Ho hum. (あーあー。)

I promise, guys. I'm not just keeping you out of the loop. Sometimes, it just seems that there's absolutely nothing interesting happening that I haven't written about before.

Going to Kyoto for the weekend? Been there, done that.

Cheap, quick doctor's appointment? I think I have at least three posts on the subject.

Shopping for lunch and purchasing amazing 250 bento? Yup.

(Which, by the way, I think is a Wednesday only thing. I have tested this hypothesis once and been proven correct--here's to further tasty, tasty experimentation.)

I could write about the difficulties of an American trying to experience authentic holiday cheer in a foreign country, specifically one who seems to think that Christmas is a time for couples and dating, but I feel that that might be too deep a topic to touch upon casually. I should think about it a bit before just blathering on as I usually do.

So, I am left with nothing but...

Pictures of Korean food I ate on Sunday night with Melon.

First, let me tell you: it is very difficult to find regular Korean food in Japan. Yakiniku? Easy peasy. More yakiniku joints, especially in a part of the country where the beef is famous, than you can shake a stick at. However, if you want more on your menu than grilled meat and the occasional kimchi delight, you're going to have to look a bit harder.

To that end, it is not impossible. Oh, no siree bob.

Why, we found ours in the top of the brand-spanking-new Kyoto branch of Yodobashi Camera.

  

How gorgeous is that place? I mean, really.

And yes, it is that huge. You could live in there. No wonder it took so long to construct. (They were working on it during my year at Doshisha, for some reference.)

I honestly think that it's employing half the population of central Kyoto by itself. 

But anyway. 

We were patrons of a restaurant called Chanchi, which we selected due to its very reasonable and Korean-tastic dinner sets.

Here's mine.

Look at that. Just look at that. If that doesn't spell delicious, I don't know what does.

Unfortunately, however, I don't know what most of it is called. Ah ha.

We have sundoufu (romanization probably off), which is the tasty, mainly tofu, super-spicy soup pictured here:

I went for the seafood version. You can't really tell though, since the little shrimpy-dudes are submerged. A shame, really, because they were pretty impressive with their shells on and everything.

You can't tell, but the stuff was still boiling when it came out.

We've also got some rice mixed with... some sort of grain, kimchi, pickles, delicious Korean nori, and some sort of beef-onion-mushroom stirfry which was on its on quite tasty, but made even more so because I watched a rather attractive man in a v-neck shirt make it.

Oh ho ho.

Here's another shot, which I mainly took because the first looked a bit blurry:

Honestly, I don't know that there's much difference. Oh well.

I hope you enjoyed my... well, not very descriptive foray into the wider culinary world. Tune in next time when I try the wide Japanese selection of Thai curries!

... but not really.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to refill my kerosene. I suppose it speaks to my thin blood that one tank didn't even last a week.... Oh dear.

This is Edo, signing off wondering how you go about taking your kerosene tank to the gas station without stinking up your car too horribly.