Week 60: My pot went to pot

What happens when you have noodles stuck to the bottom of your pot, so you add cold water to make sure that it doesn't turn into superglue?

RIP Fancy IH pot with a ceramic lining! I guess the pot was too hot when I added the cold water?? At first I thought that I had burned a bit of seaweed to the bottom of the pot, and there was some minor gunk on the bottom of the pot anyway, so I gave it a scrub with some baking powder. It was only after I had scrubbed for like 10 minutes that I realized that that black spot is a shallow but HUGE gouge out of the pot's ceramic lining!! So since I wasn't interested in trying to figure out which metals were likely to leech into everything I was going to cook from now on, I had to run to the store to buy a new pot. 

Luckily for me, there was a mysterious mega-sale and I was able to get a nice pot for less than 50% of the original price!

I christened it with some miso soup!

In other shopping news, I had the adventure of buying deodorant in Japan. If you google "deodorant in Japan" you will find that most westerners feel that Japanese deodorant...... is super terrible. And judging from some of the odours that I have experienced here, I think that assessment is probably right. I brought a crapload of deodorant to Japan with me, but the gravy train has run dry, so I have been forced to venture into a drugstore in Japan for the first time. 

Part of the problem with the deodorant scene is just limited selection. I saw three choices: spray-on deodorant (two brands); "deodorant wipes" (which I think are more to wipe off your sweat after you have begun to reek, rather than something that you use when you get dressed); and one brand of normalish, roll-on deodorant that comes in a tiny egg thingie and costs like 700¥. I went with the egg. But maybe I should just give up on deodorant and let my natural scent run wild and free!! At least I'll get lots of space to myself on the subway ;)