I got a lot of e-mails from everyone today, so thanks, but I don`t
know if I`ll have time to respond to them all, so please be patient.
Am hoping to get the internet soon. But I found out today that my
internet cafe has free icecream, so I might come more often. It`s
thanksgiving today in Japan, which was a huge drag, because I had to
work overtime. I agreed, stupidly, but it wasn`t that fun. Also, it
is a different holiday in Japan. It is roughly Workers Thanks Day, or
Labor Day, so it was very busy at work. Japanese versions of Holidays
are a little odd. I found out today that on Christmas, it is like a
lover`s day and New Years is spent with the family. A little like the
reverse of the US. Let`s see, I starting hanging out with a few new
Japanese friends. It is pretty bizzare. My friend Nobu has not let
me pay for anything yet. He took me to really good Japanese food and
wouldn`t let me pay. Even ordered everything, it was good, but I
think he was also testing my ability to eat Japanese food. So, we had
Shochu to drink. Japanese rice whiskey. It is like a weak not that
great whiskey. Although I`ve heard that expensive Shochu is very
good. Then there was Sushi. In Japan Sushi is the good stuff,
Sashimi, plain or over rice. Makezushi is sushi rolls like Nori. So
it was tuna and a fish that will remain unidentified, but was
virtually flavorless and served with the skin on, but scaled. Then,
of course a Tako salad. Octupus salad with cucumbers. It is also
uncooked and is actually very refreshing. Plus the texture of Octupus
with cucumber is actually pretty good. After this we had different
types of fried vegetables on a stick like takatori. Breaded in Panko
bread crumbs. There was Shitoke, onion, egg (but not chicken egg, I
think maybe something much smaller, like not even half the size).
This was oddly enough really good. It was scorching hot on the
outside and the white was fluffy and cooked, while the yoke was semi
cooked but runny and it melted in your mouth. Shrimp with the tail on
and some other kind of fish, which might have been halibut. I don`t
know. Then we had ochazuke. Honorable tea Poured. This is a
descriptive name and a rough translation. It is rice with nori
seawead. You pour a classic Japanese noodle broth over. Very salty
and a little fishy. On the side is umeboshi and some pickeled
vegetable with wasabi. Umeboshi is like pickled or fermented plum.
It is one of the most sour and flavorful things I have ever eaten.
Should you ever order Ochazuke, do not eat umeboshi plain. What you
do is mix it into the rice then pour over the broth and eat. It is
very good and served with green tea, which goes quite well with it.
The whole meal between the two of us was like 45 bucks. Oh, we also
had like a vegetable stir fry in a really rich shoyu (soy sauce)
broth. By the way, if you tell a Japanese person you like natto
(fermented soy beans) and umeboshi, they will be very impressed.
These are two things that a lot of Japanese people don`t even like.
But they are also classic for eating healthy as far as Japanese
history goes. Also, for some reason Japanese people always assume
that outside of Japan maybe Japanese food is non existant worse that
people can`t eat it. For example, if I say I like sushi it. For
example, if I say I like sushi, the most common reaction is, like
sushi, the most common reaction is, `you can eat raw fish.` ｒｅａｃｔｉｏｎ
is, `you can eat raw fish.` To which I say, `you can eat raw fish.`
To which I say, `anyone can eat raw fish, it`s whether they like it or
not.` Part of the problem is that even though many Japanese people
travel, they always try to conserve money when traveling, so they just
eat at places like McDonalds. Which by the way is not called
Macudonurudu here, like many think. But called Kanto (Tokyo area) Mac
or Macu and Kansai (here or Osaka) Macudu. So they don`t try to eat
Japanese food or much other food when traveling. It`s really odd to
me, because one thing most Japanese people have in common is that they
love food. I am going to visit Kyouto tommorow. It is supposed to be
the best week this week. Red leaves and all. So hopefully it will be
a good trip. I am So hopefully it will be a good trip. I am also
going to do Karaoke sometime next week maybe. I hate to say I`ve
already succombed to it, but one thing that is beautiful about it is
that when doing Karaoke (pronounced Caw Ray Okay) you get free
drinks. So no matter what you drink in Japan it is like 5 dollars a
drink. Karaoke is like 30 dollars an hour split between four people
or more people and free drinks. Maybe this is the reason that
something as evil could become so popular. In America there is no
excuse. Also many girls like doing Karaoke, which is the reason I`m
going in the first place. I realized recently that I`m not getting
enough fruit or dairy in Japan, because fruit and cheese are
outrageously expensive, but have found a cheap and very strange
solution. They have this stuff that is like juice mixed with milk.
It sounds gross, but think of like a very drinkable yogurt and you`ll
get the idea, so it is another thing I`ve added to my list of strange
food that I not ｃａｎ`t live without. I`ve also become addicted to what
Iaffectionately call Japanese sandwiches. These are like Nori wrapped
around rice which has many different things in it. My two favorite
are Kombu (a type of seaweed that if you can get your hands on you
should, it`s not like seaweed flavor at all, but just hands on you
should, it`s not like seaweed flavor at all, but just really good and
indescribable). The other Ume (Plumb), you remember umeboshi right.
Also very good. They are like to 1 dollar snack lifesaver. That`s
about all Igot for now, I`ll get back to everyone soon.
Dan