So, Japan won their last game, which means they are on again tonight. I rather enjoy having something in common with half of my students, even the seven year old boys.

Long weekend coming up! Normally I'd be winging (well, shinkansening) my way down to Tokyo but I am watching my bank account (watching it dwindle, for the most part) so I am stuck at home. It's not all bad, though. Thursday I am splurging on a pedicure. Can you believe I managed to resist all month? I know, neither can I! After that is done, I'll go to Shizuoka and have an early dinner with Tomoko. Whee, socialization! Friday I am cleaning. Doesn't that sound like fun? Tomoko invited me to stay the night (they have AC and use it. Sweet sweet temptation) but I know if I do that I won't get anything done on Friday, and the kitchen will not clean itself. I should know, I tried that experiment and it failed horribly. I'm almost looking forward to cleaning the living room, as that means I get to pamper myself and turn the AC on. The rest of the day will be spent at the pool and then on the couch with beer. Saturday will be my normal gym insanity, plus I have to make something to bring to the bbq on Sunday. Sunday is gonna be good, I hope. As long as it doesn't rain, there is an afternoon of beach cleaning (ok, so the bit where I pick up garbage will not be the highlight), followed by beach yoga and then a bbq. So, not Tokyo, but not too shabby either.

Three weeks! This time in three weeks I will...probably be still at the Taipei airport, or on my way back there, actually. Hopefully with a belly full of dumplings and bubble tea.

Japan is playing Denmark today. At 3 am. Several of my (school aged!) students have said they are getting up to watch it. It should be interesting to see how much of the country is sleep-deprived tomorrow.

Ask me on any given day what I'm having for dinner and the answer is likely to be roasted broccoli. Usually served with sweet potato fries, sometimes salmon, and on one occasion when the supermarket closed early, a root beer float. I feel like I should make more of an effort to branch out, but somehow telling oneself to "start eating less broccoli" feels slightly ridiculous, and also my immediate reaction to finishing a plateful is to immediately want MORENOWMORE!

It's World Cup time again, and Japan is still in the running. Cynical me assumes that their next game will be their last, but one can hope. I do miss FAB around this time of year, though. (FAB, of course, being the Friendly Attractive Bar that was located next to my apartment in Fukuroi.) Aside from being a nice little place I could pop into if I didn't feel like cooking (which was fairly often in that tiny apartment with its sorry excuse for a kitchen), it was fun to watch soccer from. The only downside was that the owner "brewed" his own "beer" and kept handing it out, and politeness demanded that you smile and make yummy faces and try not to gag. Still, a small price to pay for a friendly neighbourhood bar.

And the rainy season, she is here. I'm still in that honeymoon stage where my allergies have been drowned into submission and I haven't started growing fungus yet, so I am ok with the 95% humidity and the downpour. Of course, this is probably also partly due to the comedic relief provided by Andrew tonight. He has to ride his scooter no matter what the weather, and his rain pants are starting to show their age. Specifically, the rain was collecting on the back of the seat and he was sitting in a puddle for a good 20 minutes and the rain pants were more water-resistant than waterproof, and his pants got wet in an area best left up to your (sniggering) imagination. Surprisingly, I was not fired even after I stage-whispered to my students that, omg, Andrew-sensei peed his pants.

Thankfully tomorrow is supposed to be a bit drier and Thursday looks set to be mostly sunny and sweltering, which means I will spend the morning doing as much laundry as can be fit onto the drying poles.

I made these on the weekend, and I highly recommend you do the same sometime this summer. Naturally, ricotta was impossible to find, so I substituted marscapone and cream cheese (the first hit for "ricotta substitute" was instructions on how to make your own. Um, thanks, but I'll pass.) The result is probably a bit more poor-man's-cheesecake than was intended, but is still delicious. The cookie to strawberry ratio worked out perfectly, but I have quite a bit of spread left over, which means I need to make more cookies asap. Oh, the tribulations of my life.

I have a mosquito bite on my face and there is a rogue cockroach loose in the kitchen. Remind me again how terrible winter is?

Oof. It is going to be one long, cockroach-ridden summer.

Hozumi told me that the weather people announced that today was the last day of delightful pre-summer weather, with clouds moving in this weekend and then leading to the rainy season next week. I probably could have guessed that, as my allergies have been dying down.

Anyway, my plans for the weekend involve scrubbing down the kitchen with bleach and then setting up a bunch of roach traps/poison. How about you?

A root beer float is a perfectly valid dinner, right?