One of the highlights of my recent trip to the U.K. was the food.  I love living in Tokyo and enjoy eating Japanese food but there are lots of things I miss eating.  Some of these are things I can’t cook for myself, because I don’t have an oven, and some others have ingredients that are difficult or impossible to get in Japan.

I have been surprised by the food that I miss.  I really miss roast turkey and roast potatoes. I never ate potatoes that often but for some reason once I got to Tokyo I started to miss them.  I’ve always loved turkey.

My family know that I crave turkey and I ended up having two fantastic turkey dinners in January.  The first one was in Belfast with Marty’s family.  This turned into a traditional Christmas dinner and was so much fun that I’m starting to think we should create our own tradition.  The second one was with my Dad and Step-Mum in Aalsmeer.  They cooked a really succulent turkey that I don’t want to think about too much now as I’m starting to miss turkey again!

To combat my food cravings I have been learning to cook new things that don’t require an oven.  And that can be made with ingredients found in the local supermarket.  This week I made spicy Italian meatballs.  I knew it was something that Marty would really like and thankfully I ended up liking it too.  In January I made Coq au Vin but I didn’t like this.  I think it’s one of those things that really needs to be made with a good red wine and I know nothing about red wine. Trying to pick a good one in a Japanese supermarket is beyond me.

I had meant to take pictures of my new cooking acomplishments for my blog but the food got eaten much too quickly for that to happen.  Marty will eat anything that doesn’t have teeth!

I still haven’t managed to come up with 101 things to do in 1001 days.   I have 97 things on my list.  And I imagine that I’ll come with a few more things over the next couple of weeks (though I have a feeling I’ve thought that since I created the list.)

I have a variety of different types of things of my list.  Some are one-off things, like organising a trip to the Galapagos Islands, and others are things I want to do on a weekly or monthly basis.  My first list had things that needed done daily but I found it was much too difficult to monitor these and have removed them.

This month I am behind in Japanese language and exercise related tasks.  I still tire easily and it puts me off exercising.  It doesn’t take much at all to put me off studying Japanese – though I have started to get into a routine again and have been on target the past two weeks.

I am on target for all cooking relating tasks.  I now eat more fish, cook dinner at home on a regular basis, and learn to cook something new each month.

I completed one task this month – visit a dermatologist.  It’s awful that I need to add something like this to a list but I find it really hard to go to a Doctor.  Not because they frighten me but because I worry about wasting their time.  I feel guilty if I go to see a Doctor.  The dermatologist was shocked that I hadn’t come sooner but I need to be sure that something really is wrong before I would consider seeing a Doctor.

I am glad that I took José’s advice and created a list. I am now working towards things that before I had only dreamt about doing.