a productive day.

[cimorene]

some errands have been accomplished, and i'm now the owner of an actual finnish identity card with a chip and everything. it looks extremely secure and makes me feel highly respectable, even if it does say "nationality: XXX" on it. (is the us the axis of evil, or what?) it's the first time the picture of me on an id card has ever looked remotely like an adult; alas, as it depicts my long hair, it also doesn't look too much like i look right now.

also i picked up another wholly innocuous package from my parents at the customs house by the harbour, leaving in my wake another deeply puzzled customs officer who surreptitiously tried to find out from me why in the world his time was being wasted to search it. today's innocuous contents: (3) pkgs instant red beans and rice; (1) pr sunglasses; (1) old grocery-store employee's nametag that used to belong to me (in the days of manager!slash); (1) french cell phone; (1) cotton skirt (the result of my first ever attempt to set a zipper alone, years ago. successful, i might add).

my latest food craving caused by anime (in a long line of sushi, miso, ramen, green tea icecream...) is gyoza, which at one time were almost my favourite food. i have this suspicion that i can't get them at all here. there are two japanese restaurants in town but both of them are dedicated to sushi. wax had never heard of gyoza when i asked her. ;.; but on the plus side, i got a package from aeslis♥♥♥ yesterday that's completely full of dvds to watch. maybe i will spot a japanese actor who will fit my mental image of akira. and i'm sure i can count on some more ohmiya at the least ♥.

Comments

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

I want to be nationality: XXX. Now I want an icon. Is this (http://pstalker.com/migration/images/finlandreg.jpg) approximately what it looks like?

[cimness.livejournal.com]

close, but the design's a bit old. that white blot next to the portrait is a tiny little hologram of my face with my birthdate superimposed, and to the left of the SUOMI FINLAND FINLAND at the top there's a sparkly fuchsia flying swan.

[penm.livejournal.com]

Funny you should mention manager!slash because I just redownloaded it (it got lost on my old computer) and ♥.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

i was just thinking about trying to finish it the other day - but i still don't know where to start revising.

[happiestwhen.livejournal.com]

:o I've never heard of gyoza either! *wikipedias* OH! But I have had them... just, they were always just called dumplings. Now you have me craving them too. XP

[cimness.livejournal.com]

they used to sell them frozen at target and my mom and i would eat them like every day. *sigh* alas.

[folk.livejournal.com]

Gyoza are very hard to find in the UK too -- but they are EVERYWHERE in Russia, on account of there being Japanese restaurants EVERYWHERE in Russia. You could take the overnight train to St Petersburg if you got really desperate...or I bet there are Japanese restaurants in Talsinki if you want to jump on the ferry.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

i'm sure i'll be back in helsinki at some point, at least. i hope. i don't know about getting to russia, though. but there'd probably be better luck in stockholm, anyway.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

Try a Chinese restaurant? They are usually called potstickers or as someone above said, dumplings.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

i've never had dumplings in a chinese restaurant! are they the same? huh.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

Yeah. They're a Chinese food first, not native Japanese. (The only Japanese restaurants you'll get them at are chuuka (Chinese) Japanese restaurants (serving ramen, gyoza, chahan (fried rice), etc.).

[cimness.livejournal.com]

heh. i've never had them in a restaurant in japan, i don't think. i suppose my mom must have called them that from a cookbook or something.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

I would say "well, it's the same in the US", but Japanese restaurants are probably vastly different in the south than what they're like here, so... XD

But here (unless it's one of those fakey Japanese restaurants (I ate at one this weekend, actually, and everything was called by translated names like "BBQ pork noodles" instead of charsiu ramen, etc.)), the Japanese restaurants are divided by what type of food they serve: sushi restaurant, traditional Japanese, chuuka, yakitori, curry, Korean BBQ, "western" food like hamburg and omrice and such, etc.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

yeah... well, where i grew up, we had one japanese restaurant my entire childhood, and it was a japanese "steakhouse", the kind where they grill the stuff at your table. i don't remember ever having anything there but teriyaki. two more opened while i was in high school, but they were both kind of, uh, general japanese stuff. they both had sushi as well as other traditional japanese food.