Brief meditation

Well today hasn't been that productive, i spent the majority of the day cleaning. To be honest I'm fine with that. I've really sorted my room out. It's a lot more organised than it ever has been. I would completely recommend you take the time out of your day to organise the space around you.
The thing is, it's been bought to my attention, from a more intelligent and well informed being that this organised, minimalistic household is a very stereotypical western view on Asian culture.
I definitely do not want to give that impression and as much as I may come across a bit arrogant to this culture believe me that is far from what I'm trying to achieve.

As not much happened today I will talk a little about meditation and what I've learnt so far.

So meditation.
Let me start by saying, I can almost guarantee that what you think you know about meditation. You don't.
Or maybe that was just me.
Either way, from what I've learnt it's all about just being still. It's not about blocking thoughts, it's not about attempting to change your mind state. It's all about just being.
As you read this I would like to invite you to meditate with me. I will try to write some very brief instructions for you but I would like everyone to attempt it in their own way.

Start off sitting comfortably, take a few deep breaths and close your eyes. For a few minutes just breathe normally, counting every breath in until ten, then restart

Breathe in - 1
Breathe out - 2
Breathe in - 3 etc etc until ten and then start from 1

When you begin to feel comfortable with that, stop counting and just be. Be still for 10 or so minutes. Open your eyes slowly, give a nice stretch and carry on with your day.

A more impressive post soon but for now let me now how you get one with the meditation.

Follow me on twitter @TurnChapanese

A few pictures so far

That first picture is a packet of Calbee Hot and Spicy potato chips. I tried them today and they are much tastier than a lot of chips we have in the UK.
If you get a chance to try them, do.

I'm not sure how these pictures will work out as I'm writing on my iPhone but I'll keep uploading them and describe them in order.

The 2nd picture is simply the aisle from the supermarket I looked around yesterday. It looks relatively similar to most supermarkets but has a much greater feel to it. Friendly staff and a fantastic choice of food (not that I know what most of it is yet)

3rd picture - these are two books I picked up by a guy named Steve Hagen. I read a Buddhism book by him recently and it was very informative and really interesting. I will get started on these soon but I do recommend reading "Buddhism: Plain and simple".

A normal blog will come a long later tonight but for now enjoy the pictures.
If you have any questions/advice/ideas/fancy a chat or just want to keep up to date, I have started a Turning Chapanese twitter page. Follow it @TurnChapanese.

Thanks for reading.

Day One

Okay, so I'm not sure how to "wake up Asian" therefore my morning routine was relatively similar to what it always is. It wasn't the start I was hoping for but I'm not quite sure what I expected. I'm sure Asian people wake up, crawl out of bed half asleep, shower etc etc.
We can all agree - fairly average morning.
However I decided I was not going to laze around. I started on my room. I put a shelf and some blinds up and gave most of the floor a good de clutter. I've also added a small (close to the floor type) table. Again another stereotypical, ignorant view of Asian culture. Still, it's a nice table.
I thought of having breakfast, but what do Asian people eat for breakfast? I asked a Chinese friend of mine that question a few years back. As he was a Chinese native I expected a better answer than "I don't know". Yet still, to this day, I don't know.
Evidently I didn't eat breakfast.

With the room looking slightly better I moved on to phase 2. Food.
I took a trip to an Asian supermarket/wholesalers with the intent of buying lots of good ingredients that I can cook good Chapanese cuisine with.
When I got there however, I realised I had no idea what to look for. It was an eventful shopping trip but on the whole generally more fun than that of average British stores.
I won't list everything I bought as it seems silly but it's a good selection of chapanese stuff and I would definitely advise everyone to find a local Asian supermarket/wholesalers and take a look around. For me personally it's all new, for others it might not be, either way I can guarantee it will be a weird and wonderful experience.

It's late evening by now, so it's time to start on my first chapanese dish. Bare in mind I don't even cook British food, the extent of my cooking is microwave pizza. So yes I was a little nervous.
I had been given a recipe book over Christmas which has a few, what they call, easy to make recipes (they're not easy to make at all). I decided on one called Shrimp Foo Yung - mainly because I had all them ingredients. It's pretty much egg and shrimp with a few extras and spices. I can imagine it would taste really nice when cooked by someone more experienced. Mine tasted sub par but to be honest I'm pleased with that.

Later on in the night I took 10 minutes out of my day to do a guided meditation. Essentially I sat down, focused on my breathing and tried to just be still. I felt nothing from it, but I feel like its worth it. Why shouldn't we all sit down and just give our minds time to think for a few minutes a day?

Yes that was a nice long blog today, but if you've read it I thank you and i hope you can end your night like I ended mine...

What's happening?

Somehow you have stumbled across this page, welcome.
Today I had a thought, an idea to change my life. Whether that change will be major or minimal who knows. Anyway, I've decided to live like an Asian.
Bare with me..

At the moment, I'm an average south London white guy. 21 years old, not a huge lover of my job, don't get paid enough, don't have a happy home life, I'm not well educated, suffer with severe anxiety and generally complain a lot about life. But you've heard all that before.
So I've decided I no longer care. I have an obsession with Asian culture and I want to take that to the next step. So I'm starting today, well tomorrow.
First I will de-clutter my room and organise it a little better. Everything will have space. And I will create enough space for me to sit. Maybe try and add some nature to that shit as well.

I will shop at a local Asian supermarket and eat Asian meals. (I say Asian, actually just the Chinese and Japanese section, I'll rename that to chapanese)
So I'll buy chapanese ingredients and cook chapanese meals. Simple enough.

Meditation will become a daily practice. Maybe it will help eliminate stress, maybe it won't. But in my very ignorant stereotypical view, it seems like an Asian thing to do. Plus I like the idea of it.

Essentially that's it. It all sounded a lot more exciting and adventurous in my head. Written down it just seems a bit pointless. And something probably no-one will care for. But welcome to the Internet. A place everyone does something no one cares about.

This something is called Turning Chapanese!
I hope you'll join me on my journey and hopefully it will all get a bit more interesting along the way.

Dan