Food

So I’ve been trying a whole lot of new food since I got here. For instance, Saturday night we had what my “parents” jokingly called Japanese tacos. Basically you take a sheet of nori (dried sea weed) and set it on your plate. Then you use a paddle to put sticky white rice onto the nori, which can get a bit tricky. Then, you choose from a variety of raw fish on the plate in front of you. For instance, I had three kinds of tuna, some salmon, and salmon eggs on my plate as well as cucumbers and shredded carrots. Then you roll up the nori like a taco and you dip it into a dish of soy sauce. It’s pretty good. They also had nato in a bowl, which is a fermented bean that apparently smells really bad. But I was too full to actually try it.

In the past few days I’ve also had anko which is a sweet bean paste, I think. I’ve also had pork katsu (fried pork), potatoes and this black sort of sea grass (not nori), as well as fried rice and miso soup. We also had pizza one night.

Thankfully we just have toast, sweet breads, sweet yogurt, and some sort of fruit for breakfast. I don’t think I could handle all this different stuff just after waking up.

We also have tea time once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Thankfully my “parents” were really understanding about the fact that I don’t like tea. My “dad” usually has green tea, my “mom” usually has English tea, my “sister” has either milk or coffee if she’s here, and I always have water. We also get little snacks, usually something sweet. Yesterday afternoon we had a Japanese strawberry ice cream pop.

They’ve also been feeding us at the university, usually traditional Japanese food. But luckily I’m adjusting pretty well. However, all of the almost ceremonial phrases are finally starting to sink in for me. Before you eat you’re supposed to say “Itadakimasu!” And when you’re finished, you say “Go-soji-sama deshita” which basically shows your appreciation to the cook.