Food

Many people have asked me about food. Here it is. Japan is an island nation, so fish are in integral part of their diet. (Being a vegetarian, this sometimes caused me hiccups because bonita flakes were used as a base in many soups and seasonings.)

In general, meals have many different dishes. I loved the variety of food, but it must have been hard to prepare it all and wash all the dishes since everything is served on separate dishes!


Coke is everywhere!

Breakfast after the fish market.



Octopus balls being prepared at the baseball game. Would you be willing to give it a try?


These were snacks I saw at a convenience store. Dried fish anyone?


Pringles are everywhere too!


Frozen zucchinis on a stick sold as street food.

The windows of many restaurants are filled with plastic models of food to tempt passerbys to come inside.  This tradition started with wax medical models, moved to food models, then became plastic.  Sometimes you use them to order especially if their is a language barrier.

While we on the road we were served box lunches, known as bento boxes.  This is mine a special veggie version.  The small serving of spaghetti had a ketchup like sauce.  The top portion also has cold eggplant tempura and a tiny portion of a jello like dessert.  Also included five half tomato and cucumber crustless sandwiches and cold fries.

Everyone else had a mix of half sandwiches (including chicken patty, egg salad, potato salad), egg and some hot dog/sausage type item.

My next bento box had hard boiled egg & tomato and cucumber & lettuce sandwiches both with lots of mayonnaise and no crusts.  It seems most sandwiches are served crustless and on white bread in Japan.

As you can see most meals are several small dishes.  I just love the variety!

There is always sticky rice!

These were candy treats we were served at the Indigo House.

I'm not sure what these were some kind of home made steaming rice muffin also served at the Indigo House.

This is a school lunch.  Notice the variety.  Next to the kiwi is a strip of seaweed; they are very nutritious.  The schools teach about the nutritional value of each item.  It seems kids can have seconds on items.  The sweet potatoes were covered in a very sweet coating.  The soup was fish based so I didn't taste it.

At the the elementary and high schools my lunch was a but rough because everything was made with fish base.  At the elementary I ended up with just a bowl of rice with no seasoning, but at the high school I ended up with a few more choices bread, rice, noodles, and yogurt.

This is what was served at the high school.

Here is one of my host family meals.  Like I mentioned earlier the Grandma must have spent all day cooking, she made every meal for us and they were elaborate and delicious.  She made everything vegetarian so I ate everything, though I wouldn't be able to identify it all.  They were so pleased that I could sit on my knees in the traditional manner and use chopsticks!  In the paper packages are pickled plums which are a big delicacy for the Japanese.  For every dish you get an individual plate or bowl.  It was fun eating off all the beautiful dishes, but it is a lot to clean up!

I thought everything here was good except for the green item in the square bowl.  I'm not sure what it is but it was slimy and hard to eat with chopsticks.

We even got dessert, as the guest I was asked to choose first, it was a tough choice!  I settled on the fruit cup pastry.


This was a fun meal.  It was vegetable tempura (yummy!) and a fondue type soup cooking right on the table. 

I'm not sure what kind of vegetable I was eating here.

This is from the Genkai Ryokan.  An elaborate meal is part of the experience.  It has many courses and lasts all evening.  Here are photos of my meal (special to be fish free) and everyone else's.  Fish are a huge part of the diet in Japan.  My meal was great!

First course.

2nd course.

Seafood in a box.

We are all wearing the traditional clothing that is issued to every guest.  Mine was way too big!  We are all sitting (kneeling) on the floor in two lines separated facing each other.  

The rice was cooked right on our trays about half way through the meal.

The dessert was some sort of dairy product with fruit.  

This vending machine dispensed beverages into cups like some coffee vending machines in the U.S.