Super!

I haven't posted any actual gaijin moments in awhile. Since it's the blog title, I should probably share more stories of the retarded things that have happened to me, right?

Lately, most of them have been related to grocery shopping. In Japan, convenience stores(コンビニ read: konbini) are very common, such as 711, Lawson, or CoCo Store. However, these places, while they really are convenient and sell all kinds of things, are generally more expensive than a grocery store. Supermarkets, called スーパー（suupaa, from English "super") are way cheaper, so lately I've been shopping there and trying to prepare my own food so I don't have to eat out every day. We don't have meal plans, but there is campus dining (and it's actually very good and fairly cheap). Sometimes, though, the shokudou is either too crowded or I don't have time/just want to make something quick at home.

There are various places to shop at Tsukuba Center, but because I don't really feel like bringing bags of groceries onto the bus, I've been going to a store called Kasumi. It's open 24 hours, so that's pretty nice. At night, things like sushi or tempura that don't keep have to go, so they mark down the prices by a ton. It's nice if you're hungry late at night and want a super cheap snack, but it's not exactly close to campus...

Anyway, since I can't really cook, I don't have much. Just a small frypan, one plate, a really small bowl, and wooden chopsticks. Can't do too much with that, so I've been frying eggs, mostly.

This brings us to my first moment of extreme retardedry. I assume most people know that in order to cook eggs on a range, you need to somehow grease your pan or the eggs will stick to it like hell. So, I thought, why don't I just pick up some oil for cheap? My first trip ended in utter failure, as I had just grabbed what looked like oil, but turned out to be some kind of vinegar-based salad dressing. It didn't work for what I had intended, but it's actually pretty good to put on eggs.

Later, I decided to try again, this time at the Coco Store in my dorm's community center. I was a bit more careful this time, actually looking at the bottles, but I still managed to screw up, and instead of oil I actually bought cooking sake. I guess I confused the character for 油 with 酒 somehow. I still splash it on random things (including eggs, LOL) so it wasn't an entire waste of money.

Finally, I found a jug of canola oil which I settled on because for some reason I still have no idea where to find butter in Kasumi. Yesterday, I bought what I thought was bacon to cook with the eggs, but despite the fact that it had a pig on it colored with the American flag AND the fact that it looked exactly like bacon, it was just some thinly sliced pork. It turned out pretty good anyway, and I used the grease to cook more eggs, but I'm kinda sad that it wasn't bacon. I want bacon...

Eventually, I'll probably pick up a saucepan or something to cook curry in. I also really, really want a rice cooker and obviously some more utensils and things. Every rice cooker I've seen is ungodly expensive, so if anyone finds a cheap one, let me know. I could save a lot of money on food...