Back in America and Thinking Green

I tend to have long hiatuses in my journal posting, but this this time around the pause related not to my laziness, but that I have returned home to America and am about to venture out onto a new phase of life. I lived and worked in Japan for two years in rural, beautiful Shimane Prefecture as an Assistant Language Teacher--now I will live, study and possibly work in Cambridge, Massachusetts as an MA student at Harvard. I go from my small isolated island of Japan to a big city, in a part of the world I have never been to.

This new life style will be daunting, and it goes without saying that I am nervous about readjusting to life on my own in America, dealing adult financial matters, and washing off the rust to my academic skills.

This new phase of my life means many things, and I want to approach it with a fresh and inspired attitude. I want to take what I learned living in the "inaka" and as a member of Japanese society, and somehow use that knowledge to better my life as a graduate student.

Food is of major importance to me. I am a "foodie" plain and simple. My time in Japan not only forced more creativity in my cooking, but also adapt to a "get less for more" kind of budget. Food in Japan was expensive compared to that in America. Minus the lack of fresh fruit, I think that I ate very healthy and moderate portions while abroad. Although I will be living in the dorms and subject to at least one meal a day at the dining services, for the remainder of the time food preparation will be my responsibility.

Japan taught me the willingness to pay more for less, but in turn receive better quality ingredients. Sure, I only got two apples for four dollars--but the apples themselves were tasty and fresh. I hope to continue in this mindset by trying to go to Organic and Cooperative grocers whenever possible. Additionally, I will attempt to eat food as seasonal as possible. That means--no raspberries in March--and possibly (we'll see though) no bananas! Sure, this means spending more money on ingredients--but it will also force me to be more exacting in the food I buy. It will control my portions, support local farmers and a chemical-free environment. We will see how this venture actually goes, but for the time being I am looking forward to this new dietary alteration.

I've become quite interested in the "Slow Food" movement--something which not only advocates organically raised crops and livestock, but also an appreciation for the natural world, and promotion of many "heirloom" type of vegetables and livestock which have been bread out of the market in favor of vegetables that can support long distance shipping, or turkeys who are so heavy with their own meaty flesh that they cannot support their body. I recommend anyone else interested to read a recently published book that I am greatly enjoying called, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver.