Trip to Japan ~ Simply, Food

When people ask me what I miss the most about Japan, one of the first things that comes to mind is FOOD. Seriously, isn't that a basic need and desire of human nature? There are some Japanese foods that I could buy where I live, but not like actually living there.

When I had a family trip to California a couple years ago, I made sure that we would hit the Japanese grocery stores there. I was amazed with the selections... yeah... I was in heaven!

For the first time in 11 years, I was actually in Japan. Not in California, not in little Tokyo... real Japan! You might laugh at me, but I had a list of things I wanted to eat while I was there. I felt like if I miss this chance; who knows when my next chance will be?

My family and friends laughed at the list at first, but they were really helping me to cross the items off the list.

They took me to "kaiten-sushi". It is a sushi restaurant that you sit around and a conveyor belt brings the food and you grab a dish with sushi on it. They are so much cheaper than traditional sushi restaurants. Most of the dishes are 105 yen (which is about $1.35 right now). You may not believe me, but I can really pack them in when I am hungry. :)

I was so surprised to see the restaurant. There were few things that had changed since I left; the lay out of the seating arrangement was different, I mean instead of sitting around facing the conveyor belt;, there are booths around the belt, and you can order whatever you want from a touch screen at your booth. The dish stops at your booth and the light flashes to tell you that your sushi has arrived. Things change so much in 11 years! I had to take a pictures at this new found Japanese culture.

You just order what you want, and they will make one right there for you.

There were really good selections. Yeah, they are not same as you eat at real sushi restaurant, but they are pretty good. If you take someone like me, who was starving for Japanese food in general, I was like a kid in a candy shop.

Mmm... Am I done? Well, let me rest for a minute, I think I can go for some more.

When I had small class reunion, we met at an awesome restaurant, there I had bunch of yummy food (which I was able to cross some stuff off my list as well)...




When my mom and my sister took me out for shopping, we had lunch at the restaurant as well... Oh, they were so good...

Am I done yet? No, no way, I had to eat some Japanese junk food as well.

There were LOTS more other things that I ate, but forgot to take pictures because I was too excited about it. Such as ramen, Japanese style Chinese food (oh, they are soo good), very yummy cakes, and best of all, the home cooked food by my mom and my sisters. They are all excellent cooks, and I was so spoiled while I was there. Thank you everyone for feeding me!!

Has reading about all this food given you heartburn yet? There are a couple more pictures to share with you...

Tada! You know what, they are not real food. They are actually samples made out of wax to show what you can expect when you order that dish. I believe this was invented in Japan, and pretty much any restaurant you go to, you see samples like this in front of the place.

Japanese style kid’s meals... I was missing my family and wanted to show this to my kiddos.

I ate so much while I was there. I am paying the price for it right now, but it was totally worth it!