What did you eat when you were in Japan?

So, in October I went to Japan, and took some pictures (check out John's facebook for all the other pics... if you dont know how to do that then ask me at my facebook or comment) especially of the food.
Above is the first meal John had in Japan, it was two little steak pieces and some potatoes and broccoli, he said it was really good. We also got a side of french fries with it.


I ordered some strange noodles with a half cooked egg and some sauce on it... it came with some fried meat, but I took it off, John said it was not so good... I have no idea what it was. On the right is whats left of a veggie side dish I got... some fried green stuff, kinda like bok choi and it was pretty spicy. The noodles were good, but not knowing what was in them was a little creepy. This was an EXPENSIVE place to eat... but it totally didn't look like it... the brought food out for us to eat that we didn't even order and charged us for it... I wish my Japanese wasn't so bad. The coolest thing about it was you could order your food from a touch screen right at the table... I don't know why I didn't take a picture of that. We didn't have our camera so I had to use the camera in my phone.



Here is my yummy vegetarian meal from Asiana Airlines on the way to Japan. I have to say I was pretty impressed. Non-veggies got similar stuff, but they had a noodle dish with some meat and a sweet sauce. I didn't get to sit next to John on this flight :( So I couldn't get a picture of his food. The four quadrants of food are fruit, Japanese veggies, regular cooked veggies and rice. The Japanese veggies were a little strange, the two orange things are yummy pumpkin, but the brown thing was really watery, like water melon... I have no idea what it was. There was a little potato and some snap peas in there too.Here's a closeup of the rice. It was sectioned of into three rectangles for easy eating. I don't know what the yellow thing in the middle was, but I think it must be some kind of nut or bean... it kinda tasted like cheese, but this was a vegan meal so I know it cant be cheese. Notice how awesome the soy sauce container is!!! I stole it! hehe. it dispensed the soy sauce in little drops so you could control how much got on the rice really easily. As far as Airplane food goes this was quite good. WAY better than Korean Air (who wouldn't give me vegetarian food!) and Continental... my Favs are still Thai Air, Delta and United. Good veggie options.
This was our "Western" breakfast. Each morning we had a choice between western and Japanese breakfast. The Japanese breakfast came with a fish, some soup, rice, and side dishes... like pickled vegetables... maybe something else too, but we never ordered it so I don't really know. For the western breakfast each day the bread and meat and eggs and macaroni salad were a little different, but mostly the same. It was pretty good though... I wish it had potatoes. The bread was actually REALLY good. Japanese bakers are way better than Korean bakers... and this was by no means a 5 star hotel... maybe 3 stars at best! The OJ was tang, and the macaroni salad was strange, but I was always hungry cause I never knew what to eat, so I ate mine and John's. He said the meat was strange so mine went to waste.

Hello From JAPAN!

Yup, you heard it right. I am on my 4th day of my 5 day trip in Japan! Finally after years and years of waiting I have finally made it to Japan! For those of you who don't know I have had a love affair with Japan for as long as I can remember. When I was in France I even bought manga! In highschool I would wake up at 4:30AM just to watch sailor moon and dragonball Z (this was in the mid nineties, before anime was cool) and in college I spent three years studying Japanese language. Why did I choose to teach English in Korea and not Japan? Well basically it was easier to get into Korea and I figured the two countries were so close I could hop back and forth when ever I felt like it... the the gas prices surged and that was the end of that plan. But none of that matters now. I am HERE!!!!

I cant really remember ANY Japanese :( Its really quite sad, and I feel like I am totally letting John down. I really thought it would come back faster. I listened to about 7 hours of audio lessons from Pimlseur but that didnt help much... I still dont know how to say how much! (which I will look up after I finish this post.) I also know nothing about Japanese food... which is a problem for a vegetarian, and I didn't do enough reseach before getting here.

My first impressions about Japan:
1. Japanese people are the NICEST people in the world!
2. This place is way cleaner than Korea
3. Everyone rides bikes and so far I have seen three priuses and tons of solar panals
4. They have beautiful gardens even when there is no space for a garden
5. Very few bars compared to Korea
6. Everyone really does play pachinko!
7. Japanese men are much nicer towards women than Korean men
8. This place is much less crowded than Seoul
9. It is true that very few people here speak ANY English.
10. I really really really wanna come back here!

Why do I think Japanese people are so nice? Because almost any time John and I were having problems people came up to help us.... when we got off the train from the airport and were trying to figure out the map to the embassy (we are here to get our new Korean visas too) a man comes over and speaks PERFECT English and offeres to help. He was just a random stranger... that never happened to me in Korea, and rarely in the US. When we were in the subwaystation trying to figure out how to buy a ticket, one of the workers came over and helped us, again, speaking great English :) At this point I was starting to think that people were wrong when they said Japanese people couldn't speak English, but those were the last good speakers we met. And, here is a great story... I left one of my bags on the subway train and in a panic ran back and the train was gone :( John was brave enough to go up to one of the subway workers and tell him we lost something. The man didnt speak any English, he tried to point to where the office was and we didnt understand (well I was just panicing and being negative now so I couldn't understand) so he brought us to the office... when we got to stairs he motioned to John and I to take the escalator and he ran up the stairs :) cute. At the office he explained it to others and they tried to ask us again but they got the idea and told us to wait. about 5 min later he came back with my bag :-D I was so happy I didn't know what to say!!! But any way I just want people to know that if you come here and you cant speak any Japanese thats fine, because Japanese people are so nice they will try to help you no matter what!!! Ok now its time for some illuminating pictures!


Here I am riding a bike I rented through the park surrounding the imperal palace in Kyoto, one of the old and great capitals of Japan. The park was beautiful and Im sure the palace was also beautiful, but I didn't get to see it. You have to buy tickets in advance for guided tours and they were all sold out for today :( Next time... But the road was all rocks so it was a paint o ride around, but really nice and pretty :)


hehehe... for some reason there are train cars only for women! Obviously John and I didn't ride in this car, but we were in the car next to it, and in our car there was also a sign on the door to the next car that said women only!! I thought that was kinda funny.


This is a shinto shrine.... sooooo beautiful! They have this amazing garden that surrounds it and we walked through it. It had huge lakes filled with koi and turtles. The bridge behind me was were John and I stopped to take a break and have some snacks and watch the turtles and fish swim below us. It was really peacful and relaxing... why cant catholic churches be this nice :)


HAHAHAH! This is a road construction site. Everything must be cute in Japan Even construction equipment! Yes, those are monkeys and YES they are way too cute for their purpose!!