Whole Foods Market's Eco Bag

Whole Foods Market offers a wide selection of reusable bags for sale. Their design and material are varied and change frequently. I think the canvas Eco bag sold fast. Even if I find a canvas Eco bag at one Whole Foods Market, It's possible that I cannot find the same bag at another Whole Foods Market. On the right of this picture is something called a "Better Bag" which costs 99 cents. This is made from recycled plastic bottles. I think the market really makes us reuse bags. Usually we buy a lot at supermarkets at one time so only one Eco bag doesn't help us. However this Better Bag is very cheap and we can stock a lot of our shopping in it. If we use any Eco bag at this market, they give us 5 cents.

I'm back

I was in my country from the Christmas season until yesterday because I had to help in my parents' house. It has been one and a half months away from New Jersey, but it's still winter and it snowed yesterday and it was minus 12 degrees Celsius today. When I'm in the US, I become a meat-eater, yielding to the temptation of hamburger and tacos. In addition, it's always warm inside our apartment and in the corridor and also I don't do any particular exercises, so inevitably I gain weight. However when I'm back in Japan, I eat Japanese food loaded with fish and vegetables every day. Also I exercise my body because it's almost the same temperature inside the house as outside when the heater isn't turned on. Also I was walking over 30 minutes everyday. I feel that I re-fleshed my body during my stay in Japan. It was thought-provoking. In the US, I become unhealthy unless I try to choose what I eat. So I want to make a choice of food thinking about a healthy life.

The vegetables in American supermarkets are not juicy and I don't feel like eating them much. However if I choose organic vegetables, they are fresh, juicy and safe but their cost is high. In Japan, I didn't care about organic food. However the difference between organic food and non-organic food is very big here. I was checking out about "Organic" and noticed that buying organic food is helping organic farmers and contributing to the protection of the environment and the earth and I am happy about it. My husband's assignment in the US extended to one year instead of a half-year but it seems to be shorter now. We might be here about 2 or 3 months more but I would like to try to be closer to LOHAS as much as I can.

Bergen Community College's ESL

I have taken ESL classes at two schools since September; one is at Montclair State University and the other is at Bergen County Community Action Partnership. Montclair's ESL just finished yesterday and BCCAP's ESL is almost finished. I have to find an ESL school where I'm going to study next year. Since I have to go back to my country once from the end of year to the beginning of February, it's very complicated to find the next school for me to start studying from February, right after I come back here. Some people recommended ESL at Bergen Community College. I didn't know this college's ESL class is near my apartment. The main location of BCC is in Paramus, NJ. I was checking the HP before but I didn't find a short term ESL course there. However, they have an ESL course at another location, in downtown Hackensack, which is a 20 minute walk from my apartment. I went there to find out about next year's ESL in November but they said that they would have it only in December, so I went there again today. They have a class in the morning, afternoon and night. The afternoon class is free of charge if you have a social security number. Fortunately they had the registration test today and I could take it. The test goes on for 3 days until Thursday. Also we had an orientation from a teacher. She gave the orientation using a big projector. It seemed a well organized ESL program.

Inviting friends with Japanese food

We invited some ESL class mates to our apartment. They were from Brazil and Peru. I have been thinking about the menu for 2 weeks since we invited them because they have only tried sushi rolls once and don't know any other Japanese food. Finally I decided on the following menu: Temarizushi ( Fatty tuna & Salmon ), Tonziru, Kaisou & Tofu Salad, Yakitori, Yakinasu, Yakisoba, Snacks and Sake.

Before I make a decision, I had been trying to make sushi rolls with Makisu but I couldn't roll it well, so my Japanese friend adviced me to make Temarizushi. I could make Temarizushi easily and it looks very pretty without any effort. They were trying to pick up sushi rolls with chopsticks. A Brazilian friend came with her son who is 13 years old and he is curious about another country's culture. He was trying to pick up everything with chopsticks. I don't know if they liked Tonziru (Pork Miso Soup) . Yes, they said that it was good but I think they felt Konnyaku and Gobo were very strange food and I don't know how they felt about the taste of bonito soup (Katsuo Dashi) and soybean paste (Miso). Regarding Tofu Salad, I think they were not interested in vegetables. They ate just a little bit and didn't talk about Seaweed & Tofu. Also nobody tried eggplant (Yakinasu). I love this dish but guess that they didn't feel like having it because of the color or my lack of explanation. Anyway I think that they aren't interested in vegetables. The boy seemed to like Yakisoba & Yakitori. I can say that they liked Japanese snacks and sake very much, specially liking "Lotte Chocopai".

Also they had Taiyaki and Green Tea. A Brazilian friend who tried Momijimanju said that she had been thinking that the Anko (bean paste) was sweet potato. A Peruvian friend hesitated to have Taiyaki because of it's shape. She thought it contained fish inside... I felt it was not so easy to serve Japanese food to foreign people who don't know much about Japanese food. Also I have to know how to explain about the dishes in English. Anyway, that was a very good experience for me.

Also a Peruvian friend brought Peruvian food, Papa a la Huancaina, which was very good. I love the dish. It was the first time I tried a homemade one. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the dishes because I was trying to serve dishes right after cooking and was very worried about whether they could eat our food. Anyway they are Latinas so they talked a lot!

Hackensack Supermarket

I call this supermarket Latino Supermarket. This supermarket is a 20 minute walk from my apartment. My Japanese friend and I asked Sra. E to teach us how to make Colombian "Empanada" so today Sra. E and I went to the supermarket to buy ingredients for that. I think that we can buy almost all kinds of food from Latin America here.

Today's Times Square

The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree

This is the famous Rockefeller Center's Christmas tree and ice skate rink. If I have a chance, I will visit there at night to see the tree lit.