How I Survive in Japan

This is my secret to survival in Japan: shipments of food from home! Thanks to my absolutley lovely and amazing girlfriend, I received this in the mail the other day in the form of three packages. I love a lot of Japanese food, but I also can't stand a lot of Japanese food. I approached it at first with blind enthusiasm, but it has waned to critical realism.

Take my lunches for example. Along with a few other teachers, I order my lunch from a delivery service which supplies a bento everyday. It comes with a medium sized portion of rice, usually about three small vegetable dishes, and maybe two very small meatish mains. I can always count on the rice, the meat mains vary a lot, from vegetarian hamburger patties, to fried chicken, to squid tempura, which I can usually take down well, except when they're not filling its just dissapointing. And then there's the vegetable sides. They are usually pickled, always unknown, and often not eaten. At first I would it eat all with the bind enthusiasm I spoke of earlier, but soon it transformed into just eating them as fast as possible to get them down to fill my stomach. Now, I will often open my bento, eat what I can, and simply walk to the store for something else mediocre. When my girlfriend Jolene is here, she makes and delivers a lunch everyday, which makes me fat and the other teachers jealous. When she's not here, I go back to the order lunches, lose weight, and enthusiasm for meal time.

I have adjusted some to the foods I don't like, but that's for suckers. I survive with these shipments of food from the States.

If I could focus on the highlights, check out the giant box of Annie's macaroni and cheese; the best shite on the planet. Also, on both sides of the macaroni and cheese are two packs of Ravensbrew coffee, my favorite coffee in the entire world for sure. I'm not sure how available it is throughout the US though because it's brewed in Alaska. You can't see them really, but there are also tortillas and taco mix. If only a blue cheese bacon cheeseburger could be sent from the Westsound Cafe, it would be complete.

Thank you and I love you Jolene, for keeping me fed from across the globe.