Japanese convenience store food

Convenience stores are everywhere in Japan - most are 24 hours and nearly every street corner has one. They are the ultimate in convenience - you can pay nearly all your bills, they all have ATMs, some even have bakeries and they all stock a wide range of cheap, ready made meals.

These cheap, ready made meals have been my diet for much of the last two weeks. I quite looked forward to indulging in them prior to my arrival in Japan - in moderation, they're rather nice. You can get all sorts of combinations - japanese noodles with chicken, pork, beef. Most include pasta on the side, you can even get salads, onigiri (rice triangles wrapped in seaweed with a filling inside) and sandwhiches (but they don't have crusts on them here in Japan, I guess that's why Japanese don't have curly hair :-)

However, after two weeks of eating them almost solidly, I must say it's time to have some home made cooking. The problem with convenience store food is that they tend to lack one essential food group - fruit and vegetables. Often you'll only get one small piece of broccoli or a slice of carrot with your meal. For a growing Australian boy such as I, this is simply not enough. So it's time to cook at home.

This will be a difficult proposition however as I am rarely home of an evening these days! Tokyo is certainly a 24 hour city and there's so much to do, it's sometimes difficult to return of an evening! Apart from enroling in eight subjects at university (I may have overcommitted myself!), I have also joined the local Toastmasters club, joined an outdoor adventure club and have made lots of Japanese and international friends. It's a good thing they only gave me a small apartment, I don't think I'd be here long enough to use a large one!

Apart from catching up on study, this weekend we're going out for our first big night out in Roppongi, celebrating a birthday at a Greek-Japanese Restaurant in Shibuya on Saturday (that will be interesting!) and perhaps travelling to Chiba for a mountain hike and hot spring on Sunday. I hope to get myself a new camera soon, so stay tuned for some great pictures!

Don't forget to keep in touch everyone, it's always nice to hear what's going on back home!