Japan: Week One Food

My first week here’s been an exhausting one, but I’ll write more about that some other time. I’ve tried my best to get a photo of anything interesting I’ve eaten so far, so here they are!

This is shabu-shabu. I guess you’d call it a stew – it’s got pork, cabbage, mushroom, tofu and spinach, but unfortunately no gravy.

I ordered pork with curry and this is what I got. It wasn’t terrible, but the curry was bland as hell – the Japanese don’t really do spicy.

 

Not technically food, but I love grape fanta so much that I had to show it off somewhere.

I asked what this was and the answer was “fried Japanese stuff”. They were not wrong.

We had lunch at a local Chinese restaurant on Thursday. This is (from top-left, clockwise) fried chicken with cabbage and mashed potato, tofu with spicy mince, chicken broth, sweet and sour pork, pickled peppers and cucumber and sticky rice. I wasn’t at my most energetic in that afternoon’s classes and spent the rest of the day feeling like I was in my second trimester.

Happy Jeffs at the Chinese restaurant.

A noodle and rice concoction with sausage and some sort of seafood. Those are fish flakes on the top.

Lunch at work – chicken with mayo and shrimp sushi.

Another poor effort at curry from the Japanese…

Pasta with a barely cooked egg.

I went with my boss and his family to a restaurant that specialises in “Yakiniku”. Basically you’re given a plate of raw meat, which you cook on a grill at your table. The restaurant was in some sort of castle and it was all you can eat/drink – a fantastic combination.

Overall it’s been quite interesting. I definitely haven’t gone hungry and I’ve really enjoyed most of what I’ve had. I would kill for a fry-up right about now though.