The Best Souvenir

So I haven't blogged in a while because this trip is turning out to be more of an adventure than I expected. It started several weeks ago when I started getting sick to my stomach. I kinda had a feeling there was something going on but I wrote it off as the flu. But all that strange food I blogged about earlier started smelling and tasting disgusting to me. I could hardly eat anything but bread and fruit. After a solid week of this, with no other flu symptoms I had a pretty good idea what was going on although my husband was skeptical.






I went to the store and bought myself a pregnancy test, which was an adventure in and of itself (thank goodness for the ability to show my phone dictionary to the employee to help me find it). I came home all nerve wracked only to have the test result be completely blank...a defective test. *sigh* So the next afternoon it was back to a store, and this time I bought two. And this time they were undeniably positive within very little time waiting.

Haha, so the adventure continues! I'm experiencing morning sickness and other signs of pregnancy and I'm in a foreign country as a student. Thankfully I am married, have my husband with me and am old enough to be going through this without any guilt. I've been seriously blessed with new friends who are really helping me through this time.






Last week a friend helped us go to a ladies clinic where I have confirmed most definitely that there is a living being growing inside me. I saw the heart beating on a monitor and it was the most amazing experience. So although I am certainly feeling some homesickness, I have to say that this is going to be the most awesome story for me to tell to my kid in the future. Three cheers for my Nagasaki baby!

Food from another world

Ok, so this is a post I've been putting off because I have had so many strange things. I can't even describe what half the stuff is I've tried. And while I know that my host mother is trying to keep our meals more western styled, they are still very very unusual. Some of the food is fantastic (although it's usually the sweets) but most of it is just...different. I never understood why people always raved about eating bread all the time, but I've figured it out, it's the safest most filling, least revolting food in Japan. Regardless, here are some of the many pictures of food that I've eaten so far:

A typical breakfast

Chocolat de Tomato?? Umm...no thanks...

Sakura mochi, Yum!

Curry Rice, super popular here in Japan.
It's not spicy like Indian curry, it's very sweet.

Breakfast: A ham sandwich and
french toast (with sugar on top instead of syrup)

They call this a hamburger, the sauce is sweet.
The blue bowl has veggies, some of which is bamboo shoot.
The black bowl is a chicken salad with strawberries.

Breakfast, some sort of sweet egg salad

At a bread store

McDonald's teriyaki burger with egg...
It was actually pretty good.

I only vaguely guess what this stuff is...

Toppings on rice on the bottom,
the blue bowl is bamboo shoot and beef
tempura veggies and cold noodles

Anpan Man

Japanese Pizza, broccoli and ham
there is no real cheese in Japan...just white gooey stuff.

The plate with the flowers is pasta with meat sauce

This fish has huge teeth...
I was told the bigger the eyes, the better the fish.

Mochi for Children's day.
The fish represent the koi that fight to swim upstream to spawn
and the hope that the children will inherit that strength

Chirashi Sushi.
Various toppings over rice, it is sooooooo good!!

The top left is a crab salad (I think), the rest are mostly veggie dishes.
The bottom two have bamboo shoot that was harvested
on a mountain near my friend's house, this meal was amazing!

Fresh bamboo shoot

Lemon ice, isn't it pretty?

Italian cream pasta with spinach and bacon

Hamburger with potatoes and other veggies, yum!

Steak and a few corn kernels, Brian was craving meat.

Tempura veggies, chicken and shrimp

McDonald's shrimp filet burger
I'm so sad we don't have this in the states, it's awesome!

Sort of like chow mien?

We went to this place for Brian's birthday.
It was an all-you-can-eat in 70 minutes.
You use a touch pad to order whatever meat you want
and you get to grill it yourself. We stuffed ourselves silly.