Japanese Food

Oh the deliciousness! When I was in America and people were talking about making instant ramen for themselves to snack on, I saw it and I smelled it and I was disgusted. So I was a little wary of trying ramen here. But then I discovered the pure joy of this delicious noodle and all the varieties it comes in. Whenever I see ramen commercials on Japanese TV, it doesn't look that delicious. It just looks kinda greasy in a bowl of funky broth with an egg on top. That, of course, is only one variety of ramen. Soup ramen is good, but personally I think oily ramen is better. Especially when you throw garlic and cayenne pepper on top. At the moment, my favorite ramen is called tsukemen （つけめん）which is oily ramen that you dip into a bowl of deliciousness and then eat. I had it the first time at an apparently very famous ramen joint in Ikebukuro. The great thing about the broth mixture melange was the incredible variety of spices and flavors that all seemed to work together perfectly. Best lunch ever.

The Japanese are also very good at curry. A nice basic lunch is just to have rice and curry mixed together. Personally, I prefer Indian curry. There's an incredible Indian curry and naan restaurant on campus. They give you great portions and if you eat before 12pm it's half price. Awesome!

Other favorites include yakisoba and shabushabu. And of course gyoza. Those little dumplings are my go-to snack food.

I have to say that I'm actually not that impressed by sushi here in Japan. Part of the problem is that it is just SO EXPENSIVE! I mean it is incredibly fresh and made by sushi chefs that have been training and honing their craft for decades (literally). But, you get a teeny tiny dish for a ridiculous amount. I tried to cut costs yesterday by just getting a bowl that had mini pieces of a variety of raw fish. I begin eating and realized I had a surprise waiting for me at the bottom, i.e. nato （なとう). Nato = the most disgusting, gag-inducing food ever. I would take a pound of wasabi over a bite of nato. And some Japanese love it, can't get enough of it. Very strange.

It's hard to get used to the amount of rice. I am coming to appreciate it more, despite the depressing knowledge that it makes me put on a lot of weight. It's just really filling and it does go very well with many foods. Like seaweed. I would still prefer bread over rice here any day. Also, no cheese. I suppose that's not very surprising. But it does make you crave for just a tiny morsel of gouda or cheddar or feta. Pizza here is just weird here because of it. I mean there's cheese on the pizza, but a lot of times it is just a couple globs of melted mozzarella on the top. But when you're hungry, you're hungry. :-)