Tuesday, May 18, 2010

On Enjoying

Medicine Cabinet
I knew coming to Japan was going to be a big challenge, but I wasn't going to let my problems get in the way. But sure enough, it hasn't been easy. I had vertigo for days after the plane ride, and during the worst of it, my I.Cystitis flared up, too. For the last few days, I've finally been feeling great, and then yesterday I started noticing I felt like my allergies were getting to me. I think it's the pollen.

So when we all went downtown, we found a pharmacy. I successfully managed to procure an antihistamine (kohistamin in Japanese) thanks to the helpful staff. It's called COOL UP and comes in chewable minty tablets sort of like Alavert. It's helped, but I still have a painful post-nasal drip and the medication makes me drowsy. I also learned today that umeboshi (pickled plum) which we bought and put into onigiri (rice balls) causes my IC to flare up. Ouch. I can now take "Prelief" before eating umeboshi, since I know better now, but it's too late to fix my earlier mistake.

I do wish I could just be healthy and enjoy every moment of being here, but sometimes I end up stuck inside for a long time, and there's just no way around it. I think tonight, we'll enjoy cooking some Japanese food and study Nihongo. Going for a long trip isn't an option tonight.

We have certainly had fun shopping. We found some very cute things at a department store yesterday, but it's a surprise because some of them are gifts :) we also were able to get more ingredients so we can cook. We were happy when our professor, Mits, showed us where the tonyu, or soymilk was in the store. They had many flavors, so we stocked up. (Lawson's only has regular and banana, I think.) Tonight, we're making a miso soup with silken tofu and shimeiji mushrooms.

Kibun Tonyu

3 comments:

  1. Wow, what are shimeiji mushrooms? Do they have many more varieties available in stores there? I'm so curious about all the foods you are posting about and showing in photos. Those soymilk varieties sound so yummy!

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  2. http://www.crestock.com/images/40000-49999/42919-xs.jpg
    They look like that, and you can break them into chunks and put them in miso soup... very tasty. They're sort of nutty and retain a light crunchiness if you don't cook them for too long.

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  3. That soymilk is great. I like the Macha and 紅葉 (Koyo) flavors the best. Lot's of gaijin miss American brand soymilk, but I disagree. If you get to a big department store food floor (depachika デパ地下) they might have a tofu vendor. Make sure to get some of the soy milk from one of those guys. It's amazing.

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