Food

Many of you may have heard Daisy say that when it comes to eating, I am very picky. I like to think of myself as “selective,” and in Japan I have learned to be VERY selective. I have never cared for any kind of fish (OK, I can eat tuna sandwiches because enough Miracle Whip can cover up most of the fishy taste), but over here there’s also squid, octopus, seaweed… Now that’s a whole different story! I did try one fish egg once. It was about the size of a pea and when I bit into it, this fishy-flavored juice exploded in my mouth. One was more than enough! I also tried a small piece of squid that I chewed...and chewed… and chewed… Nothing happened except for this seafood taste in my mouth. In Japan they don’t have fish-n-chips because over here, fish are chips. If you would like a potato-chip-like snack, you can buy a bag of small, dried fish, with the heads still on.

We have a food court in the new mall about 25-30 minutes from us (6 miles), and we walk past a lot of strange-looking things on our way to KFC. It could be that we might find them tasty but since we can’t read the ingredients and we can’t ask what they are, we decide it’s better to move on. (Some of their soups look good but we have learned the hard way that they often use a fish-flavored base.)

I’d like to like seafood as it is supposed to be good for high cholesterol people like me, but it’s not going to happen. One of the young pastors who was at the TBS Church when we were here before always wanted me to eat what he called taco salad. Now that sounded fine until I realized it’s spelled “tako” which means octopus… Enough said!

But there is good news. Japan has excellent fruits and vegetables. There are many Mom and Pop fruit and veggie markets in our area--our favorite being Yamato’s. We have been eating strawberries since January and they are much sweeter than those in the States. Lately mikans (delicious Japanese oranges) are in season, and in a few months, their sweet, juicy watermelons will be ready. On the vegetable side, Daisy particularly likes their cucumbers, and I enjoy daikon, which is a very large, mild-tasting radish.

Now the prices of things here were a bit of a shock. If we can find corn on the cob for the equivalent of $1 an ear, it’s a good deal. In some stores a single stalk of celery will normally be more than $1. Most apples are quite large and sometimes will be priced at $1 apiece or more. When you are invited to someone’s house, it is the custom to take a gift; and food is often the choice. The pictures show 2 cantaloupes for over $160 and a watermellon (in a nice box) for about $105.

Many American food items are available here if you search enough stores, but for a price. We recently bought a box of 10 Swiss Miss hot chocolate packets and paid about $4.50. An 18 oz. box of Rice Krispies is $9.00. Five cans of Campbell’s Cream of Chicken soup are $8.99. Hamburg is about $3.60 a pound. Needless to say, we don’t buy most of these things very often.

A “loaf” of bread can have between 2 and 10 slices. In the 2, 3 and 4 slice loaves the slices are a little more than an inch thick. And unless you buy a real loaf in a bakery, you don’t get the heel slices. Milk and juice only come in 1 liter (quart) sizes. Also it is extremely rare to find any bones in any cut of meat. Think about it. You don’t eat bones so why would a store sell them?

So I am not starving and I am not wasting away to nothing, but it amazes me that a country that eats raw fish won’t eat raw cauliflower. Go figure!