Let's Talk Japan

Here we are, Monday (月曜日). Not a lot of terribly fascinating things have happened since October started besides the usual classes. My host father's 65th birthday was Saturday and my host family's daughter's family came over for dinner and to visit for the weekend. Friday I went to karaoke, and I did sing with the microphone once but laughed through most of it from embarrassment. Since Friday afternoon my lower back and side has been in some agonizing pain, luckily not enough to where I can't walk but enough to feel a bit unlike myself (I have severe chronic pain). I mostly stayed at home after karaoke, going to pottery with my host mom on Saturday before lying around for the rest of the night.

On top of the normal chronic back pain (that rides on the muscles that stretch from the spinal cord to my side), my stomach has been upset lately. I think it is adjusting to the diet, as the same thing happened in France after about a month or so of eating completely different foods. So hopefully it will quickly pass. It's odd, though, as I am really sure the food that I am eating here is much better than what I eat at home. I have rice every day, Japanese pears for breakfast every morning (they are apparently high in fiber), lots of green tea, and many other strange "really healthy Japanese secret" type foods.

So Japanese food is delicious. Some of it is strange. I'll admit I was a little surprised to see an entire fish sitting on a plate for me one night for dinner. I suppose this is normal for East Asian countries, and I shouldn't really be too weirded out considering some of the things I have eaten in the past (Blood Sausage, pork intestines, et cetera). I took it on fearlessly, though, but the real problem was not its little fishy guts nor the weird caramelized scales ... but it was that every bite had tiny little bones. I can't eat them and I don't want to spend more time taking every single little bone out than it would to just eat the damn thing. I've tried to just eat the bones, but there is something about it that just ruins the taste of the fish.

WARNING: Lots of Wiki articles. Mostly because there are pictures.

I unfortunately have not eaten some of the 'weirder' dishes here such as:

natto fermented beans that are apparently slimy and have a strong smell and taste. People warn me about it tasting terrible but people warned me about Blood Sausage as well. I will taste this!
(This photo is courtesy of Wikipedia)




fugu puffer fish. Yeah, that poisonous one that only super master chefs can make. Unfortunately it is very expensive and I'm kind of poor so yeah. My host mom said the cheapest she ever found was 5000 yen (50 bucks!) I guess it is expensive to toy around with poison. But everyone I've talked to who has tasted it said it was delicious and the best is when you get it with a sauce to dip it in (the poison) and then it makes your lips numb or some shit. Awesome e_e I will eat this eventually. There were a lot of fugu restaurants in Namba.
 I will eat you and you will be delicious.      (Photo: Wikipedia)


I have eaten some of the funner foods though!

Onigiri balls (triangles?) of rice with some vinegar like stuff to keep it in shape ... with a piece of seaweed on it. Seaweed is so delicious.
(Photo: Moi) Look how cute they are.






Okonomiyaki I've mentioned this one a few times. It is simply the best food that can possibly exist. Ever. They say that they are Japanese pancakes, but they really aren't. It's some kind of batter with lettuce and pork or whatever you have laying around the fridge smothered in this fantastic sauce.
(Photo: Moi) SO DELICIOUS.

Dango The little weird ball things in the photo (not the tea, obviously). It is like ... really sweet. Some kind of mochi. I wasn't very fond of them at first but now they are like candy to me. Very sticky and I can never figure out how to eat the lowest one on the stick ... e_e
(Photo: Moi)



Mochi It is like pounded rice that makes this gooey, sweet ... thing. They eat it every full moon and during New Year's (or whenever ... I had them last full moon with my host mom then a strawberry one after pottery with the ladies who come every weekend). Sometimes they have bean paste in them, which is somehow sweet and I don't think I fully understand the concept of beans being sweet.
(Photo: http://justjennrecipes.com/mochi-filled-with-nutella/2011/01/27/ omg Nutella Mochi?! Mochi is already sweet as it is!)

And well, I've had many other foods here, but for now I have to head to dinner to eat something. Maybe I will write another post this week before next week's update!

~Until Next Time