Ode to Udon

Well, I've begun to have my first really bad food cravings here in Japan. You tell yourself "hey, I can live for a year without pizza!" but you're wrong, you're dead wrong. I would probably cut off my limb for any of the following: A real pizza (one without shrimp, mayonnaise, squid, etc), buffalo wings or any combination of frank's red hot and chicken, a big of spicy nacho/salsa verde/cool ranch dorritos, peanut butter (it's rare here and costs a ton), a submarine sandwich, a 12 pack of pepsi (coke is the soda of choice here) and above all else a 12 pack of good Colorado microbrew beer. Japanese beer is all pretty much the same with slight variations between the brands. To try and get myself over the hump, I've decided that I'd write some positive things about Japanese cuisine.

1. Kaiten zushi! This is a kind of sushi plate that sends plates of sushi around on a conveyer belt around the restaurant. You collect all your plates which are color coded according to price. The one that Phil and I go to has plates of either 100 yen, 150 yen or 250 yen. Although all the good stuff is 250 yen (and thus still relatively expensive), you can still get a decent sushi meal for about 1000 yen or about $9. Each plate also comes with two pieces of sushi which curtails the price a bit.

2. It's healthy! The extra pounds are just melting off of me here in Fujiyoshida (although I think I gained them all back at the enkai). My clothes are beginning to fit a little looser and I have the world's healthiest cuisine to thank. Lean meats, noodles, rice and vegetables make up just about every meal that I eat here. You can have a quality, healthy rice and fish meal here for incredibly cheap as well. Hopefully I'll be a lean mean blogging machine by the time I'm done in Japan.

3. Ramen, Udon, Yakitori, etc! You can eat out fairly inexpensively in Japan if you go out for any of these foods. A huge bowl of Ramen or udon will only cost about 400 yen (about $3.50) and is much tastier and filling than anything you can get at McDonald's or similar fast food places. The downside is that I don't have much motivation to actually cook with so many of these places around.

4. Regional delicacies! It seems like every town, city and prefecture claims that it's famous for something. In Fujiyoshida udon is king. They're so proud of their udon that they ask every tourist or foreigner what they think of Yoshida udon. The funny thing is that I do actually think it tastes better than the udon I've had other places. They claim that it's the Mt. Fuji water; I think it's just a self-fulfilling prophecy. Either way, I have a plethora of options for high quality, cheap udon here in Fujiyoshida. Other things Yamanashi is famous for include: Hotou (a hot pumpkin stew), Yamanashi grapes and Yamanashi peaches (see photo blog).

5. Last but not least: The beer vending machine! Beer is everywhere in Japan. Most convenience stores have a large beer section where you can buy a large (but poor quality) can of beer of about 200 yen, sometimes less. You can also walk about with an open beer without breaking the law, but I've yet to see any non-foreigner do it. They also have the best invention known to man: the beer vending machine. I have one right outside of my apartment. At any time of day or night I can go and shell out 200 yen for a beer. They're also great to do some pre-drinking because the bars here charge about 500-600 yen for a pint of beer. Unfortunately, this invention makes underage drinking incredibly easy and it will never find its way to the US. Quite a shame really.

Well, I feel better now. Now it's time to chow down on my breakfast riceball from 7-11. I just hope that this one isn't filled with fish eggs....