Just too much seafood

I’ve been a pesco-vegetarian (eat fish/seafood, but no red meat or poultry) for about 8 or 9 years now, but I decided to go completely vegetarian for at least 2 weeks since I got back from Japan. For largely environmental reasons, I’ve been trying to be more of a conscious seafood eater, and I feel like I’ve done my share of raping the oceans in my mere 8 days in Japan.

Just a sampling of the crazy fancy food I was eating —

Before:

After:

I love sushi, but not the condiments

Contrary to popular opinion, Japanese food is about more than sushi.

That said, I love sushi.

But I’ve always been a picky eater, and two things I can’t stand go with sushi: ginger and wasabi.

I like ginger when it’s in the form of, say, ginger snap cookies. I generally don’t like strong ginger in cooking, and those piles of pink pickled ginger is just gross.

I like spicy food, as in chili-spicy. But to me, wasabi doesn’t taste spicy. In fact, it doesn’t really taste like much of anything while a stinging sensation goes up my nose and I feel like my whole face hurts. It’s unpleasant, and I just don’t get it.

Consequently, one thing I really appreciate about most American sushi places is that the nigiri doesn’t just automatically come with wasabi between the fish and the rice. I can eat sushi feeling safe and all carefree-like.

Not so when I eat sushi in Japan, where I have to ask for no wasabi. My family then makes fun of me, as kids are the ones that don’t like wasabi. Sometimes I forget to specify, and I end up spending half my meal time painstakingly trying to get the wasabi out of my sushi (which as you can imagine, is difficult since it’s a pasty substance). Worst of all, I might just forget completely, stick a nigiri in my mouth, and my eyes water as I go running to drown myself with water.

My complicated relationship with Japan, Part 4

I apologize for the lack of posts this week.

I’m back with the last part (for now?) of the “My complicated relationship with Japan” series, and I’m going to end on some positive notes.

First of all, two things of note that I like about going to Japan:

- Food. I love Japanese food. Ramen, udon, soba, takoyaki, okonomiyaki, sushi, donburi, tempura, sekihan, and Japanese curry, and snack food like dango and anpan. Even the “Western” food tastes better, like spaghetti and korokke (croquette), or desserts like cheesecake and crêpes. Everything in Japan is delicious. It seems that when I’m in Japan, I’m living for my next meal.

- Family. As much as it’s annoying to be with some of them sometimes, I’m no different than most other people that I enjoy spending time with relatives. In particular, I’ve always stayed in fairly good contact with my cousins on my mom’s side, and they both have two young kids. It’s been fun to see how they’ve grown every time I go back to Japan.
The last time I went to Japan, we had what might be called a “family reunion” dinner on my dad’s side, and it was the best part of that trip (family and food!). I’d always thought I had a rather small family (only child, only a total of 4 cousins), but I met relatives I didn’t even know I had. Over at our young-people side of the table, I sat next to (bear with me) my grandmother’s cousin’s great-grandson (that would mean a great-great-grandparent of mine would have been the sibling of this guy’s great-grandparent, I think), who was the same age as me. There was also my dad’s cousin’s daughter (or my grandma’s sister’s granddaughter, if you prefer), who coincidentally happened to be back in Japan from Germany (where she currently lives) at the same time I was there.

I’m careful to say “I don’t like going to Japan,” as opposed to “I don’t like Japan.” If I wasn’t proud of who I am, I wouldn’t have this blog. If you haven’t been to Japan and might be interested in going, I’d encourage you to do so. You’ll probably have a great time. For you, it’ll all be new, and you won’t have the problems I have. And if you’re white (or black, for that matter) and know 2 phrases in Japanese, everyone will love and adore you.

Which brings me to… I’ve had more than one person suggest to me that I’ll have a much easier time in Japan if I play up my American-ness. In a way, that might be true, as one of my problems is that I look and sound too Japanese to be an obvious “foreigner” (particularly if I’m with family), except I’m sure there’s something that seems a bit “off” about me. So while the average foreigner traveling in Japan will impress locals by knowing any Japanese or anything about Japan, I look and sound the part of a Japanese woman enough that I suspect I strike people as just weird and a little stupid. I feel this way pretty often in stores, train stations, information desks, hotels, taxis, etc.

But do I put on a fake American accent and pretend I don’t speak Japanese well? That wouldn’t exactly solve my problem of feeling like I can’t be myself in Japan, would it? Do I tell people every time “I’m an American”?…Right, because then people won’t think I’m weird at all. I’d just confuse people.

The struggle continues, I guess.