Book Me
✕

Author: Chloe Kirk

Categories
Asia Japan Travel

Universal Studios Japan

Today was probably one of the most exciting days for me since I have been in Japan: I went to Universal Studios Japan (USJ)!! I have wanted to go to USJ since week one of being here, but I needed it to be warm enough to actually enjoy walking outdoors all day. It’s been excruciating waiting so long because USJ is only one stop further on the train I take to work every than my stop, and so I see all the tourists coming and going with their giddy children and geared up minion apparel (USJ is known for their minion park from Despicable Me).

We set out (me and the other intern, Anna) just like it was any other day commute to work, leaving bright and early at 7:30 AM to get to USJ at a bit past 8:30 AM, taking the exact same trains as we take to work. When we arrived, a sea of tourists threw themselves onto the train platform and we all walked in unison to the gates of USJ. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of people already waiting at the gates but the park didn’t open until 9 AM! I took this waiting time as an opportunity to freak out a little that I was finally here and take some pictures.

Once the gates opened, the flood of people entering USJ had made initial ride wait times at least 50 minutes. My first impression was just being overwhelmed by all the people and surroundings; I felt like I was transported to another world that took all the classic pieces of Hollywood movies into one place. I have been to other Universal Studios in California and Florida and, while bigger, USJ seemed to go all out on the decorations. Other Universal Studios do have extravagant restaurants and stores like USJ, but USJ also has so many additional, full sized buildings that were solely used as props. It also has a whopping three man made lakes in a much smaller park size than the other Universal Studios of America: one in the center of the park, another as part of the Jaws exhibit, and a third in Harry Potter World.

The first stop needed to be Harry Potter World because all of the English bloggers and reviewers that have been to Japan warned you needed to reserve a time slot to enter Harry Potter World the day of. When we arrived, however, we were told by two very friendly USJ workers (all the USJ workers seemed to be constantly smiling and waving and giving high fives) that it was not busy enough today to merit needing reserved time slots. This isn’t busy? There were as many people in USJ at 9:15AM as there have been mid afternoon in other Universal Studios I have been in!

The entrance to Harry Potter World was this ominous stone circle taken right out of the books where Voldemort and his cohort gathered. Eery, booming music played to signal your arrival into an enchanted, mysterious place, enough to get your heart racing, and I followed the crowd down a mystical path lined on both sides with dense pine trees and old fashioned lamp posts. It was a solid five minute walk before you reached the Weasley’s old car which was the first obvious Harry Potter reference, and then just around the corner was the entrance to Harry Potter World!

On the other side of the archway was the Hogwarts train and Hogsmead. Almost all the tourists to USJ are Asian, but interestingly all the actors I saw pretending to be students at Hogwarts were Western and speaking English! While there were many shops such as Olivander’s wand shop or Zoinkos that allowed people inside, there were also many full sized stores simply as props. To the best of my memory, this Harry Potter World has the same basic layout as in other Universal Studios, but it was expensive to an entirely new height than all the others. $18 for a small anything flavored jelly bean box, $24 for a mug, $140 for a hogwarts cape and $50 for a stuffed owl. Yet this seemed to deter no one from buying these products! Later I would see that this expensive trend continued beyond just souvenirs and included food as well with a single piece of pizza starting at $12 or fried rice at $15.

I got a celebratory butterbeer, and then proceeded into the Hogwarts castle and a roller coaster around Hagrid’s house!

These rides were exciting, but not overly scary, so when we walked into Jurassic Park and saw a roller coaster called “the Flying Dinosaur”, I thought it was nothing I couldn’t handle. (Pro Tip: take the singles lane whenever it is offered because you cut a line of 1-3 hours down to a 10-30 minutes wait just by agreeing you are okay not riding with your friends.) Ten minutes after getting in line, I was seated horizontally and buckled in, all ready for the ride to begin! 11 minutes after getting in line, the ride finished, I unbuckled and face planted into the ground. I was so dizzy that in order to pick up my bag, I had to sit cross legged on the ground; I couldn’t even walk in a straight line. As soon as I was able, I found the first curbside to sit down on and directed all of my energy into stopping the ground from spinning. I kept thinking how come no one else leaving this ride looks as bad as I do? Everyone coming out was just smiling and laughing! After one hour of sitting down, I thought I could handle walking so I got up and walk over a bridge only to feel light headed and queasy all over again. I find the nearest bathroom, and then thirty minutes later I am back out, only feeling slightly better, to sit on a new curb. This new area, just a bridge away from the ride, and I finally saw all the other people who looked like they were dying from the ride, just like me. I was not alone! I didn’t want to feel this miserable and dizzy all day, and I knew to make myself better I needed food. I had brought snacks, but I needed something more substantial than just sugar. Despite my commitment not to buy the mega overpriced food at USJ, I realized it was inevitable to make me feel better. I found pizza advertised as New York pizza, and, although it obviously was not authentic, at the time I felt confident saying it was the best piece of pizza I had (likely a combination of how sick I felt and how expensive it was played a significant contribution into me labeling it as such).

Feeling not yet 100% but many times better than two hours ago when I stepped off the flying dinosaur, I cautiously continued on to Minion Park.

Here I bought so many Minion designed goodies including a Minion shaped popcorn holder and the popcorn was banana caramel flavored!

I love the Despicable Me movies, and especially the minions, so I was thoroughly enjoying just walking around the park and recognizing the different buildings from each movie! Then we decided to brace the 140 minute wait time for the Minion Mayhem Ride thinking that, from our experience, the line couldn’t be as long as they suggested! It was longer. 1.5 hours in we got to the entrance of Gru’s house thinking that this must be the entrance to the ride, only to see another large room full of people queing. 2.5 hours and we are finally all divided into one of three lines either leading up, straight or down. This new line only brought us to a room where they played a 5 minute nonsense video in Japanese about how Gru will turn us into minions. We are then ushered into yet another room to watch another nonsense video this time with Gru’s adopted daughters saying they will lead the transformation, again in Japanese with English subtitles. Finally we are moved into a room with an 8 seated vehicle and instructed to get it and sit. We sit there, not moving, for another 5 minutes and I notice that you can hear noises from other rooms that people must be in, all coming from above us where there was no ceiling. As a video on a large IMAX screen above us begins, our vehicle is lifted up to fill the space in the empty ceiling, and I can see 11 other vehicles in this same, large IMAX room. For a little over one minute, the IMAX screen mimicked a roller coaster (similar to the minion game application you can get for your phone) with our vehicle making slight tilts to accompany the video. And then, just as abruptly as the video began, it stopped and we were lowered down. I could not believe I had waited for three hours for this! But, honestly, I am happy I did wait just for the fact that now I know that ride is not worth all the fuss!

From there, I went on a couple more rides, avoiding all roller coasters like the plague. As darkness neared, I ventured back into Harry Potter World briefly to see it lit up at night, and ended the 11 hour day at McDonalds (just outside USJ) for some normally priced food.

USJ lived up to everything I had hoped and dreamed! Just, unless you are very good at not getting dizzy, don’t go on the flying dinosaur.

Categories
Asia Japan

Kani Party

Anytime anyone ever asked me if I like to eat crab I would have said no. I had never actually tried crab, but crab lies in the same seafood category as fish and I don’t like fish so I assumed I would not like crab. This narrow minded view never allowed me to try any other seafood, not realizing other seafood does not necessarily taste of fish.

My laboratory had been planning since my second week as an intern to have a kani party (crab party) after work. We would cook it ourselves and eat it in the company dining room. I was not sure what this entailed, so I just tried to listen along as each lunchtime my laboratory team planned further in depth about what food would be cooked, who would be invited and the logistics. The week of the kani party, a growing wall of food amassed on the corner of the laboratory conference room table. One of the strangest items placed on the table was was a large, plastic bag containing a liquid I learned was called kani soup. This would be poured into the pot cooking the crab.

The night of the party, 12 of us surrounded two large cooking pots (called nabe) centered over portable stoves in the middle of the table. Immediately prior to turning on the stoves, one large kani soup packet was poured into each nabe. Once the kani soup was hot, kani legs, Chinese cabbage, kitsune (fried tofu), potato noodles and carrots were thrown in by everyone before being covered and let to simmer for 5-10 minutes. In the meantime, we all cracked open a drink and “cheers”-ed! After the pot began to bubble, the lid was removed and it was a free for all for who could find the kani legs first. I suffered a major disadvantage because we were using chopsticks to find the crab and I am still learning how to master chopsticks, so others nicely helped me place crab on my plates. Following suit of everyone else, I cracked the legs and scraped the meat out with my chopsticks.

My first taste of crab, I thought I had done it all wrong because it did not taste fishy at all. I kept going, pleasantly surprised by the revelation not all seafood tastes like fish. After the kani party, I have changed my stance about seafood. I still don’t like fish, but lots of other seafood now may be delicious without being fishy at all!

Categories
Asia Japan Travel

Nankinmachi: Kobe Chinatown

About half a week before going to Kobe, I asked around what people in my laboratory and dormitory suggested. After giving me a “why are you going there” look, all people could suggest was Kobe beef and Nankinmachi, Kobe Chinatown. Taking these suggestions, and a thorough google search, I realized it might only be an afternoon trip.

Setting off at 3, an hour later I found myself in the bustling metropolis of Kobe. There were clothe shops everywhere, and I became consumed for over an hour in a street that seemed like a mall directly under the train track line. One thing I have been searching for a long time but had not discovered until Kobe are the highly talked about Japanese thrift stores.

They have so many unique finds, including bomber jackets, oversized sweaters, knock off Supreme clothing and I even found a Minnesota Vikings jacket! I was probably in these thrift stores far too long because when I reached the outside once again it was already dusk!

Quite near the train line, I found Nankinmachi decoratively lit up with Japanese lanterns. While quite beautiful, it only spanned a couple blocks with every vendor selling the same Chinese food and gifts. Interestingly, unlike all the places I have visited so far in Japan, the vendors would actually try to talk to you and lure you into their store (perhaps because of the increased competition from everyone selling the same things).

The food was delicious, and after sampling the best Nankinmachi had to offer, I wandered through street to find the “terminal park” as I had been told it was named. Side note, it is actually called the Port of Kobe Earthquake Memorial Park. On my walk through the streets, every open shop seemed to be a Kobe beef restaurant! Fortunately I have already tried Kobe beef, and I didn’t have enough money to afford buying it, so I was not tempted.

Eventually, I reached the park, and it was fantastically lit and all your could see were the skyscrapers and the ocean!

One hotel had even been designed to look like a cruise ship, and an actual cruise ship pulled up alongside!

It was spectacular, but eventually it became too cold and so I eventured back to the train to take me home. Kobe is a wonderful city, perhaps not Japanese in the traditional sense, but it was a great day trip and I highly recommend visiting when it is dark so you can take in the beautiful lights of Nankinmachi and the Kobe Earthquake Memorial Park.

Categories
Asia Japan Travel

Japanese Take on Afternoon Tea

A coworker recommended Monter au Plus Patisserie for my next outing, and so when sightseeing had lulled I decided to treat myself to a fancy afternoon. My coworker warned me it would be expensive, and right she was with small cakes starting at $5. After weighing whether the experience was worth the price, I forged inside to order. The patisserie was small but packed.

Immediately upon entering, there is a stand with a piece of paper (which I found out only too late that it is to sign up to be in line). Along the wall of the entrance are people slumped in chairs, some sleeping, while waiting for their name to be called. In front of the chairs is a little section to buy small treats to bring back home or to work, and beyond the treats are tables of people eating their tiny desserts and sipping tea. Behind the tables there are floor to ceiling windows so you can peer in as bakers bake cakes. And on the right are what seems to be an endless cake selection.

Unsure how to proceed, I walk up to the counter to order and a confused Japanese waitress ushered me back to sign the sign in sheet. After realizing my mistake, I was only further embarrassed because I needed to put the Japanese characters of my name but could not remember them, and so in the heat of the moment scribbled down my name in English instead.

Thirty minutes in and still not being seated, I was questioning whether I should have come after all. At the forty minutes mark, the same waitress I had earlier confused came over to bring me to my seat (I assume she didn’t call my name because I had written it in English). Tea was another pricey $6, but because I had already waited so long I thought I might as well go for it and ordered some Earl Grey. It was the best decision I have ever made in my life. Before coming to Japan, I despised green tea, but that is all you can find here. There is Royal Milk tea but it is definitely not the same as a hot cup of black tea. So for months I have been getting used to, and potentially beginning to enjoy, green tea. But having some real black tea was absolutely worth the $6, and honestly I would have likely paid more. Soon after, the cakes arrived. While taste wise, these tiny desserts did not seem worth the $5 price tag, the presentation was clearly exquisite. While I may have been in Japan, it felt more like I was in a fancy café in England, being served a proper cup of tea and chocolate cake.

An otherwise lazy afternoon well spent!

Categories
Japan Travel

Claustrophobic

Last time I was in Tokyo, I was hoping I had seen more of the craziness Tokyo is known for, and my goodness did I find more than I could ever dream of on my next trip!

This time, I went to Harajuku district, Shibuya district and Yoyogi park. I began in Yoyogi park, expecting to find it similar to the parks I had seen before in Tokyo with gravel paths bordering dead grass you were not allowed to walk on. Immediately upon entering Yoyogi park, I was met with a massive archway to symbolize the entrance and hundreds of people walking through at only 10AM!

As I walked down the main path to Yoyogi temple, huge trees bent over the walkway and small side paths led off to somewhere else in the forest. The Yoyogi temple was beautifully situated in the middle of the forest, but it was so packed I quickly left to find a more quiet place in the park. Sure enough, after following one of the side paths, I was led to a clearing with a pond and just a few people napping or playing with their children where I joined them to relax.

After my rest, I walked to Harajuku district, located directly outside of Yoyogi park. It was a complete 180 from the serenity I had just experienced. Not even by my own volition, I was pushed with a herd of people heading for Takashita Street, the start of the famous shopping and fashion area of Tokyo.

It was so packed that many of the stores I was interested in entering I could not get my way through the the throng of people! The shops were mainly directed at women, selling feminine clothes, accessories and food. Occasionally, I would be able to go inside a store just to leave the hoard of people only to be met with a slightly less crowded store. One place I was determined to find was Tokyo’s Totti Candy Factory, world famous for its cotton candy. After going inside the store, I see why it is so famous!

Three hours later, and thousands of yen spent, I retreated to the train station to hopefully find a less busy Shibuya district. I could not have been more wrong. Shibuya, specifically Shibuya crossing, is precisely the noisy, bright and crowded Tokyo I expected, but seeing and experiencing it in person was quite overwhelming. You think New York city is crowded, but then you see this and New York might as well be like comparing Minneapolis, Minnesota to Chicago. The Shibuya district which is full of bright lights and people does not cover more than six or seven blocks in each direction, but those blocks are teeming and overflowing with life.

I am happy I can finally say I know why Tokyo has the reputation it does, but it makes me ever so thankful I am working in Osaka and not in Tokyo.

Categories
Asia Japan Travel

Whale Sharks, Purika and Okonomiyaki

Embracing being the classic Osaka tourist, I headed out to explore Osaka’s Aquarium: Kaiyukan. The aquarium borders the ocean and a shopping mall. Kaiyukan is famous for its whale sharks, and so there are countless pictures and statues displayed of these enormous creatures.

The aquarium did a great job with the wow factor. Almost as soon as you enter, you are brought to a tube you walk through surrounded by fish swimming in the water all around you. And then you go through a spiraling descent around a giant fish tank. On the outside of the spiral are various smaller exhibits that lose all attention in the presence of the large fish tank on the inside. The large fish tank is so massive that you cannot see the windows on the other side, and swimming inside are dozens of sharks and stingrays.

There were hammerhead sharks and other smaller sharks, but you could not mistake the two enormous whale sharks. I actually jumped the first time one swam close because it was so big it could block the entire length of the floor to ceiling window wall and then some. I was reassured many times by the friends that I was with that they don’t hurt humans, but I couldn’t help being both in awe and nervous around such gigantic animals.

After the aquarium, we went to the nearby shopping area and I was treated to an uniquely Osakan afternoon. First we tried purikura, Japanese photo booths. They didn’t acquire the name simply by being photobooths in Japan, but they allow you to edit, draw and write on the pictures after you take them. They do keep a timer on how long you can spend editing photos which can actually get a little stressful near the end. The shopping mall we went to only had around ten, but other areas in Japan I have been to have entire floors dedicated to Purikura.

At this point I was starving so we headed to an okinomiyaki restaurant. All the tables in the restaurant had flat stoves which I only noticed when I almost burned myself. After ordering, they came out with bowls filled with cabbage, egg and various other ingredients we had ordered including shrimp and pork. They mixed the bowls and then dumped the ingredients into a sizzling pancake on the stove. Okinomiyaki is a delicacy local to Osaka ( along with takoyaki) which loosely translates to “fried what you like”. It was described to me as a pancake filled with cabbage and meat, but I would say it is more accurate to describe it as a pile of cabbage loosely held together by egg and filled with meat. The waitress came over every so often to check if it was done and flip it when needed, and finally she signalled for us to tuck in and eat! Honestly, it felt like I was eating cabbage with a little meat thrown in, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to try Japanese food, specifically Osakan cuisine!

Categories
Asia Japan Travel

Bless You

You know that communication will be difficult when going to a different country, but it is a whole new dimension of difficulty that I found myself in after moving to Japan. You think everyone will be able to understand your English? Wrong. You think enough research beforehand will prepare you not to make any cultural mistakes? Think again. Simply speaking, after arriving I probably made as many errors as most other westerners in Asia who just showed up with little to no research ahead of time, despite believing I was fully prepared for my new life. Sadly, the internet cannot teach you everything.

Communication is the cornerstone to making it in any society, and I quickly had to learn what was acceptable and what was unspoken yet forbidden. Before coming to Japan, I did learn some generalizations about Japanese culture such as to bow over shake hands and it is a more nonverbal culture than America. However, even though Google may tell you to bow lower to those of higher superiority, it is only by repeated practice, and much error, that you gain the skills for measuring how low to bow or when it is alright to ask questions or laugh with friends. One of the most obscure lessons of communication I have noticed is the fact no one says “bless you” or “excuse me” after sneezing. I suppose this does make sense because saying “bless you” after someone sneezes comes from the old Christian belief that sneezing allows the devil to enter unless you are blessed first. However, without noticing, I say it to people after they sneeze and they return a baffled look. It is also rude not to say certain phrases at specific times throughout the day, such as “Ohio Goziamas” for goodmorning or “Otsukaresama-desu” for goodbye from work, literally translating to as “thank you for your hard work”. This may seem minor, but it is how you can make or break relationships in Japan, just by one slight miscommunication.

While on the topic of communication, I have also made countless miscommunication blunders. I have mispronounced dozens of names or Japanese words. One of the worst mispronunciations I have committed in Japan is thinking Japanese for good evening was “bonbanwa” instead of “konwanwa”, and walking around saying this for multiple weeks to coworkers and other dormitory women while they stared back in utter confusement. Or perhaps even worse was my first time meeting the members of my laboratory and I said the casual version of good morning only meant for close friends, “Ohio”, instead of the correct form of “Ohio Goziamas”. Fortunately, my team just laughed it off, but I was frightfully embarrassed and even thinking about it again makes me go bright red.

A lot of other miscommunication has occurred, especially when it comes to understanding some of the English spoken by Japanese people. I forget how many pronouns the English language employs or words we assume in normal conversation, but it becomes extremely apparent when talking to someone whose second language is English. For example, someone may ask me one question but use English pronouns and so I misunderstand the question and answer a different question. To minimize miscommunication, after someone asks me a question that could have any other meaning, I first repeat it back so I’m not answering the wrong question, and it helps so much especially in my lab when we are talking about technical terms!

All in all, communication has been the biggest struggle while being in Japan, but once I started learning the normalities it is slowly becoming easier.

Categories
Asia Japan Travel

Chicken Sashimi

My company apparently really likes parties, and so we went out one night for chicken sashimi. I didn’t know what chicken sashimi meant, but I like chicken and thought this would be a great opportunity to get to know my coworkers outside of work.

The restaurant was very traditional; we had to take our shoes off before sitting around low to the ground tables and being served by waitresses wearing traditional gowns and footwear. Because I am the new member of the lab, I had to sit in the center as a person of honor, and it took quite some time figuring out where else needed to sit in relation to me depending on their rank in the company. Once seated, beers arrived to toast and, as the second round of drinks were passed around, our first course arrived. At first glance, I thought it was raw fish. But as the waitress began to explain each type of meat on the plate, my jaw dropped and I was mortified; I was about to eat raw chicken?

Thank goodness I had not read all the food poisoning possibilities before coming to dinner that night, otherwise I would have been much more hesitant trying the raw chicken. As everyone happily chomped away, I slowly picked a piece of uncooked chicken breast and threw the whole piece quickly in my mouth. The texture was bizarre, not horrible but not particularly pleasant either. After my first taste, I was just considering just waiting for the next course but everytime my mouth was empty, someone would politely offer me another piece of sashimi. By the end of the course I had tried almost every part of raw chicken on offer: breast, thigh, heart, kidney and liver. The only part I didn’t try was called “old chicken” which was grey because the chicken had been killed so long ago!

After this course, the other chicken courses were cooked and much more palatable to me. They also began to serve sake after the first two rounds of beer. I am very glad I tried the chicken sashimi, but I don’t think I will be voluntarily eating chicken sashimi again!

Clear Sake
Categories
Asia Japan Travel

Nerd City

This weekend was my first time in Tokyo, and I thought plane would be the best way to go. Tokyo is only one hour away from Osaka by plane, or three hours by shinkansen (bullet train). In retrospect, I think taking the plane was a big mistake. Unlike America, trains are significantly cheaper than planes and often faster. While from Osaka airport to the Tokyo airport technically only took an hour and the price tag indicated it was cheaper, that did not include the necessary trains to and from the airports that ended up costing more and making the total travel time longer than just taking the shinkansen. Future plan: take the train everywhere.

For my first time in Tokyo, I had three places in mind to visit: the imperial palace, Akihabara district and Ueno district. I began in the imperial palace gardens, an enormous flat expanse of cordoned off dead grass and trees carved out among the concrete jungle that is Tokyo.

The gardens are multiple islands, divided by man made moats and joined by the occasional bridge. These gardens are so big, it took over an hour just to find the entrance to the only part of the gardens accessible to the public: the East gardens. Here, I was a little disappointed. I was imagining lush green fields and picturesque Japanese gardens, but instead I found a high security maze of gravel paths bordering vast swaths of yellow, dead grass and the remains of various ancient buildings. It was only when I had begun to lose hope of seeing the spectacular gardens I had pictured that, completely by accident, I stumbled upon a lovely coy fish pond and budding plum trees (different than cherry blossom trees).

Imperial Gardens

The next stop was nerd city, a.k.a. Akihabara district. Just as I was warned by coworkers, block after block of the main street were lined with anime figurine shops, Pokémon stuffed animals, manga comic books and gacha stores (stores filled with vending machines of toys). Interestingly, behind the main street I found alleys selling sexualized female anime figurines, female anime posters and even stores with real women dressed as female anime characters! I was obviously the only woman in these streets and, after feeling increasingly objectified with every passing store, I rushed back to the safety of the juvenile main street.

Main Street of Akihabara District
Multi-Level Shopping Center for All Things Nerdy

Lastly, there was the Ueno district, known for a park so large that it contains a zoo within! Lining the main walkway to a shrine overlooking Ueno park’s biggest pond were vendors selling fried chicken and squid and even long, chocolate covered, waffle textured dessert.

Unknown but Delicious Chocolate Dessert

After tucking into this treat, the six year old inside of me went to a paddle boat ride in a swan shaped boat on the Ueno pond!

I am now truly exhausted from doing so much in such a short amount of time but I can’t wait to go to Tokyo again! What I saw wasn’t exactly what I envisioned when I thought of Tokyo; I pictured a huge nightlife and endless lights. It is refreshing to know Tokyo is more than just the crazy busy bustle and endless shopping, but next time I hope I can see more of what makes Tokyo world famous.

Categories
Asia Japan Travel

Picky Eater Problems

I have never been an adventurous eater. In fact, some might call me a relatively picky eater, almost exclusively sticking to the Italian cuisine (pasta and pizza). If you haven’t read my other blog posts about food yet, most of them begin in a similar fashion of “I have never tried this before” or “I have never particularly wanted to try this food before.” Yet, while being in Japan, I have been brave enough to try more food than I have in my entire life in America. So far, some of the most unique food I have tried includes all manner and arrangements of fish, chicken sashimi (raw chicken), Kobe beef, takoyaki (fried balls of octopus) and miso soup.

When I say fish makes up a large proportion of Japanese cuisine, I mean I am offered it almost every meal of the day. In the dormitory, where I have a set meal for breakfast and dinner, half of the breakfast meals and three quarters of the dinners include some variation of fish. During lunch, where there is a cafeteria at lunch, even if I order a basic salt ramen or kitsune udon (salt soup with udon and fried tofu), I will also receive a small decorated and pressed piece of fish pasts. There are so many ways to make fish into different meals and I had no idea of the full extent of it until coming here! You can just find a normal fish, tempura (battered and fried fish), fish sashimi (raw fish), sushi, balls of fish in soup, fish flakes, fish pasts, fish eggs and more!

Balls of Fish in Soup for Breakfast
Sushi

The problem for me is that I don’t like fish, and so it has taken some real adjusting to the new meals. Don’t get me wrong, I still love plenty of new food here, but just not the fish. Kobe beef is heavenly, and takoyaki is unusually delicious (as long as I don’t bite down directly on one of the suction cups of the tentacle of the octopus).

Takoyaki

The only other big problem I frequently come across with Japanese cuisine, besides fish, is miso soup. If you are not familiar with miso soup, it is a sour, yellow drink that can have various ingredients added such as fish or seaweed or vegetables and is served with every meal. I still drink it to be polite, and it’s not as bad to me as eating fish, but I just can’t get over the sour taste and the fact I don’t really know what ingredients it is made of!

Other than those two food issues, all the other food I have tried I have immensely enjoyed, especially mochy (rice dough with sweet red bean paste inside) and the extensive amount of Japanese chocolate, such as the endless Kit-Kat flavors.

Mochy in Nara

    Share Your Story