am getting fairly close to getting them taken off. In order to speed this up I have been making sure to wear the rubber bands for my braces (I have jaw problems...yay) and making my appointments every five weeks instead of every six weeks in order to save time. I'm still not entirely sure how much longer I need to be in braces but next time I see the orthodontist I will talk to them about when they expect for me to be ready to have my braces taken off and if it is possible for me to get them removed before I leave.

ばかジュノ！

I feel like a complete idiot now because I just realized, on the last day of term, that Japanese doesn't have spaces between the words. I've been reading Japanese for two months and I never put that one together XD.

Anyway, I did some research and apparently this has something to do with why kanji exists (just a speculation don't trust the internet, folks). If the word is just a symbol, then you know what the word is and don't have all the words running together. I know very little kanji at the moment but I did notice this when I watched videos with Japanese subtitles (yeah...I'm weird).

This also shows that the language is a bit older or at least had more time where it was hand written. Like on my presentation "slides" I have all my sentences written out and all the words are squished together simply because I don't have a lot of space and kinda write like that anyway, but that is actually the correct way to do things.

Sothat'sinterestinganddefinitelydifferentfromEnglish.

Small Thing Number Ten: Watch Anime!

I know this probably sounds odd but hear me out.

First of all, let me be more specific: watch subtitled anime. This means you are hearing all the dialogue in the original Japanese. Hearing the original Japanese, even if you don't understand it, will give you a better idea of how to pronounce things in addition to giving you hints about how to say things and can also teach you some words from context. I would personally recommend slice of life anime because with that the characters are in regular situations you may find yourself in so what is said and how it is said is actually helpful (unless you are going to be battling dragons or something in which case watch that kind of anime).

In addition to helping with pronunciation, it will also help you understand the culture a bit. How the characters interact with each other, how they behave in general, and what phrases are commonly used can be seen frequently in slice of life anime and are important things to get a grasp for if you want to understand the culture better. My Japanese teacher had us watch the movie "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time" because it showed a good range of who the main character interacted with and how she behaved and spoke around each of them. My teacher also said that how school life is depicted in that was fairly accurate to how it was for her. It's also just a good move.

Anyway, go watch some subtitled anime! Slice of life anime happens to be my favorite so if you want a couple recommendations I can give you some :D

How to Put Air in Bike Tires, the Azuki Ice Cream Way

And by the "Azuki Ice Cream" way I mean the "idiot college student raised in the digital era" way.

Enjoy my guide/struggles.

Step one: Look up how to put air in bike tires!

Here's the wikihow page. I love wikihow XD

Seeing as that I have never put air in bike tires before (my dad has always done it for me), I had to look up how to do it. Read/skim this page to get an idea of what exactly you need to do. Hint, the basic thing you need to do is take off cap on air valve and shove pump nozzle onto it. 

Step two: Find your bike!

My bike was in the barn so I dragged it out into the covered area of the barn and leaned it against our glorious 30 year old lawn mower.

You can't tell in the picture, but the tires are really flat. If you put any weight on the bike at all they would just flatten out.

Step three: Find a pump!

There are two in this mess.

Step four: Look at valves

Look at the valves and realize they aren't the standard shove nozzle on there type. Run back inside to look up how this kind works (it's on the wikihow page). Try that method. Fail at that method. Find a parent who is a 70's kid not a 2000's kid like yourself. Realize you have to shove the valve end back in and loosen the top before shoving the nozzle on. Remember electric pump is broken. Get the 40 year old hand pump.

Step five: Put air in tires!

Shove nozzle of 40 year old pump onto valve. Hallelujah it fits. Have parent help you pump air into tires and get tires to correct PSI. Thank parent for their knowledge and think about how dumb you are when it comes to real life skills.

Step six: Admire and ride!

And here is my bike, now with a decent amount of air in the tires. I rode it back to the house and my mom tried to take a picture of me riding because it looked cute or something but then I proceed to almost fall off the bike...yeah I need some practice XD

PSA: There is a Facebook Page!

Just a little public service announcement to say that Azuki Ice Cream now has a Facebook page! Still somewhat under construction but you can go have fun and do facebooky things over there if you would like.

Small Thing Number Nine: Walk and Bike More!

In Japan, and pretty much everywhere else besides the United States, people walk and bike a lot more. If you are from the United States like myself and are used to driving everywhere, this is something you are going to want to get used to.

Now, I live in a rural area so it simply isn't safe (people drive crazy) or make sense (6mi/10km from our small town proper and the freeway) for me to walk places I need to go. While I can walk around our property, which is beautiful, I don't really like to do that alone because we do live far enough out that there is some pretty major wildlife that could think I look tasty (also, I'm a wimp 😝). What I have been doing to sort of simulate the walking places is driving to one of the places I need to go and walking to the rest. I haven't done this a lot but I hope to do it more as the weather gets nicer.

The other thing is riding a bike. You may or may not be riding a bike but from what I can tell Japanese people like bikes and are good at riding them so you probably don't want to be falling off your bicycle if given one to ride. My bike has gears, which I still can't figure out, but I do know how to ride a bike. Again, it isn't really safe or effective to ride my bike on the roads up here, but I do have a plan for getting in more riding practice. Once I get some air back into the tires, I can put my bike in the back of my mom's car or the truck and take it down to my friend's house, who lives in the middle of suburban land. There it will be close to places I need to go and I could also go bike riding with my friend. Still have to run this by some people, but I do have a plan.

Small Thing Number Eight: Get LINE!

I have been emailing with the coordinator of a study abroad program and when he discovered I go to the same school as some Japanese girls from the program he asked if I had LINE and if so what was my LINE ID so he could give it to the girls. May have heard of LINE before, but I didn't actually know what it was. As it turns out, according to Rachel from the YouTube channel Rachel and Jun, LINE is the app in Japan and it's important to the friend making process. From what I can tell it is like Skype, social media, photo editor, and small games all rolled into one. Apparently it is quite common when you meet someone to ask for their LINE ID. There is also this magical function where you hit this button on the app and shake your phones near each other and the information is exchanged. Definitely more convenient than typing at times. This function will probably be especially important for me because my LINE ID isn't in Japanese and since it is my name, it uses two letters that don't even exist in the Japanese alphabets. Maybe that is a problem maybe it isn't. Guess I'll find out.

For now I just have a picture of myself for my profile picture and a picture of my cat as the background. There are a lot of really cute emoji type things in the app and I hope to start using it more soon. Don't fully know how it works but I will be learning!

More Comics!

So a great way to learn a language is to write it a lot. Another good way is to make up your own things to say. You know what combines these two? Comics!

Basically I have been using my limited Japanese to make silly comics. I don't know much so I stretch what I do know and rely a lot on facial expressions at times. There will be translations provided so you can either practice your Japanese or enjoy these without knowing any Japanese

"Counting"

So one day at work it was early and I had nothing to do so I started cleaning tables and counting in Japanese. By the way, you should never write numbers in hiragana. It's really inefficient.

All that hiragana=numbers 1-21

"Haanbaagaa"

Can we take a moment to appreciate how fun it is to say haanbaagaa? HAANBAAGAA!!!

ハーンバーガー　を　りょうり　します＝cooking hamburger
ハーンバーガー　を　たべます＝eating hamburger
ハーンバーガー＝HAMBURGER
火＝fire

"Hai, sou desu"

To make eating pickles right out of the jar even weirder...(in my defense, chopsticks are the perfect tool for getting things out of jars).
はい、　そう　です＝yes, that is correct

"Crazy Weather"

We were taught how to say stuff about the weather. Of course I had to say the weirdest thing possible. ごめんなさい、シェルさん
カンサス　の　てんき　は　どう　ですか？＝What is the weather like in Kansas?
あつい　です＝it's hot
ゆき　です＝it's snowy