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Michael- Food

Food

I made one rule for myself when coming to Japan. I would try everything at least once no matter how bad I thought it would be. However, I've already come to modify that rule to I'll try almost everything at least once (I'm not so brave when it comes to fish with their heads on). The largest problem was that I really hadn't had much Japanese food before arriving in Japan. So, when everyone asked me exactly what I liked or didn't like, I couldn't tell them anything. This meant that I told them I was willing to try, which led to almost a challenge to find things for me to eat.

Within two hours from being off the plane, I had one of the members in my hippo club running to find something special. He bought natto, which is a fermented soybean product. I was already feeling a little nauseous from being on a plane for so long and here I was asked to eat something even Japanese have a hard time eating. In the end, I did not like it, but I did promise my family that I would try again in about 3 months after I have become more used to Japanese food. This is also one of my philosophies. If you don't like it from one place, try it again. The restaurant might be better or the preparation might be different.

Through the past week, I've had many great experiences with food especially because we went to Fukui over the holiday. This meant a chance to eat at many different kinds of restaurants. It sure has been a change to go from barely eating breakfast to eating a full bowl of rice and miso soup every morning. It does help that my host mother is a good cook! Another challenge, though, has been eating with chopsticks. My skills are quickly developing, but I still take the longest to eat. I would be doing fine if it weren't for tofu or mushrooms. They are soo slippery!

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