We were both a little hungry when we left the airport, but I was more interested in sleeping. We stopped at FamilyMart, a convenience store. I noticed a few interesting things - a single banana wrapped in nice plastic, banana flavored Kit-Kat, and an Oreo candy bar. We bought three onigiri - filled balls of rice wrapped in seaweed. We had toro (fatty tuna) with green onions, tuna, and shrimp with mayonnaise. I thought they were all okay. The toro had the most flavor. We also bought a melon flavored juice and orange juice, neither of which I tried.
Breakfast Day 1
The hotel in Nagoya had a free breakfast buffet. There was lots to choose from. I tasted almost everything: a lukewarm stew with vegetables and tofu; cold noodles with vegetables and pork; a square of sweet egg; a little omelet filled with pork; a delicious piece of fish called sama; fried onion; potato croquette; rice with seaweed broken up over it; and miso soup. I also tried an umeboshi plum; Scott doesn't like them. They're supposed to be very healthy. I didn't like it too much.
Lunch Day 1
Our first destination in Nara was lunch. The restaurant was in the traditional Japanese style. We walked down a long hall, took off our shoes, and entered a small, private room with benches and a low table. The primary focus, at first, was ensuring that Kanon was fed. Nae brought baby food with her - an aluminum packet of mashed pork and beef with some potatoes in sauce. She put the packed in a bowl of warm water to heat it up and then poured it into a little cup for Kanon. Pretty useful. The baby food smelled like canned cat food. Our food smelled much better.
I had a bowl of soba, tempura shrimp and veggies, an awful tasting root vegetable in a yellow vinegary sauce, and a bowl of rice. Fuminori had tuna sashimi with a raw egg yolk for dipping. He encouraged me to try one and to break the yolk. It was very good - even with raw egg. I didn't realize the yolk was raw until several days later. Scott had a variety of sashimi, tempura, and an egg custard dish called chawanmushi.
Snacks Day 1
Just outside the Todai temple, I saw a street vendor selling little cooked balls of mochi, called dango. We each had one. They were soaked in a salty/sweet teriyaki sauce. I liked them well enough. I was expecting something sweeter since that's how I've always had mochi. But it was still good.
We went to the Oriental Diner for dinner. They're known for their curry. Scott ordered hayashi rice. I ordered what Scott thought was beef curry over an omelet and rice. It turned out to be hayashi rice. I took one bite and hated it. Scott thought it tasted great so ended up eating my meal and most of his own. He thought it was funny that I didn't like it - it was probably the most "American" thing on the menu, with a taste reminiscent of boeuf bourginon or bolognese sauce. I ordered a new plate of beef curry with rice. This time I actually got curry and thought it was delicious.
Morning Snack Day 2
The grounds around Osaka-jo had lots of street vendors - making takoyaki, yakisoba, and more. We bought a gorgeous looking mango that was peeled like a banana. I thought it was very tasty but it wasn't sweet enough for Scott.
Lunch Day 2
Everyone met up for dinner after leaving the park. We tried to go to a place for okonomiyaki (cabbage pancake with various fillings) and another for ramen but all the Japanese places had 30 minute waits. So we ended up at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. Fuminori was very excited about it. I suppose it's only appropriate to eat at Bubba Gump in Japan since we ate there in Hong Kong. I wanted something vaguely healthy so I had a salmon veggie skillet. It did have veggies but everything was dripping in butter and lots of rice. Healthy it wasn't but tasty it was.
See McDonald's above
Lunch Day 3
Next we went to a traditional Japanese restaurant called Izu-sen, inside the Daitokuji temple. The restaurant specializes in teppatsu-ryori, a Zen vegetarian cuisine. We had plate after plate of food - 10 bowls/plates in all. We started with mochi and green tea (Fuminori drank ours). Next was a little glass of plum wine plus vegetables in a mayonnaise-like sauce (Fuminori drank all 5 glasses of plum wine; his face started to get red). Other plades included tofu and seaweed and other vegetables; a slimy clear soup with a sakura blossom and some kind of potato; fried tofu ball with a soybean inside; tofu layers, bamboo, and some kind of root; brown rice with bamboo; tempura with dipping sauce; big green onions and pickled purple cucumber; and miso soup.
Dinner Day 3
There was still a 30 minute wait for the sushi restaurant so we sat in Fuminori's car and watched Stars on Ice on the TV on the dashboard. The screen functions as both a TV and a GPS. It seems like a dangerous distraction but it was fun to watch.
In the morning, Nae's mother cooked a delicious breakfast: root vegetables with tofu; an egg slice; a delicious piece of fish; salad with an apple; sesame spinach; tiny cuttlefish; rice; and miso with mussels. She also bought natto for me to try - it's essentially stinky soybeans. I didn't love it but it wasn't horrible. It's very popular in Japan - especially with children.
Around 9:30 we had a snack of an eel cookie (shaped like an eel), orange juice, and homemade yogurt with strawberry sauce. It was wonderful.
Lunch Day 4
We went to a restaurant in Nagoya on our way to the train station. I had tuna sashimi over rice, pickled daikon, cold tofu with soy sauce, and udon soup with a fish fin. Scott had a fish eye in his soup; he said it was pretty good. I was kind of disappointed to only have a fin in mine. Scott and I poured a raw egg into the udon. Fuminori's family just ate the raw egg with their rice - completely raw.
L-R: Sashimi with rice and seaweed; Udon soup with fish fin; cold tofu; daikon radish
Dinner Day 4Shizuo made us a fabulous home-cooked dinner. There was salad with lettuce, tomato, bean sprouts, some green plant, and spicy chicken. The main dish was meat and potato croquette over rice and cabbage with miso. I loved it. For dessert, Scott's friend brought Japanese cheesecake. I've had it before and really like it. It's less sweet and dense than American cheesecake.
Salad with lettuce, tomato, bean sprouts, some green plant, and spicy chicken
Japanese cheesecake
Breakfast Day 5
Breakfast was, unsurprisingly, delicious. There were little bowls of vegetables, one with a little meat in it. The main plates had eggplant with ginger, meatballs, a fried egg, spinach salad, rice, and miso. For "dessert" we had homemade yogurt with homemade grape jam. I loved it all, even though I normally dislike grape jam.
We had a very late lunch or early dinner - around 4:30 pm. Scott and I were very hungry. Shizuo made sukiyaki (pronounced skiyaki) - a plate ot vegetables (cabbage, devil's tongue/konyakku, greens, onions, daikon, and enoki mushrooms), tofu, and beef in a sweet sauce. The plate was sitting on a burner at the table. We took out a bite sized portion, dipped it into raw egg, and ate it over a bowl of rice. We ate a lot of food - fabulous as always. We also had a bowl of skemono - pickled cucumbers with vinegar and mustard. I loved them; I probably ate 3 times more than anyone else.
Breakfast Day 6
We had to eat early this morning to catch the 8 AM train to Niigata. Despite the early hour, Shizuo had a wonderful breakfast ready at 6 AM. The best part was a kabocha (pumpkin) soup. It was incredible. We also had cabbage salad, sauteed rape blossoms, sauteed fish with a garlic soy sauce, and scrambled eggs with sausage. Instead of rice we had two pieces of toast (even though I would have preferred just one) - one with garlic and one with jam. I gave Scott my sausage since I don't like them. This continued the pattern of me disliking the most American thing on the plate.
Lunch Day 6
Our first stop in Aizu-Wakamatsu was lunch. We went to a little ramen restaurant that was full of local businessmen. Scott and I ordered a regular sized bowl of ramen, which was huge. The large size was practically a bucket. The ramen had a clear, salty broth. It contained several pieces of fatty pork, green onions, and loads of ramen. Asahi's favorite part was the green onions. I tried to noisily slurp the noodles into my mouth like the Japanese, but I had trouble breathing in enough to get the entire noodle into my mouth at once. Plus, it's hard to get past the notion that loud slurping is rude.
Snack Day 6
Before leaving Tsuruga-jo, we bought a little snack of a stand outside the castle. We had fried mochi with seaweed strips on a stick. It was warm and delicious.
Dinner Day 6
Our last activity of the busy day was dinner. We went to kaiten sushi. Scott was in heaven because the fish in Niigata is very fresh and relatively cheap. We started with salad and miso with salmon. I tried several interesting pieces of sushi - salmon roe (ikura) and squid (ika). I liked them both. Scott doesn't like fish eggs, so I was pleased to like a Japanese food he didn't. I also had two pieces of toro, fatty tuna. One piece was especially fatty and one was medium fatty. I prefer maguro, the lean tuna, whereas Scott drools over toro. Tomohiro also prefers maguro. I also had salmon (sake) and young yellowtail (hamachi). I ate as much as I could, which was far less than Scott. While I like sushi, I can't eat too much; it tastes too rich - like eating a stick of butter. Asahi had different choices than the rest of us. She ate an egg custard dish, ebi (boiled shrimp), tako, and a maki roll with natto.
Breakfast Day 7
Our hotel in Niigata provided a free breakfast buffet. Like the hotel in Nagoya, it was pretty good. I had rice with seaweed and sesame seed seasoning, omelet, roasted potato, potato croquette, pineapple, cold noodle soup (cold soup isn't good in the morning), two types of fish, and tofu.
L-R: Rice, egg, croquette, potato, pineapple, cold soba soup, tofu, and fish
Lunch Day 7
Lunch was difficult. We were in the middle of Tokyo tourist town. We wanted to find a reasonably priced restaurant that wasn't awful. We picked out a little restaurant in the basement of a building that was pretty inexpensive. The menu was only in Japanese, so we figured it would be better than the tourist traps. It really wasn't. My food was just fine but Scott's tempura was really soggy. I had a bowl of rice with ground tuna sashimi with a raw egg and some vegetables; a bowl of udon; and two little bowls of vegetables.
L-R: Vegetables, ground tuna sashimi with raw egg over rice, Udon soup
Snack Day 7
We got hungry walking around Tokyo in the late afternoon and stopped for a snack. We bought a warm cake of an-pan - a pancake filled with red bean paste. Yum! And more importantly, warm on a cold rainy day.
Dinner Day 7
Dinner was ready soon after we arrived at Emiko's house. She didn't know whether I liked Japanese foods so she tried to make more "American" dishes. We had a croquette of hamburger and mushrooms in tomato soup/sauce. It was a little odd but tasty. I hate the texture of mushrooms but didn't notice them in the croquette. We also has salad and rice. Dessert was not to my taste. It was a bowl of yogurt with bananas and oranges. The yogurt and oranges were fine, but I hate bananas. I managed to quietly slip them to Scott.
Emiko's kindness unfortunately backfired due to my weird food preferences. She tried to cater to my American tastes. But...I just happen to dislike many typical "American" foods. This was reflected clearly in our breakfast. To explain, I hate ketchup, bananas, hot dogs, and canned vegetables. We had an egg (which I ate), salad (which I ate), toast doused in ketchup and cheese (picked at and then slipped to Scott), a banana (slipped to Scott), and soup with hot dogs and canned vegetables (gave the hot dogs to Scott and ate most of the rest). "Dessert" was a yogurt drink that is very popular with the Japanese. I thought it was nasty - too sweet - but Scott liked it well enough.
1 comment:
wow...looks like you had quite a variety of interesting cuisine. I love that you document everything you eat since I often find eating to be my favorite part of any outing/trip.:)
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