The Food in This Land

Let's talk about the food in this land.

1) Vending Machines

Beverage vending machines are absolutely everywhere - everywhere. You can find them in any store and even on the side of a country road. Surprisingly, I have yet to find a vending machine that sells food...except for one. The Casual Frozen Foods 24 Hour Hot Menu vending machine. This vending machine sits above the cafeteria at IUJ in the lounge area. I haven't gotten brave (or desperate) enough to try the food in this vending machine, but perhaps one day I will.

Yes, food can be casual, frozen and hot all at the same time.

The delicious vending machine choices.

2) Noodles

I have been in Japan for almost 2 weeks and already I feel like I've eaten my body weight in noodles. Soba, ramen, udon...the choices are limitless. You can select the size, broth base, and toppings that accompany each of these noodles. Personally, I'm partial to udon but all the noodles are pretty tasty.

Ramen with all the fancy toppings.

3) O-Sushi

Avacado Sushi

Sushi. It's so special that in Japanese it gets the honorific "o"which conveys respect. I feel mildly ambivalent towards sushi but I feel thrilled and excited towards its method of transportation.

During my first week in Japan, I had the opportunity to go to a conveyor belt sushi place. I've seen those in the US so that part didn't wow me...until I realized you can order personal sushi using the computer at your table and it gets delivered on a mini shinkansen (Japanese bullet train)! There are just no words for this awesomeness.

Shinkansen Sushi!

Pickled vegetables

4) Mountain Vegetable Restaurant

The only thing I've eaten more of than noodles is vegetables. And most of them are unknown, mystery vegetables.

Last week, I went with some of my colleagues to the Mountain Vegetable Restaurant near the school. It tastes just like it sounds - like mountain vegetables. The first part of the meal consisted of pickled vegetables. For those of you who know how much I enjoy salty things, this was much appreciated. The second part of the meal was tempura - deep-fried vegetables. Tempura makes all vegetables taste better. Again, you'll notice in the pictures that the tempura came with a small container - a container full of salt for dipping! The other important thing to point out was that one of the tempura items was brown with small seeds on it. This turned out to be a twig. Yes, an actual twig. Bottom line, I ate many unknown foods during that meal.

Tempura (Please note the brown twig)

Salt for my tempura!

5) Plastic Food

One other interesting food phenomenon about this country is its obsession with plastic food. When you pass by restaurants, you may notice a large display chock-full of plastic food.

Bottom Line = The food in this land is delicious and mysterious.