I love to eat. One of the Japanese English teachers at my school laughed at me when I told him I'd been losing my appetite. "I thought your hobbies were eating and running!"

Japanese food is an adventure. After a year in this country I've become familiar with many things that I love and a few that I hate. There are also things that are just plain weird to me. I'm still learning the names of the things I love so I can have more!

"Ichiban" means "number one". "Suki" mean "like" and my absolute ichiban suki (favourite) thing about Japanese food is convenience. If I'm in a hurry I can get a cheap AND healthy snack or meal at a convenience store. I take it for granted now and someday I'll suffer great culture shock about it when I leave Japan forever. Once I discovered a few favourites, I found the ingredients at the supermarket. For example, I love cold soba. Soba is buckwheat noodles and it's usually served cold, topped with shredded nori (dried sheets of seaweed) and dipped into a strong-tasting thin dark sauce which probably begins with soy sauce, fish, etc and into which you mix wasabi (see below) and diced green onions. Slices of omelette are also on the side. It's the perfect meal on a hot summer night. So I bought some soba noodles and some sauce at the supermarket. It's a bit cheaper, but I have to cook the noodles myself and I prefer the texture of the ones that have been sitting in 7-11's fridge for a while! Convenience stores also sell sandwiches, sushi rolls, salads, hot steamed buns ("man") with various fillings including pizza flavour, and plates of spaghetti, omelettes, and curry rice which they will microwave for you. And they always give you the appropriate utensils - a plastic spoon or fork, or wooden chopsticks and a toothpick.

THINGS I LOVE
ΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚ>most kinds of sushi and sashimi - Sushi is sliced raw fish served on a rice ball and sashimi is just sliced raw fish. My favourites are maguro (tuna), salmon, ika (squid), and ebi (shrimp - NOT served raw!). Salmon & tuna have a really soft texture and mild taste, while squid is very smooth-tasting. Tako (octopus) is OK but a bit tough around the edges. Saba (mackerel) is OK too, but it has more of a strong fishy taste. The great delicacy uni (sea urchin) looks like s**t and tastes the way I'd expect s**t to taste.
ΚΚΚΚYou mix a bit of wasabi (Japanese horseradish, which tastes very much like English mustard only even hotter) in a dish with some soy sauce and dip your sushi/sashimi in it. But be careful with the wasabi - there is already some in the sushi and it will go up your nose and make your hair stand straight up.
ΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚ>miso soup - Miso is one of the many things made from soybeans and is very healthy. The soup base is dashi, a kind of fish sauce. It usually has tofu, dried seaweed, onions, etc in it. It's quite salty and very healthy.
ΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚ>ramen & udon - 2-minute noodles are ramen noodles. Udon noodles are fat white noodles. Both are often found in huge bowls of soup, usually consomme-based with meat and vegetables. My favourite is the miso ramen at a little restaurant near my old Nova school in Tokorozawa.
ΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚ>curry rice - Japanese curry is kind of like a mild West Indian curry (if you can imagine such a thing) but it's sweeter. It's served with pickled ginger on the side.
ΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚ>tempura and tendon - Tempura is battered and deep fried meat, seafood, and veggies. Tendon is tempura served on a bowl of rice. Dip it in soy sauce mixed with pureed radish. There's a chain of restaurants called Ten-Ya which serves very cheap, filling and delicious sets that include a small bowl of miso soup.
ΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚ>yakitori - "yaki" is the style of cooking over a BBQ in the middle of the table. "tori" is chicken. But many other things are served this way and they have different names on the menu. The basic one is chicken & leek, coated with either sauce or salt (lots of salt), but there is also meat balls, chicken & garlic, liver, tongue, beef, and I've even had cheese-stuffed green peppers. It's served with BEER. Lots of BEER! And sometimes sake.
ΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚ>bento - Lunch boxes. Usually rice, some kind of meat or fish, and pickles and lots of little plastic dividers to make it all look pretty.
ΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚ>onegiri - The ultimate convenience food. Usually triangular, it's a rice ball filled with some fish or pickles (or natto, yuk) and wrapped in nori. It comes ingeniously wrapped in plastic and there's a special technique to opening it but it's great for a quick lunch or a snack on the way home from the izakaya (pub). My favourite is tuna and mayo. (Tuna is translated in this case as "shichiken" or "sea chicken". Sorry, Charlie...Starkist isn't good enough!)
ΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚ>kimuchi - Actually this is the Japanese spelling of the famous Korean pickled cabbage "kimchee". It's spicy-hot and garlicky and very healthy. And delicious!
ΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚ>gyoza and shumai - Chinese dumplings. You cook them by frying them until one side is browned and then pouring some water over them to steam them. I always have a supply in my freezer...
ΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚ>edamame - Boiled and salted soybeans in the pod, served cold. Yummy. A typical izakaya snack. The manager at one in my old neighbourhood knows how much I like them so he always gives me them instead of the "appetizer of the day" that everyone else gets with their table charge.
ΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚ>cold soba
ΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚ>shabushabu - A small cast iron pot filled with broth and raw meat & veggies. When you sit down to eat the server lights the burner underneath to cook it for you. When it's ready you scoop it out into a bowl to eat it. Be careful, it's hot!

THINGS I HATE
ΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚ>natto - Fermented soybeans. The beans are a bit gooey and stick together like melted mozzarella. A Japanese friend prepared it for me with soy sauce, mustard, and kimuchi but I didn't like it much. It may be good for me, but I can get the same benefits from eating non-fermented beans and yogurt. It's strong smell puts many people off but I don't mind that - it's like gorgonzola or stilton. However, it tastes like Stop'n'Gro. Kansai people (from Osaka and west/south) don't like it.
ΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚ>uni - See sushi above. I would rather eat natto.
ΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚ>mochi - A special kind of rice that is made into balls. It has the consistency and texture of thick porridge mixed with sand and sticks to the roof of the mouth like peanut butter. People choke on mochi. It's served especially at New Year's and every year many people are admitted to hospital because of it. It's forbidden for small children.
ΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚ>katsuobushi - Dried fish flakes usually served on rice. These taste way too fishy for me.
(Feb 28/02 - I now like katsuobushi and mochi.)

WEIRD
ΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚ>oden - Various bits of meat, fish & seafood, veggies, that are cooked in broth. It actually tastes OK in school lunches (except for the mochi which is usually in it). However it sits on the front counter at 7-11 looking very forbidding and scary.
ΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚ>dried squid - Very salty and a bit chewy. OK with beer but I'm not really fond of it.
ΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚ>jako - Tiny dried silvery fish usually served on rice. They taste OK, are a bit crunchy and Κfull of calcium! I'll eat it if I'm Κgiven it but wouldn't choose it.
ΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚ>basashi - "Ba" means horse. "Sashi" comes from "sashimi". Yes, it's raw horse meat. It's served with garlic, ginger, and soysauce. I tried it - it doesn't taste bad but the idea of eating a raw horse is somehow infinitely more alarming than eating a raw fish...

So there you have it. I'm surprised by the variety of things to eat here and can't keep the names straight, which can be dangerous! There are many things I still haven't tried, including the infamous puffer fish whose poison will kill you if the cook doesn't know what he/she is doing. It's very expensive and I can think of many more exciting ways to risk my life for the same amount of money...

Copyright Ailsa Wylie 1999