The only way to understand the deeper meaning of Djungelvrål is to taste it
I've written two posts today. Be sure to check out the one before this post.
Today a few of us went to Asami’s, Ryosuke’s and Yuki’s campus as they were having a school festival there. I’ve never been to one so I didn’t really know what to expect. We started out from Shimotakaido around 10 o’clock. We weren’t many JLSP students at all who were going just me, Stephanie, Lina and her boyfriend Lucas and Chris. Asami was with us all the time as well.
So at Shimokitazawa, we were going to change trains but we went out the wrong exit. All of the sudden, Chris was gone. We looked back behind us but he wasn’t showing up. We waited for about 5 minutes but still nothing. We thought he might’ve gone ahead to the platform already, but that didn’t seem to be the case. Since we had no way of getting hold of Chris (he doesn’t have a cell phone and tends to disappear and reappear as he sees fit during times we do group activities) we went on without him.
We arrived at Mutsuai Nichidaimae, the station, around 12 o’clock and the campus was very close to the station. The stairs down from the station are a bit special though. As we descended the stairs Asami told us to look behind us at the stairs. I didn’t really get it at first but turned backwards and understood what was so cool about it.
As you can see, that’s what was cool. Before I studied at Stockholm’s University, I studied at Linköping’s University. There’s a slope leading towards campus which is called the “Logo slope”. Every summer before the new term starts, members of different groups and programs paint their logo on the slope. It’s exactly what they’re doing on these stairs but in this case only one program is doing the job.
In any case, as we got to the campus there were a lot of people there since it was open house. Before I move on, I want to add that I asked Lina’s boyfriend Lucas to buy some Djungelvrål and Turkisk Peber. These two sorts of candies are very popular in Sweden and tastes very good or at least to a Swede. Japanese people dislike concentrated tastes such as too much soy sauce or food with too much fat in it. Thus I took a bag of djungelvrål with me to the festival as I wanted to introduce it to my friends. After Asami and Yuki tasted it Asami wanted as many of her friends as possible to taste it so about every person we met on campus got one. There were even a few who liked it! Djungelvrål is kind of special. It’s very salty first but once the first layer of the taste is gone (the salty taste) the licorice part kicks in. Licorice is very good actually and most of the Japanese are OK with it as licorice is sweet. However, it’s usually the first layer of salt which makes them go all crazy. Here, let me show you:
From candy to the food and dessert stands. There were a lot of different stands with different kinds of food and desserts. We ate stirred fried innards which was surprisingly good. However, the consistency of the actually innards was very weird. I’ve never eaten this kind of food before, but it was still good. Number two was chijimi which is the Korean version of okonomiyaki. They were also selling Nihon Daigaku's own produced sausages, bacon, vegetables and other kinds of things as well. The campus we were at is specialized in animals and such as well as plants.
As for the sweeter things the most curious thing I ate was “age-ice”. Age stands for, in terms of food, deep fried and the ice part for ice cream. Yeah, that’s right. Deep fried ice cream. From the looks of it, they have the ice cream inside a sort of bread like ball, they dip it into some sort of mix and then into the bread crunches or whatever they use. And it was godly good. I don’t think I’ve eaten such simple yet “complex” ice cream before.
Later during the afternoon Mark and Kyle joined forces with us. Mark had apparently gotten his scholarship today (240 000 yen + another 80 000 next month) and he was very happy. He’d been having some problem with money since he had expected to get the scholarship in time. Apparently there have been some problems at JASSO and all of us who are going to receive the money have to wait. At first they said the end of October or even November, but we got a mail last night and apparently we’re going to receive our scholarship on Monday! Wooooo! There was also a man cheerleader squad. It's kind of cool actually. It's more like military, heavy drums and deep voices screaming. I've played a game called Ossu! Tatakae! Ouendan! and this reminded me of it!
During around 5 o’clock we disbanded and I and Asami went to Machida to check out the 4 stories 100 yen shop. It was crazy; I’ve never seen so many things which sell for 100 yen. They had everything from tableware and cleaning products to food and snacks. We went there to look for some sort of hats or something for Halloween next week. Well, actually we’re going to celebrate it on the 30th at Torikizoku (the Izakaya nearby the station) and then go back here to drink some more until 31st. In any case, I’ve never celebrated Halloween in Sweden and it seems to be fairly new in Japan as well. We went to Tokyu Hands in Shinjuku yesterday and some of the JLSP-students bought full costumes. I’m not sure what to buy and if I’m going to buy anything at all. But we’ll see.
Last night I actually cooked meatballs for the first time. I wanted to make something Swedish for Asami and I simply picked the most simplest of all of the dishes. The result was pretty good and I’m proud of myself! Too bad meat is so expensive in Japan compared to Sweden, but then again the fresh fish here is much cheaper. I made sauce for it as well, but the only problem is that they don’t seem to have anything else than like REALLY fat cream here. In Sweden we usually cook with 15% or lower when making sauce, but the one I used now was like 45%. It became very thick to say the least, but still good. I’m surprised how simple it is to make your own sauce without having to use any mixes.
I’m still waiting for the answer if I can stay for another term here or not. We were told that they were going to have an answer for us by this weekend but nothing yet. I’m kind of nervous because the time just flies by. We only have a bit over a month to go before the term is over and my current flight back home is scheduled for the 7th December. If I’m able to stay, I’ve already sorted out the questions about my insurance, rebooking of my flight and so on. I just need the damn confirmation now!
