The taste of home...

A few weeks back I felt a little bit homesick, now that its over I figure it's a good time to let you in on some weird habits that I've picked up for that "close to home" feeling.

The first being football (when typing that out, I nearly typed soccer... argh, having to say soccer instead of football to Americans is turning into a bad habit). For some strange reason a few weeks back I started being really interested in SAFC. I have no idea why, as it started a little before the homesickness, but really stepped up during that period. Back at home, most people know that I was more against football than for. At most I'd watch the world cup, and I rarely even did that, although I did try to keep up with it. The only sports I was really interested in watching on TV was the Judo during the olympics, and boxing, MMA and Muay Thai on the fight network. Im struggling to find places to watch Sunderland matches here (by struggling I mean its not going to happen, ever) but watching the highlights and keeping up with the EPL news is easy enough. Any one with any idea on how to catch EPL games in Japan that aren't just the big four, give me a heads up.

The next is drinking Newky Brown. Never wanted to touch the stuff back at home, mostly because of it looking thick and black, but it's actually some of the nicest stuff I've ever drank and really easy to get a hold of in any english or irish bar over here. Although strictly, it isn't a hometown drink, it's still nice to feel that step closer to the north east. It tasting good is clearly just a nice bonus. For any one who hasn't tried it, I really reckon you should its really good stuff.

The last is Mountain Dew. Ok, this isn't quite the right place to put it because I've never seen Mountain Dew in England but I tell you now it's heaven in a green, sparkly can. It obviously doesn't make me feel close to home at all but I still felt the need to post this because I've been drinking it by the gallon over here. Anyone within a train journey of an American import shop needs to get a crate of this. Yahoo Mountain Dew, as Barney would say.

Next episode: Japanese food and drink. For proof that I don't just live off imported booze and caffeinated soft drinks.