In my 22 years of life I have consistently managed to avoid all opportunities to learn how to cook. Now, finding myself in Japan in a culture where so many people cook that the campus Cafe is only open for breakfast and lunch, well, my body weight is in jeopardy.

However, I am not too proud to ask for help, and by now my inability to manufacture culinary items is a well-known fact among my building’s RAs. To this end they have decided to help me learn to sustain myself on groceries, to become my cooking support group if you will. At this point I recognize the handicap that is not knowing one’s way around a kitchen, and I am eager to learn.

So tonight was lesson one: Yakisoba. According to people more knowledgeable than I, Yakisoba is a very simple dish and is often sold cheaply at festivals in Japan. Perfect for my first try, wouldn’t you agree?

So under Michelle’s careful guidance, we began. I should take a moment to talk about Michelle. She’s one of the two RAs who lives on my floor, a senior, and Taiwanese. She is also a genius and an angel. A genius because she can effortlessly interchange between Chinese, Japanese, and English, and an angel because no matter how badly I screw things up around here, or how lost or helpless I can be(i.e., trying to find something edible at a Japanese supermarket), she is always ready to help.

Yakisoba is indeed a very simple dish, but it’s also freaking delicious. After weeping profusely while cutting onions, I began the actual cooking and even sort of looked like I knew what I was doing.

Michelle occasionally took control to make sure I was getting it all evenly cooked, and before long we had a huge mess of delicious and inexpensive food made (primarily) by yours truly.

Truly, I can get by with a little help from my friends…