Washoku (Japanese cuisine)

Since coming to Japan I've been able to try a wide variety of food. Japan has delicious food. Meat and veggies comprise most of the meals, and they're about the same cost as in America. The fruits, while juicy and sweet (especially their momo, or peach), are very expensive - it's about $1.50 for an apple, to give you an idea. Japan also has oishii (delicious) bread products. In the supermarkets there's always a little area designated to their small bakery, and it seems that every day they have some kind of new, oishiisouna kashi (delicious-looking pastry), such as melon-pan (melon bread), various donuts, and Japanese pizza (which, by the way, they do COMPLETELY wrong, which I'll talk about more later). Just last night I ate squid tentacles for the first time. It was pretty good, albeit a bit chewy (though perhaps it was only decent due to being deep fried). Here are some pictures I've taken of various foods here. I'll try to do some food updates every now and then, once I have enough pictures to warrant an update.

A quick sneak-peak in my fridge a few weeks ago. It's not very big, so I often end up frequently shopping for small quantities of food. So is that bottom bin for vegetables, fruits, or meats?

Inside my pantry. I've tried to organize a little bit...

This was the result of my first jiryouri shokuji (self-cooked meal...or at least, that's the meaning I've tried to create from combining nihongo no genryou ^_<). Skinless, boneless chicken breasts with some toriyaki sauce. It was delicious, though probably a bit raw, since I didn't feel so good the next day ^_<

Some teduri sushi (handmade sushi...Doug, when I'm writing "tsu" when it's pronounced "zu" in romaji , do I write it as "du" or "tsu" or "zsu" or what?). Totemo oishikatta (very delicious) :) I mixed in some rice spices I had bought to give it an extra kick. They lasted as my lunch for three days.

Japan can NOT do American food right. Take this hotdog for example. Only 100 Yen (about a dollar's worth). Looks like a good deal, right?...

...wrong! There's little meat in the Japanese baked good section. It just LOOKS like there's a good amount of meat...but no...it's all just a tricky Japanese optical illusion, designed to trap hungry gaijin (foreigners) and sap their money from out of their saifu (wallets). Soreni (moreover), you'll usually find them with Japan's signature mayonnaise on it. *shudders*

One rainy day this stray Japanese girl followed me home. I decided to keep her, but I've yet to decide on a name ^_<>

Mmmm...marinated chicken breasts.

Meat, potatoes, garlic, and some other kind of veggie.

The finished product! John, Keiko, and myself all enjoying the fruits of our labor (well, of Keiko's, at least).

Humorously named chocolate bar. I've only seen Snickers and Kit Kat from American brands (Kit Kat in a variety of flavors, no less, such as "fruit tropical"). Japanese chocolate kind of sucks, too. It's not very sweet and all their chocolate products taste the same.

My standard dinner meal: chicken flavored ramen with an egg on top.


These things are fantastic. It's just tomato sauce, some cheese, and two small pieces of meat on a big slice of bread (well, standard size over here, about two slices worth from an American standpoint). Great to heat up and eat on cold days, or when I don't have time to cook eggs and hashbrowns in the morning. Speaking of eggs, I still suck at cooking them, though I am slowly getting better thanks to the practice of cooking two eggs nearly every morning. Over-easy's so hard....

Fuji-san shaped melon-pan, served at the half-way point on Mt. Fuji.

In Japan, pretty much everything has a smiley face on it. Here's the backside of a bag of pancake (hotcake in Japan) mix. I've still yet to dare try to cook it. Mom, dad...help! Kowaii! (Scary!)

The Japanese loooooove their okashi (snacks)! Whenever people gather in someone's apartment (for example, one of the guys in the basketball circle had a birthday two weeks ago), there's always okashi present and open. They're usually really good, though they don't have too much variety from what I've seen (often times a lot of seaweed based snacks). They do have Doritos, though, if I ever have the urge.

Ahh, Japanese peanut butter (bottom) and American peanut butter (top). The Japanese peanut butter is a creamy like substance, partially gelatinous...none too delicious. I'm still trying to pawn it off on one of the other ryuugakusei. The Skippy is about half the size of the ones in America. I'm not sure the price on a jar of peanut butter these days, but in Japan, it's about 500 yen ($5) for that chichai (small) jar. And it's always crunchy :( Thankfully my parents came to the rescue and sent me a jar of creamy JIF. Remember people, choosey moms choose JIF.

The Japanese have some kind of idea that peanut butter and jelly go together, but they're afraid to make that leap. Whenever I tell people about the American nigiri (riceball) equivalent, a PB&J sandwich, they always respond with "oishikunaiyo" ("That's not delicious!"). They like peanut butter sandwiches and jelly sandwiches (and apparently jelly + mayonnaise is good), but not PB&Js. At least, not until they've had one made by the world-famous Master PB&J Chef, Zandaa-sama...

..."Oishii"! Iikekka! (Good result, I'm shooting for "success!" here ^_<). Nearly everyone has really liked it once they try it. And how could they not? It's a PB&J sandwich! That's next to apple pie and baseball on the American roster.

Japan looooooves their hotcakes. Why, I'll never know. Most things here don't really make sense, like having only one showing of a movie at 9:30 AM >_<>

So here's the zouryou (ingredients) for improv macaroni and cheese. I dared to go where few men had dared to go before...

All in all, I'd say it was a success! I did indeed make, quite literally, macaroni and cheese. It tasted like decent mac & cheese, though the cheese part wasn't very good since I was using Kraft single slices, which have a different taste to them anyways. Unfortunately, I can't find any other way to acquire cheddar cheese here in Japan.

Next time I update on food I'll be sure to take a picture of the crazy Japanese pizza. Basically they have corn, huge tomato chunks, mayonnaise, and other random ingredients that really need to stay wayyyy far away from pizza. In fact, I've yet to see corn somewhere else other than on pizza. I've had a decent frozen pepperoni pizza with minimal hen na zouryou (weird ingredients), but all in all, they're pretty crappy here. I have heard that Japan Domino's, though, so one of these days I'll try to hit that up. If I had to pick a food that I miss the most from America, it'd definitely be decent pizza, but the Japanese food here is so good that it makes up for it.