SAN-SUSHI.

Now my friend PhillipRoberts, Pip, has a rather fetching blog called Mega Sandwich where he reviews sandwich hotspots around the country. He kindly asked me to write something for it and so ever since I have been trying to find sandwiches in Japan.

The Japanese love sandwiches. At the welcome parties they have been holding for us, they always have sandwiches and it is always the first clean plate, but there are no sandwich shops. Japanese food culture here is fantastic, even without the sandwich shops. Generally, well in Nagoya at least, there is always somewhere to buy yummy fresh food. They don't really like whole meals, but instead a few smaller dishes to make up a meal. A small plate of food at our canteen (in fact its more like a snazzy sushi restaurant with long tables, big glass windows and delicious food) will cost about 100¥, around 75p. These are usually a small teriyaki type meat or fish in these amazing breadcrumb batter - although its not because bread is harder to find. There is a kind of sushi roll thing we had at the MCD (Lucy`s course) Welcome party that Shelly and I crashed. They were amazing.

Anyway, I am on the look out for a sandwich worthy of review but until then feast your eyes on snaps of whats on offer instead. Jealous much?

Megasandwichmegasandwich.blogspot.com

NAGOYA CITY AND SCAPE.

I am staying in Nagoya which is sort of like the Birmingham of Japan - although with more culture... so maybe if Manchester was in the middle of England, thats where I would be. My university and where I am living is on the outskirts towards the suburbs and so theres a nice mix of residential housing, city living and farm land which they farm in strips (like England in the 18th century...?...oh dear, GCSE History is lost on me). I think they also do lots of growing their own here too. An allotment -ist`s dream!

My university seems to have been built in the 60s, or there abouts, and the campus is heaven! Lots of medium sized buildings with open spaces and walkways between. Oh and everywhere is super clean. The Japanese seem to be very hygienic people which extends to their surroundings. Speaking of surroundings, there are loads of fishes hung from houses and trees at the moment. I think it is something to do with Children`s day which is next Tuesday, as part of Golden week - a week of national holidays. I don't really understand much about it, but apparently thats why they are there. Nice to look at anyway.

BEDDING DOWN.

I thought I would show you my flat and surroundings. I have a small but perfectly formed apartment near the train station and only 5 minuets bike ride from my university building (yep, they gave us bikes because we are now adoptive japanese and this is the only way to travel). My room looks a lot smaller in that photo than actually is and everything seems a bit harsher. I think its the light. That is Lucy, who lives next door, trying out the wireless on the loo! And of course, no shoes allowed! The top left is the view from our balcony - the station and a few bars and restaurants. Havnt quite mastered our food vocab so we`ve just been randomly pointing at things and seeing what we got. Makes for a very interesting meal!

JAPAN!

I have made it all the way to Japan! I am now well acquainted with airports of all sizes:

Heathrow, always a bit of a let down

Helsinki was nice, lots of windows and the coolest Reindeer rugs (mental note to save a bit of money for one of them)

and Nagoya, the best one purely for the fact it was in JAPAN! whoooo!

Pictures to follow.

SHINEY THINGS.

For my Birthday I was very spoilt this year. I got many many lovely things; a Celia Birtwell scarf, rings, clothes and a few other things including a LOVELY Vivian Westwood purse from my boyf.

Yum yum yum.

DUFFDAY.

As it was put so delicately to me earlier today, 'You're only 1/4 of the way through your life'.

I die.