Twelve Hours Later

Twelve hours later, after a night of "sleep" on tatami mats on the floor, (<--Which actually was just fine. Like our troops all over the world, I think, if pressed, I could sleep standing up next to a Humvee.) it was time for breakfast.

Which was basically a repeat of the night before.

First thing in the morning and without coffee.

G was officially done. He didn't look at it. He didn't look at me. He didn't try to hide any food. We didn't work together in total duplicity to avoid offending the natives. We didn't speak.

I girded my loins once more. At least this was all one course, so I was looking at everything I had to deal with at once. No anticipation of the next course. No eel tempura.

This was just my portion of the full breakfast course (pictured below). It included:

*rice
*Miso soup
*green tea
*a poached egg
*smoked trout
*sashimi
*tofu and seaweed
*salad
*pickled root vegetables
*a fruit cup

As a side note, I ate salad for breakfast every day. Topped with Japanese dressing, it was the bomb. Along with it, I had some rice and seaweed, with various pastries and coffee. Salad is not something I ever think of for breakfast (of course, neither is sashimi), but it was a great way to help hydrate first thing in the morning. All that watery lettuce and cabbage. I liked it so much that when I went grocery store shopping yesterday, I got a bag of shredded cabbage to start to mix in with my salads here. Thanks, Japan!

Some tofu squares, along with a sauce mixture, were served in this pot. We cooked it over a hot fire and mixed it all together before eating. It was delicious. While tofu was prevalent and was an option in most restaurants we went to in Japan, I didn't eat that much of it.

I have to say that at this point in the trip, only about 4 days in, I was over the fish. I had so looked forward to sushi and sashimi, but being faced with so much fish in such a short time period? Well, that did it. I stuck with versions of soup and rice dishes the rest of the trip. And McDonald's when G was in Starving Refugee Mode.

After breakfast, we packed up, tracked down our shoes (they had been taken from us the day before when we checked in) and headed to Hiroshima.

That 11-Course Meal (Or: "M-eel")

Get it? "Meel" because of the eel? Ok, enough of that. It's still a profoundly uncomfortable memory.

All the foodies know that we eat with our eyes before we eat with our mouths, and the Japanese have mastered the artistry of food. Which is to say that even though I knew before tasting some of the dishes that they would not appeal to me, I had to try them anyways, and not just out of politeness.

I present to you one of the most beautiful and uncomfortable meals of my life.

Courses 1-3: Taro Stem with Sesame, Appetizer, Scallop Soup

Look at the beautiful presentation! As you can see in the next picture, this was served with plum wine. Our waitress (can you call her that?) unwrapped the leaf and inside there was some type of gelatinous brown roasted vegetable that actually tasted like chocolate. All of these components were flavorful, but also mild. Does that make sense? What I mean is that we were tasting - oh, who am I kidding? I was tasting - the components themselves rather than heavy seasoning. The duck was lightly roasted. The sushi was served without wasabi or soy sauce, the taro was steamed.

Course 4: Sashimi (Striped Jack, Tuna, Squid)

Again, look at the presentation of this dish! While I have no desire to consume fish in any form for a good six to eight months, I can't help but appreciate the artistry in both the preparation and presentation. It was during this course that we both began to panic a bit. I'm no culinary quitter, but I'm no garbage disposal either. We started scoping out hiding places. We had seven more courses to go.

Not pictured: The rice and root vegetables. Also known as hide-and-go-seek.

Course 5: Grilled Pumpkin

As I'm sure you're noticing, each course, every dish, was garnished in such a simple but naturally beautiful way. So many leaves and herbs and edible flowers. The pumpkin is the center of the course and tasted like mild, vegetable-flavored, soaked sponge cake. Served in broth along with I don't know what. But I ate it all. And half of G's.

Course 6: Hida Beef Steak

This was probably my favorite course because (1) it wasn't fish, and (2) it lasted a while and thus allowed me to digest. We each had our own stone grill on which we cooked strips of beef and vegetables (peppers, onions, zucchini). Once the beef was cooked, we dipped it in salt and a special diced vegetable/spice mixture before eating it. It was out-of-this-world delicious.

Course 7: Deep Fried Conger Eel

The culprit. Nothing more to say.

(Except: the tempura was so light and tasty! And the tempura vegetables were sweet potato and taro. And the eel was exceptionally mild; the texture wasn't bad at all. In another place and time and context and with other dinner companions, I would have thoroughly enjoyed this course.)

Course 8: Steamed Spanish Mackerel with Wormwood Gluten

This is one of the prettiest dishes and yet I can barely look at the picture. My stomach, it hurts. This course followed the eel and I threw in the towel. There was no way I could even eat my own, much less help G out. And there was no way to hide this dish, so we covered it up (at least it came with a cover - small blessings) and sat there avoiding eye contact with each other.

I did eat the flower, which was tangy and citrus-y. What did me in was the sauce. It looks like broth here but it's actually a gelatinous texture, like...snot in a bowl. I'm sorry. I'm sorry! And what is wormwood gluten??

Course 9: Red Miso Soup

I'm a sucker for Miso Soup. Why don't I eat it more often? It's something (along with green tea) that I'm going to incorporate into my diet. It's too good to go without.

Course 10: Steamed Rice and Japanese Pickles

Not pictured. We all know what rice and microscopic pickled vegetables look like. At this point of the meal I had given up all hope of living long enough to blog about it and I didn't take a picture of this course.

Course 11 Thank You, God: Seasonal Fruits 

G, of course, downed this like a starving refugee. I was googling "how to file for divorce in a foreign country".

Japan Highlights (The Picture Post)

It occurs to me that in my haste to convey some of our vacation stories, I've omitted the beauty of Japan. I haven't included pictures of the cities and the countryside and the food and the many temples, shrines, plants, flowers, and so on. Taken together, these pics give you a pretty good idea of the country as we experienced it.

After two weeks, we are "shrined and templed out." More pictures to come!

Wife of the Year (Or: Harajuku Girls)

We are back in Tokyo and spent yesterday touring the "youth" districts of Harajuku Street and Akihabara. In sharp contrast to the more traditional side of Japan, these areas highlight the anime-loving, video-game-playing generations. Since these kiddos engage in "cosplay" (costume play), it is common to walk down the street and see them dressed up as various anime and movie characters. These areas are also famous for maid cafes, where waitresses are dressed as a slightly clean version of French maids, and fawn over their male customers, calling them master and folding their hands into hearts, bowing like love-stricken teenagers.

Um, no.

But we enjoyed the spectacle. And I had Gwen Stefani's Harajuku Girls running through my mind the entire time.

We found Lucy a new friend inside a Hello Kitty store and I snapped this pic of G while he was standing in line to buy it. The phrase sticks out like a sore thumb comes to mind.

Don't feel too sorry for G, though. Surrounded by modeling kits in one of the most technologically-advanced cities in the world? He was in Heaven. He has absolutely filled our suitcases with crap, man dolls various models. And posters. And magazines.

And Godzilla.

The original Japanese movie company that created and produced Godzilla (Toho industries) converted one of their old buildings into a Godzilla hotel. His enormous head pokes over the top and it really looks like he's attacking the city!

We had drinks and dessert in the roof top cafe, and this was the view!

G, of course, ordered the Godzilla special, a volcano-shaped cake surrounded by ominous footprints, served with a steaming, mysterious cup of ice cream and foil-stamped pieces of Godzilla chocolates.

And, while we're at it, let's not feel too sorry for G. All this sympathy for him because he can't eat the food? Mmmmm, no. Because when we're really in a bind and we're sweating bullets trying not to offend the natives, who gets treated like a human garbage disposal? Me! Who ends up swallowing an aquarium? Me! So, everybody just calm down with the pearl clutching and tsk-tsking about poor G. Cool your jets. He's fine.

He spent hours and hours in model stores yesterday while I folded myself up in the aisles and waited.

Wife of the year, folks. Right here.

Although. He packed enough granola bars to last him this whole trip but he finished them three days ago. So. It's time to go.