Strange things in a strange land. (変な国に、変なもの。)

... except not really.

But sometimes we sacrifice accuracy for clever titles.

Which, really, is better than the other way around, don't you think?

Anyway, once again, I find myself somewhat strapped for expositional topics, and thus will fill this post with silly little pictures taken of small bits of my day-to-day life.

....and once again I fall into the timeless trap wherein the villain foolishly lays out his entire nefarious scheme for the hero before he can, in fact, complete it.

Drat.

Oh, well; at least in this setting, there's nothing that you, the hero, can do about it.

Allow me an evil chuckle. Moo ha ha.

Anyway, first things first. I promised you a picture of my BUCK-TICK goods, didn't I?

A handkerchief (which actually has more of a towel texture, making it a bit more useful in the long run, though you won't see me wiping my grubby hands on it) and two very nice wristbands that came as a packaged set. Note the lack of tote bag. Curse high demand and short supply!

I personally like the two-for-one wristband deal. Admittedly, two-for-1500 is a bit steep, but hey. Concert goods. What are you going to do.

I also like how they worked the skull in. Nice maintaining of the theme, guys.

Next... I never showed you that super-awesome earring tree I purchased during my excursion to Osaka, did I?

3 Coins is an amazing place.

That's right, I got this baby for 315 yen. It's nice, quality metal too. None of that aluminum nonsense.

...she says three days before it breaks. Oh, cynicism!

Goes with the decor though, eh? I especially like that it's literally a tree. Almost didn't buy it, but it was very cunningly placed in the shop (aka I had to stare at it while waiting in line to purchase my warm socks) and thus...

Oh you clever, clever marketing people.

Speaking of shopping...

I don't like yogurt. I think it tastes like poo, to be blunt. Thus, I take acidophilus supplements to keep my insides happy, healthy, and other good things starting with the letter h. (I think I abuse that joke...) However, I have not been doing this since coming to Japan, as I have not been able to find your average, run of the mill, acidophilus pills.

And so, sick of my stomach being unhappy, today I went out and found this.

It has a number of probiotics within, including my desired acidophilus, along with some vitamin B compounds I may or may not need, but hey, what can it hurt.

We'll see if it works. Frankly, I don't think there's much that can replace my chewable, blueberry flavored supplements from Hi-Health, but... well. Beggars can't be choosers.

Or, well. Expats can't be choosers, anyway.

Also note the bright pink pair of nail clippers. I did not want a bright pink pair of nail clippers, mind you, but after much searching, they were in fact the cheapest to be found, and at the end of the day, my frugal nature always wins out.

And as a bonus, they have a nail file hidden inside, so they're not so bad.

And finally...

Once again I treat you to my rendition of omuraisu, because, really. There is nothing more delicious looking than a freshly cooked egg.

I mean, come on.

This is Edo, signing off wondering if you can get a placebo effect from supplements... especially supplements in such official looking bottles.

The weekend that ended too quickly. (終わりが早すぎの週末。)

And to further emphasize my point, I will right a very short post to tell you about it.

Saturday

Come home from work, make pasta -- Check.

Go to Yokkaichi with a co-worker for a night on the town -- Check.

Stay awake until around four in the morning -- Check.

Sunday

Wake up around noon -- Check

Drink coffee and attempt to eat breakfast -- Check

Fail to eat breakfast -- Check

Get all rocked out for the live -- Check

Drive to the station -- Check

Find the cheap parking lot with only a small amount of confusion -- Check

Arrive at the station way too early due to my inherent paranoia and wind up waiting for something like forty-five minutes for my train -- Check

Spend a good two and a half hours getting to Nara -- Check

Arrive and spend a while trying to find the concert hall with Melon -- Check

Find the concert hall -- Check

Rejoice because the goods line is nonexistent -- Check

Realize that there are no tote bags left; despair -- Check

Wait -- Check

 Wait -- Check

Wait some more; oh yes, they're late -- Check

Finally get into the hall and find our seats -- Check

Find out that the map in the lobby lied to us and that we are actually in someone else's seats -- Check

Get moved forward one row -- Check

Wait -- Check

Wait -- Check

What, half-an-hour late now? -- Check

REJOICE when the house lights finally go down -- Check

Have a BLAST for the next two hours or so -- Check

Leave in a daze -- Check

Manage to get some マクド, despite the delay having made me worry about catching my train -- Check

Scarf the マクド -- Check

Say good-bye and get on the train -- Check

Proceed to worry all the way home about making my connections, as every train is delayed -- Check

Finally make it home without issue -- Check

Spend entirely too long chatting with Melon and wind up going to bed too late -- Check

Monday

Spend an entirely uneventful Monday that just doesn't compare, other than the fact that I joined Fish Tank, the BUCK-TICK fan club (hopefully) -- Check

PHEW.

There we go.

Unfortunately, no pictures of the live, since they sort of frown upon that...

I have this though:

 

Sure, it's a picture of my flyer, but it's all I got.

Maybe I'll take a picture of my goods for you next time.

Oh, and that bitch of a last train home?

Yea, you'd be stressed out too, I feel.

This is Edo, signing off already eagerly anticipating the November live in Kyoto, and hoping her fan club membership comes through in time to get tickets for the next tour.

Just doing my part. (自分の役目を果たしてるわ。)

Because I am as much a devoted and loving BUCK-TICK fan as the next guy...

(Provided that next guy is actually a lady named Melon.)

I thought that I would get my own foot in on this little advertising campaign thingy-jobby.

Because, you see, today, October 13th, 2010,  is the release date of BUCK-TICK's new, fabulously named album, RAZZLE DAZZLE.

And really. How do you expect any other topic to compete with that for my attention today?

Especially since I'm off to one of the first lives for the album this coming Sunday in boonies-tastic Nara (though admittedly, not as boonies-tastic as Mie, since they're actually playing a gig there. Ah ha.)

Moo ha ha.

Here. We. Go.

...

... I say that like I'm going to be doing something more exciting than posting up music videos.

You can't say that I never excite you, though.



First, appropriately enough, we have the first single released for this album, waaay back in March:  独壇場Beauty (Dokudanjou Beauty, Unchallenged Beauty) .

... but I've written about it before, so please, don't let me bore you in the here and now with repetition and triviality.

Do enjoy the song and video again, though.

Because really. Those never get old.



Next, we have くちづけ (Kuchiduke, Kiss), which was released in September.

And not only is the song dreadfully catchy and wonderful, but I find the video to be terribly artistic and mesmerizing.
 

You can tell how emotional I am when I start using seemingly mismatched yet utterly appropriate words for emphasis instead of the traditional vulgarities.

...Unless you haven't read enough hoitery-toitey literature and are still trying to figure out what in the world I'm actually trying to say in the above statement.

Ahem.

Anyway.

... I've already written about this song to some extent too, haven't I.

I'm just making an absolute mess of my advertising campaign.

Perhaps I should have done it a bit earlier in the day, before my higher brain functions were compromised.

But let it be known that I tried, and that I enjoyed doing so!

...because Sakurai Atsushi is a gorgeous man.

Brain functions. Compromised.  

This is Edo, signing off with a song in her head and a live in her future.

How about cooking, then? (料理はどうや？)

Well, I originally intended to make today's post another weather-centric, super-interesting climactic-spectacular...

But then something else came up.

As of this weekend, I just realized, I have been in Japan for a month.

My, how the time does fly!

...no, that's not the "something else," but it deserved mention nonetheless.

The "something else" is, as you may have guessed, another adventure in Japanese cuisine!

... and of course, by Japanese cuisine, I mean cuisine Edo makes while living, breathing and shopping in Japan, not cuisine that has any particular Japanese slant or flavor.

Sometimes it does.

Just not tonight.

BUT FIRST.

There really was some interesting weather, all right?

As mentioned last time, today (Wednesday) was cool and overcast. So cool and overcast, in fact, that I made a point of opening every single window within my reach (yes, even my porch windows--I found the screens!) so as to save energy and get all that outdoorsy goodness working for me.

And then, wonder of wonders, it began to rain!

How cool is that.

...ok, for a desert girl like myself, it's pretty cool.

It doesn't rain in September, unless there's some late monsoon storm that got lost on its way to the Pacific.

So, now the windows were open not only for the cool, but for the glorious, glorious scent of rain.

...my laundry has probably suffered for this. I'm not sure, but I suppose I will find out one way or the other.

Anyway. Moving on.

I have had a nice chunk of beef (what sort of beef? absolutely no idea, that's what sort of beef) sitting in my freezer for a while now; I had intended to make it this past weekend, as some of you may know, but was foiled once again (the last time was with chicken for omuraisu) by my inability to remember to take things out to thaw the night before I want to actually cook them.

Last night, ah ha! I remembered.

And thus, today was beef day.

I also had a bag of small potatoes (new potatoes? yukon potatoes? who knows) sitting around getting old, so I thought to make it an all-american experience and whip up some mashed potatoes to go with my beef.

I wanted to make caramelized shallot mashed potatoes, but unfortunately, was stuck with garlic, as the supermarket I popped into today had nothing even resembling shallots, and as we all know, onions aren't the same.

...they aren't. I'm serious here.

There was asparagus though, albeit less-than-fresh-looking asparagus, so I got some of that to round off my meal.

So, later on, I set my potatoes (peeled, of course) to boil with a few cloves of garlic along with. I halved my asparagus, foolishly discounted the whole "tough ends" theory and did not peel them, popped them into a bowl with some butter, lemon, salt and pepper, covered them up and microwaved them for a bit. Sliced my beef, and pan-seared it in butter with salt and pepper.

What I'm not telling you is that my timing was such that the asparagus was done a good few minutes before everything else, so I am guilty of snacking on it during the rest of the cooking. Oops.

I also popped a few leftover rolls in the toaster, just to make things really American.

After my beef was done, my potatoes were just about ready to mash. I then had a brain wave, and took a ladel of the boiling potato water, dumped it into the beef pan, pulled up all the beefy-buttery goodness, and dumped it back in with the potatoes. Beefy-garlic potatoes! What an idea!

... might have been better if I had actually cooked the potatoes in this beefy mixture for more than a few moments at the end, because I honestly could not taste the difference.

Did clean the pan up pretty well, though.

Finding no potato masher in the kitchen, I improvised using that same ladel, mashing up my taters with some whole milk, butter, salt and pepper. Scooped some out onto a plate with my asparagus and beef, and voila, a dinner fit for a king:

I'm telling you, even though it was a bit over-cooked for my tastes (easily remedied next time), lemon butter asparagus is truly one of the finer inventions of man.

I will be less dubious next time and peel the bottoms, though. I wound up gnawing a few bits, omnivorous teeth sans canines not really working for me. (Curse you, pediatric dentist!)

I now have something like two meals of potatoes left over, and at least one meal of beef (which tasted somewhat like steak, if a bit tougher.) Talk about the meal that just keeps giving!

The bag of potatoes was... oh, maybe 128 yen, the beef was 304 yen, and the two bunches of asparagus were probably 200 yen together.

Not bad, eh?

I really do need to find a better way to make garlic mashed potatoes, though. Perhaps mashing the garlic up with the potatoes instead of taking it out beforehand? Hm.

Admittedly, I also should have been using cream, but my hips are wide enough as it is, thank you much.

Also, I honestly think that I haven't eaten beef since leaving America-land. It just isn't the meat of choice over here. And, of course, my stomach has already adjusted to that sort of beef-free diet. Moments after swallowing my tasty, tasty protein, I could feel the danger ahead and immediately went for the tums.

Sometimes I really just think that my stomach makes things up to suit itself.

In other exciting news!

Melon is coming to visit this weekend, arriving Saturday night and going back to Kyoto (lucky girl) on Tuesday morning.

At first, I worried that my humble inaka town would bore her.

And then, after the tiniest bit of searching, I found this (I've hyperlinked the date to the venue's website):

9月 19日 - 日曜日2010年

lynch.　オープニングサポート；DEATHGAZE

lynch. オープニングサポート； DEATHGAZE  16：30open／17:00start ◆前売り￥3,500  drink=￥500 ※入場は整理番号順となります。 ※未就学児童入場不可。 8月14日（土）より一般発売開始！ チケットぴあ:0570-02-9999(P:114-109) イープラス：http://eplus.jp ローソンチケット：0570-084-004（L:45682）

Hello, hard rock concert (or, hard rock live, as we say around here) right in my back yard!

What are the odds.

And, after a bit of checking, I have discovered that I like both of these bands.

And even though today is one month after the on-sale date...

I managed to snag us some tickets.

Which apparently were either the last ones, or at least some of the last ones.

Good timing? Yes, I think so.

A fun weekend? Oh, indeed. You can't go wrong with a hard rock concert, I always say.

So really. Productive day off?

I think so.

This is Edo, signing off full of beef, potatoes, and hope for the future.

...goodness, that got silly all of a sudden, didn't it?