Happy New Year

As kind of a "New Year" "gift", I will share with you the origins of the title of this blog, "The White Girl Likes Rice". 

One of the first times I went to Ippudo (一風堂), which is a ramen restaurant to which my friend is the tencho (店長), I had ordered a cup of white rice (shirogohan 白ご飯 on the menue), the people behind the counter gave me a "Qua?" look, and a "Are you sure you want white rice? Don't you want fried rice?"  interrogation. After reassuring them numerous times that I was, indeed, looking to eat some regular white rice, they gave me a bowl of it. I proceeded to eat said white rice, sometimes putting the noodles or the bean sprouts on top of them to cool them before eating. Every one in a while I would look up and see someone behind the counter (usually someone who would later become a dear friend of mine) looking down at me with a weird look on their face, as to be saying, "So... the white girl likes rice", like it was insanity. After that, every time I asked for white rice, I would remember that look. And it stuck.

So, the white girl likes rice.

Merry (late) Christmas and Happy New Year. May peace be with you. Look for more updates as this new year rolls in (it is one of my New Years resolutions... heh) ^_^

Christmas

Merry Christmas! Expect an update update Friday!

Thanksgiving Weekend

For those who don't know, turkey is non-existent in Japan. If I remember correctly, the group of us gaijin who did make a Thanksgiving dinner had to buy chicken. We had school on Thursday, then prolly fucked around for the evening, or went out, as was common for the few of us who would actually go out, instead of going out just to drink, or staying in and drinking. The reason for me writing this? There is no Thanksgiving in Japan.

There is Thanksgiving in America. You wouldn't think that would surprise or *gasp* throw off anyone, but after a year living somewhere else, it can. I lost track of holidays in Japan. Veterans Day, Memorial Day, Columbus Day, etc... I forgot about them/the day they were on/the month they were on. I knew Thanksgiving was in November, but with how fast these months since being home have gone by, I was shocked to realize that, not only is Thursday Thanksgiving Day, but next week starts December. As of December 1st, I have class till the 10th, then 1 more year stuck here before I can make my way home. But that is another story for another time...

Thanksgiving then. It isn't that I don't like to see my family, I just don't care for the attention/bullshit/bitching. Being a new arrival from Japan to some of my family, questions are usually the first thing I get. That is ok, since I love talking about Japan, but it is when I know they are asking because they have to, that I cannot stand. I love the food, though. My Grandmama is a wonderful cook. Like amazing. Thanksgiving is turkey and gravy and turkey sandwiches and a nap. Christmas and Easter are polisausage and ham days. I love it.

It's just odd to be spending this Thanksgiving with blood family, not with one friend walking around an old castle. *sigh*

A look at snow, from both sides of the pond...

Being back in Buffalo means one very important thing: the dealing with absolutely shit ass winters. Buffalo is infamous for having long, cold and snow filled winters. Speaking to some of the foreign students that go to my school this year, almost all of them have been asked at at least once at some point while they were still living in their country, "Out of all the places in America, why Buffalo?!"

Amen.

The thing that sets Buffalonian winters out from most other winters is the lake effect. In brief description, Lake effect is heavy snow caused by a batch of cold air moving across a warm, and not frozen, lake (Lake Erie in this case). Warm water moves into the cold air , and as soon as it hits the colder shore, it dumps the snow, making for tough driving conditions, more snow than you would want to shovel ever, and a nice day to say "fuck it" and go back to sleep.

I.Hate.Buffalo.Winters.

Living here for 20 out of 21 years of my life gives me good reason to. Every year from October till March its the same damn thing. Unfortunately, also, any sort of snow fall makes the drivers on I-90 and I-290 and I-990 incredibly stupid. I hate driving in it.

I guess I was pretty spoiled this past year. Living in Kanazawa gave me something I hadn't seen in a long time: 4 seasons. Now, in Buffalo, there is a joke that we have all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter, construction. And in most years that is true. Fall lasts all of 1 month at most, winter for 6 months, spring/winter for 3 (if we are lucky), and summer for 2. In Kanazawa this past year, the summers were nice, the fall beautiful and long, the winter short, and the spring full of cherry blossoms.

In the time I was in Kanazawa, it snowed twice. One time in January, another shortly before I went on a major tour of Japan in March. The nice thing about it is, people there don't tend to suck at driving during the winter, and the snow that year lasted for 3 days at most. Then it melted and we all felt better about life.

I miss Kanazawa winters.

はじめまして

Woah... is this thing on? Sweet. Well, lets get started, shall we? Hiya! I am Demeter, artist and college student. So why blog? Well... I returned in August from a year abroad in Japan. Kanazawa actually. I consider it my home, and the people who live there my family. I have since returned to my home in Buffalo, but cannot wait to go back. I will graduate in Jan 2009. I had another blog, which some may be familiar with on Wordpress, but I decided to retire that one, since that was mainly for my time abroad during Study Abroad. PURPOSE: Well, I suppose the purpose of this thing is to be able to convey my thoughts and feelings and stories from both sides of the water. Right now it is from the East Coast of the United States, but in a year or so it should be from the West Coast of Japan. I am here to try to amuse you, make you think, and make you wonder. This is also to try to share my experiences as a foreigner in Japan, but not in large city like Tokyo or Osaka, where it isn't strange to see foreign tourists. I would like to update every few days or so, but if you see me slipping behind fear not... I am trying to finish school quickly so I can go 'home' to Kanazawa again. So, in closing, 初めまして，私の名前はDemeterです。どぞよろしくお願いします。