A day in the life of me!

Bear with me on this one...I know I talk about my Mobara life a lot but please keep in mind that I'm still rather excited about the whole prospect. I do feel rather grown up and adult like...house, bills, 9 to 5 job...so obviously I'm going to blog about it over and over again. So, here goes...welcome to my life for one day. Please leave your sanity and common sense at the door and enjoy the ride!

This is what Japanese countryside life is like. I'm going to promise you from now, I am not exaggerating or embellishing for the sake of humor! So, my day starts somewhere between 7 and 7:30am where I throw myself out of bed and stumble to the kitchen for water. I think that in Japan this is regarded as strange. I have reached this conclusion as every morning, my flat mate (who is cooking her lunch and dinner by 7am) looks at me like I'm a crazy person for drinking water that early in the morning! Moving on...

Breakfast is always an interesting affair! We have breakfast in the main dining room and it is prepared by these lovely middle aged ladies who constantly keep me guessing as to what I'm being served. The usual cuisine will include salad, fruit, fish, cooked veggies, and a meat dish. The standard food items are rice, miso soup and natto. For those of you who haven't heard of natto yet, let me help you out. Natto is fermented soy beans and has a rather off-putting smell and taste. However, the Japanese like it and swear it helps keep them healthy and helps to keep a woman's hormones balanced. Now, although I am known for my unpleasant bouts of PMS I still will take my chances and go with raving lunatic behavior rather then eat fermented soy beans. But, that's just me! Although, many people think Japanese breakfast is weird, I like it. It's an excuse to have another full main course meal and not feel like a complete piglet. You have to love the Japanese for this innovative concept. During breakfast, I tune in to my favorite Japanese soap opera, which is focused around a family who own an Okonomiyaki (Japan's version of a pizza) shop somewhere in Japan. In all honesty, that's as far as I've gotten to understanding what it's all about. However, lately I did figure out that one of the main characters was re-united with her biological Father who was a music teacher from Tokyo that no-one knew about. I think I am making fair progress!

I walk to work which takes approximately 20 minutes depending on how much I've eaten at breakfast. My walk is rather interesting. I walk past a few factories and all of the workers will be lined up outside doing their morning exercises whilst a lady's voice instructs them over a loud speaker. The only time I complain about walking is when it rains! I am Maltese and as you might all know we don't have a lot of rain. So, last Friday when I looked outside and saw that it was raining, I didn't think much of it. I grabbed my coat, my pink beanie and a plastic umbrella and off I went. Well, to sum up that experience, Japan rain is slightly different to Malta rain. I ended up going for a lovely swim on the main road leading to my company and on reaching the changing road found enough foliage in my shoes that I could have saved a rain forest or two. Needless to say, next rain day I'm phoning someone and begging them for a lift. At the gate of the company I have to show my identification card so as to be able to enter the building. I must say, I do find this rather amusing. Firstly, I am the only foreigner within the entire plant and secondly I honestly doubt there are any other gaijins walking around at 8am trying to trespass on Mitsui Chemicals premises through the main gate. This is followed by a short walk to the changing rooms where I get decked up in my lovely lime green track-suit like attire and off I go for a day of office and laboratory duty. On busy days, time flies and we don't stop moving but on slow days time stops and at times I do get slightly restless sitting at the computer day. I will blog about Mitsui Chemicals some other time.

Konnyaku

Work is over by 17:10pm and not a minute earlier or later and off I go to amuse myself in this little country village. This is getting easier as time progresses. I blog more often, Exercise from time to time, watch some shows on the internet and explore the shops in Mobara (yes, there are a few shop-like buildings which sell stuff). My latest strategy to keeping busy is experimenting with Japanese food I have never cooked before. This is proving to turn up a few rather interesting ingredients; two most notable ones would be: Renkon, which is lotus root. I think this veggie is great. Not only does it look completely unusual, it actually tastes rather good.  The second Japanese food I have discovered is known as the Japanese miracle food as it has very little of anything except water and fiber. Our bodies can't digest it, so it just sweeps through the intestine (I don't think I need to elaborate any further). It is called konnyaku and it is one of the weirdest things I have ever tasted or seen. It looks like cut up jelly fish and tastes like something chewy and bouncy. However, it isn't that bad and I did throw it into my miso soup this evening. I will leave it to you guys to form your own opinions.


Well, another Mobara evening is over,

Good night