Day 1: Quest Received!

Today, I embarked on a daring, and near-suicidal quest. One that, if I told some of my friends, would surely laugh at my impudence for thinking such a task within my reach. But I am on a journey, nay, an adventure, and what kind of adventure would it be without an unhealthy amount of danger to test my courage against? And so, against all the odds, I set off on my noble mission:

I tried to cook lunch today.

Now true, a simple lunch of noodles, bread, and a Fruit Roll-Up is not exactly the height of culinary excellence, but I'm a college student with no idea where the nearest pizza joint is. At this point, toast would be considered high-class. My journey started with a walk around Osaka with the other students. Our goal; the supermarket down the street. After finding our destination in approximately five minutes, we agreed that was a lame goal, and we should wander around some more. You know, not make things too easy for us.

After navigating narrow streets with nary a sidewalk in sight, we finally ended up at the supermarket. There, I had a stunning realization; apart from the odd bowl of Easy Mac (which I have burned, on occasion) and various snack foods, I'd never gone shopping for my own meals. I was stuck, hungry, in a supermarket full of food, with not the slightest idea on what to do. Today's meal would be served with a side of irony, it seemed.

After a few laps around the store, one of the other students noticed my plight and pointed me towards the noodle section. Thankfully, she could also read enough Japanese to read labels. Back in business, I did a quick lap around the store, grabbing up some rolls, some thin noodles, carrots, milk (on sale for 100 yen!), and some soup mix. Victory was close at hand, but the greatest trial still awaited me; the kitchen.

The directions were fairly simple; boil water, put noodles in boiling water, let sit for two minutes, eat delicious noodles. Didn't even have to add anything, just plain, ordinary noodles. I could do this. I set the water to boil, got my noodles ready, and waited. I managed to not burn myself on the pot as I put the noodles in, and for good reason; I hadn't used a pot at all. No, in my jet-lagged state, I'd somehow gotten it into my head that a kettle was a fine instrument for preparing noodles. I only realized my error after the noodles were in the silly thing. In my defense, it was a very pot-like kettle. Not to mention it made straining the noodles a breeze.

In the end, I had to hold the kettle upside-down, lid off, as I shook the noodles from its grasp. But after a titanic struggle, my lunch was served. It really wasn't much; just a bowl of lightly salted noodles, two rolls, and a fruit snack from my supply. But the victory? Oh, the victory was all too sweet.

Now I just need to figure out what I'm doing for dinner...


(Pictures will be posted up later, once I'm sure I won't wake my roommate with camera beeps)