People really eat light over here. Small meals, small portions. I mean, we had two guides drag us around for hours and we'd eat a small piece of fish and a scattering of rice. Maybe they do this because we are obviously tourists? Because I am telling you, by day 4 as a tourist you are so darn hungry you will eat anything. Example, today I ate a rice ball full of little fish. Whole, little, eyeballs-still-in fish. They looked like small mealworms. What did I do? Noticed them, showed Greg (read: bragged some) and ate them. Would I have done this on day 1? No. Do you know why? Yesterday I walked southern Japan for about 14 hours and do you know what I ate? A few oysters, a rice ball, 2 coffees, green tea and a couple pieces of nigiri. Dessert? Apple juice. (I opted out of eating the jiggly square they called sweet dessert. No, it was not jello and it had little black dots in it which could have been anything including fish eyes). So, in my absolute hunger of this afternoon, I ate whole, little, eyeballs-still-in fishes. And, I would (will) do it again.
In the railway stations you can pick up little sandwiches. They are small, crust-free squares of surprise. They are about 2-inches x 2-inches stacked 6 high and each one is different. Sandwich surprises, think box of chocolates, but sandwiches. We had a egg salad one with ham, crazy delicious! Who knew? I had a tomato, mayo (yup they have mayo here) and corn one. So good! Soft boiled, flat egg? In there too. Piece-a-sumpin' you can't figure out, bright red with a crunch of lettuce. Check. To paraphrase Forrest Gump, life is like a stack of sandwiches in Japan, you never know what your going to get!
Greg loves his tempura. He thinks it is very Japanese. We walked miles to find a tempura place. It's fried anything--peppers, shrimp, vegetables. It's essentially carnival food. Think it, fry it, dunk it in some 'special' Japanese 'tempura sauce.' It is good, but I truly don't get it. It is oddly American. I was kind of walking around looking for a KFC sign. However, I would happily walk until the end of the world to find it for Greg. (Awwww.)
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