Food Journeys in Japan: Part 1

Right at the beginning of summer, my family and I made our first trip to Japan. Not know any words other than Konichiwa, Moshi Moshi, and Arigatou, I knew we were going to be pretty handicapped. This was my first time being in a country where I didn't speak the language, and it was definitely a learning experience. The most valuable takeaway: Food is universal. Despite not knowing how to communicate, we were still able to discover great foods. All you need to do is point and use lots of hand gestures!

The first meal that I had was at the airport. Being the foodie that I am, the first thing that came to mind when I got off the plane was filling my belly. What was outside of the airport was of little importance at that moment. We walked around for a while to see what kind of foods the airport offered and I was pleasantly surprised. Every restaurant had a visual menu displayed in their window. Every single item that they offered was for show. This made things especially easy for the language-impaired. I knew what I would order and how much I was going to pay before I even went in. I don't know how any passerby could walk by without stopping, admiring, and drooling. I'm sure the other people in the airport could tell that I was a foreigner with all the excited squeals I made as I excitedly pointed to each and every item in the window like I had never seen food before.

After pulling my eyeballs away from the myriad of windows displays, we stumbled upon a small little restaurant that served homestyle food. Before we landed in Japan, I told myself that I wanted to eat authentic Japanese food, and I figured a place like this was the place to go. Although this restaurant did not have the massive window menu of lifesize foods, they offered a paper menu with images of each item. I scanned through them and found one that sounded appealing - blown rice topped with salmon roe, seaweed, fish, parsley, and these exciting little crunchy, crispy things.

To eat it, you pour the soup from the teapot (upper right hand corner of the tray) into the bowl and make a soupy rice mixture. The soup tasted like a basic seaweed soup and added the right amount of saltiness. The order came with pickled vegetables, seaweed, and tofu. After eating everything on the tray, I was pleased with our food selection. I had never seen anything like this in America whereas many of the items in the window displays were more typical Japanese fare that the States offers. During the rest of the trip, I was only able to eat this one more time, but if I had the chance to go back, it would definitely be near the top of the food list.

Considering that this was consumed within my first hour of landing in Japan, I knew I had lots to look forward to. More to come in the next post!