It would be a nice day out if I were this guy.

Alas, I am not. Thus, the water currently dumping on us is less than pleasant and fun.

Perhaps if I had some rain boots I could go puddle jumping like my father and I used to.  Granted, that would probably freak quite a few people out as the sight of a blonde girl jumping into the puddles is a touch unusual here…so perhaps I’ll just stick to going home and trying to prepare for our visitors who are set to arrive late next week. As said guests have mentioned they are a bit cautious about the food situation here, we’re going to be trying our best to be prepared. That said, I really do recommend they at least try.

While it’s not all quite my taste (I don’t eat meat and that isn’t quite a concept grasped/embraced here) food in Japan is really quite good and it’s rare to be served anything less than perfectly prepared. The quality of the food alone is superb and the rigorous training that chefs and cooks go through here mean it is really difficult to find something that isn’t a good meal…so long as one enjoys the genre they are ordering from. Sure, it can get a little uncomfortable when you are in a restaurant watching the shrimp swimming around the tank doing whatever it is shrimp do and the next moment it’s coming towards you on a small plate on the conveyer belt but that’s part of the experience.

Right, T?

One also has to account for the fact that the Japanese have one of the longest life expectancies in the world.   With the amount of cigarrettes smoked, this fact still rather surprises me but perhaps the effects of green tea offset that?

Regardless, Japanese food does offer something for everyone (except maybe vegans, I’d imagine that would be rough here). Though we no longer eat meat, we do still eat fish and thus continue our search for the best sushi in town and along the way have found some amazing fish.  One of the places we tend to frequent has tuna that will melt in your mother and eel that tastes a bit like peanut butter which is nothing short of delicious.

Also very good? The tofu.

(Above is a traditional Japanese breakfast as was served to us in Kyoto. You’ll note that the plain yogurt combined with Blueberries and Yogurt is quite tasty.)

T in particular has found that he enjoys tofu and now tries to put it in everything. This is why he’s not really allowed to cook.  Tofu is very good…but I’m still not convinced it needs to be in each meal.

Another good thing? The portions are always perfect. Exactly what you need to feel satisfied without feeling like you are going to explode. I’m not sure we really noticed this until the first christmas we returned home. It wasn’t until we went to a restaurant and faced an enormous plate of food that we realized how large portions are outside of Japan.

What does all of this translate to? A much healthier lifestyle.

Surely it’s not perfect? No, it isn’t.

We do miss sweets.  As the sweet beans are not quite as sweet as we’d like, I do make the occasional trip across town to the dreaded expat neighborhood (again, a totally different post on why I hate this area will eventually be written) to pick up some chocolate chips to make something from home. We also have found that we can pull together the ingredients for nachos very easily and have thus dubbed the dish our “tasty tasty crutch.” A reference to the fact sometimes you just need something a bit more on the familiar side.

Also sad? The lack of an oven. Seriously. I didn’t realize until I moved in that there was no oven. There’s a six inch little thing that resembles an oven…but it involves flames that burn food in about 30 seconds flat. Thus, I bake my breads and such in a small delongi oven (a lifesaver) but have learned to deal.

Overall though, we’ve learned to make it work. The single lesson I can offer to those traveling to Japan? At least try.