Today, in a very rare spirit, we made our way down to Otsuka (near Ikebukuro) and partook in an 'international exchange' that had nothing to do with school. We had no idea what club/circle it was actually, but signed up anyway, because Chance had it that we'd bump into one of the main organisers outside our dorm doors just a few days ago. Well but I'm guessing that the food was partial incentive too. Not exactly free food, but we were going to exchange our summer have-dones whilst making Mongolian buuz. How cool was that!
Turns out Mongolian buuz is something similiar to the Chinese xiao long bao, except the filling consists of lamb meat and diced white onions rather than the juicier pork meat. Still yummy definitely, especially with the Japanese ponzu sauce.
Not to say that the entire activity was smooth-sailing; in fact, it was anything but. Especially when there's people like me who understand so little Japanese and not all of them understood English. The international mix was certainly eye-opening though, with about 6-7 Mongolians (who spoke varying levels of Japanese), 2 Chinese, 5-6 Japanese and well, 3 Singaporeans - of which one knew no Japanese, one who knew the littlest bit, and one who knew quite abit. Nonetheless, the 5 hour activity was great, especially since I separated from my countrymates for the first time in a few days I guess. Oh there was Mongolian chai too, where they added salt instead of sugar - what a novelty. Seems like a few Japanese had got to go on a Mongolian exchange and homestay programme - will certainly be looking out for that! Wonder if I'll be eligible.
The only sad thing was, we haven't got our handphones yet, so whilst everyone else was bustling about busy exchanging mobile numbers, the 3 of us silently left. Certainly hope there'll be more of such activities on the horizon!
Turns out Mongolian buuz is something similiar to the Chinese xiao long bao, except the filling consists of lamb meat and diced white onions rather than the juicier pork meat. Still yummy definitely, especially with the Japanese ponzu sauce.
Not to say that the entire activity was smooth-sailing; in fact, it was anything but. Especially when there's people like me who understand so little Japanese and not all of them understood English. The international mix was certainly eye-opening though, with about 6-7 Mongolians (who spoke varying levels of Japanese), 2 Chinese, 5-6 Japanese and well, 3 Singaporeans - of which one knew no Japanese, one who knew the littlest bit, and one who knew quite abit. Nonetheless, the 5 hour activity was great, especially since I separated from my countrymates for the first time in a few days I guess. Oh there was Mongolian chai too, where they added salt instead of sugar - what a novelty. Seems like a few Japanese had got to go on a Mongolian exchange and homestay programme - will certainly be looking out for that! Wonder if I'll be eligible.
The only sad thing was, we haven't got our handphones yet, so whilst everyone else was bustling about busy exchanging mobile numbers, the 3 of us silently left. Certainly hope there'll be more of such activities on the horizon!
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