Badger badger badger badger

MUSHROOMS MUSHROOMS

So I'm at my agricultural school in Niimi today. It's FREEZING here! I think the weather said it was like... 12-8 C. ._. I mean, that's how cold it got in San Diego at its COLDEST. I'm going to freeze, hahaha...

But I did a little bit of exploring today around the school. Guess what I found?

A PONY.

AND DUCKS. AND CHICKENS. Though these were the fluffiest chickens I've ever seen haha. I don't know if they were being raised for food or for their eggs.

But they also come around to the teachers room and sell things that they grow at our school. So far, they've come around with GIGANTIC grapes, GIGANTIC mushrooms, and today, regular sized mushrooms but for insanely low prices.

It's a shame I don't like mushrooms more.

They had a bunch of different varieties too. There were shiitake mushrooms, but also hiratake mushrooms that were this gorgeous steel blue/grey color. I wanted to buy them just for the color, but what was I going to do with a whole tray full of mushrooms?

Maybe I'll end up liking mushrooms by the time I leave here.

There are like, a billion different mushrooms they sell at the grocery store. Some of them are really really really expensive. Matsutake are generally the most expensive; some can get up to 10,000 yen (about $100). Craziness.

The kids also came around with nametake mushrooms, which were this beautiful caramel color. And, they had shiitake. Seriously, grand shame I don't like mushrooms.

Thankfully, this fascination with mushrooms has been enough to dispel this feeling of homesickness for thanksgiving holiday food. Some people would argue that it's these foods - turkey, ham, pumpkin pie, cranberry stuff - that makes up the core of what is considered 'American food'.

I'm probably one of them. Yeah, burgers are American I suppose, and garlic fries, but turkey... oh man. I miss turkey. And delis. And ham. And pumpkin pie.

I also miss driers. I think if I had to chose one thing I could have brought from home, I would have brought a drier with me. I hate having to hang dry my clothes. :< They end up all stiff, and they don't always dry super fast. Plus, I don't want to hang my clothes outside for all my students to see... so I hang them inside, where they dry more slowly. I miss warm, just out of the drier clothes. Sigh.