Back in America

I arrived back home a week ago, and I realized that although I got little feedback on my blog, some people actually read it. So I'll update this week with more stories from my trip to Japan.

Being home for a week, I've had time to let it sink in how much I miss Japan and how much I ended up enjoying it. I honestly didn't think that I would like it as much as I did, and there are so many things that I miss or outright crave that are unavailable here.

First on my list are milk and bread. Regular old cow's milk and plain white bread, for some reason, are amazing foods in Japan. It must be what they feed the cows or the wheat they use in the bread, but there is nothing that comes remotely close in comparison in America. Milk in Japan has this-- I don't know-- aroma. I can't really describe it without making it sound gross, but it smells and tastes like something that came out of an animal. This is opposed to in the US where milk is so mass-manufactured and processed that it lacks any distinguishable smell and its taste is, to me, best described as dairy-flavored water. I have no idea what they feed the cows in Japan, but I can only guess it's something like butter, sugar, and magic because that is what it tastes like. You can also buy milk in absurdly high levels of milkfat-- 4.4%, which is probably very bad for you but tastes amazing. Another cool thing about Japanese milk is that, based on my and Mom's current levels of lactose intolerance (I, mildly; she, severely), it is very easy to digest. Mom would drink glasses of it and not be bothered even slightly. I can't read the box and Mom has a thing with not reading boxes (and not telling me what she reads on boxes), so I have no idea why that is so. After I came back to the US my first sip of milk made my tummy rumble.

Next to the milk is the bread. I do not know how they do it, but their white bread is so soft and light, but has a spongy texture to it, not unlike an angel food cake. If you were to press your finger into a loaf, it would pop right back into shape. When toasted, the outside forms what seems to be a protective crust that preserves the softness of the inside of the slice, so that you get both a pleasant crunch and a slight chewiness, as opposed to American white bread that becomes instantly hard and dry throughout the whole slice. The Japanese seem to prefer Texas toast-like slices which are, in terms of normal slices, the width of a slice-and-a-half to two slices. They make the best toast as their insides stay the most chewy. Thinner slices are better for sandwiches, and you can even buy boxes of pre-cut triangular wedges, sans crust. Despite the light taste of Japanese bread, the loaf itself is surprisingly heavy. Usually, bread is sold 4-8 slices at a time (4 gigantic mega Texas toast slices; 6 normal Texas toast slices; or 8 normal slices) and each bag seems fairly light. They also sell the whole, unsliced loaf, which is the size of a normal Wonder Bread loaf, but it weighs about 3-4 times as much. Physics eludes me-- I don't understand why that is.

Cucumbers are another thing I will miss. They're so incredibly different from the kind you find in grocery stores here. In Japan, cucumbers are long and skinny with a thick, bumpy, dark-green skin. Why I will miss them is because they have this amazing snap when you bite into one. Japanese cucumbers are extraordinarily crisp and highly addictive. I don't think there is any other way to describe them or anything else I can add. They're just great. American cucumbers seem so mushy and gross to me now.

Eggs. There is something about Japanese eggs-- the chickens that lay them, perhaps?-- that makes them have a delightful taste that regular grocery store eggs in America lack. Even if you never actually eat an egg, you may see one cooked. The yolk is a brilliant color, ranging from a dark, mustardy yellow to a deep brick orange, almost red, much like a setting sun (or the Japanese flag). I have never seen eggs that look quite like that before, as I'm used to the pale golden color of grocery store eggs. Japan has a lot of different chicken species, so I suspect that has something to do with the yolk colors, but still-- they're beautiful to look at. For me, though, the best part is the flavor. The most remarkable thing is that they have a taste at all. Eggs in America have been to me mostly about texture and what I can add to an egg to make it taste like, well, anything. Japanese egg yolks have a creamy texture and an almost gamey taste. It's difficult to describe, but like the milk, it tastes like something that came from (well, is) an animal.

I also miss food basements in department stores. As lame and 貧乏人 as that seems, I enjoyed going through the different departments and sampling tidbits of ultra-exclusive foods they had to offer. Mom and I shared a great experience at the Mitsukoshi department store in Nihombashi; we had all sorts of things from pickles and gyoza to bread, cheesecake, osembe, and tofu. A guy there even opened a champagne bottle for us to try. I guess I should feel a bit bad that I wasn't intending to buy anything at the time, but that doesn't mean that I've forgotten what I've eaten and one day I will come back to purchase something (or recommend other people to try some things).

Eating out was fun in Japan, but I have to say that the best food was cooked at home. 鯵の開き (aji no hiraki; "butterflied horse mackerel") is Mom's favorite food, and we had that grilled a few times while there. My favorite was a miso-based noodle soup, ほうとう (houtou), made with wide, flat udon noodles and chock-fulla vegetables like kabocha pumpkin, potatoes, nappa cabbage, spring onions, carrots, daikon, and mushrooms-- basically, whatever happens to be in the pantry. Mom kept telling me that it's a dish from Obaachan's country, the Yamanashi prefecture, where the legendary Takeda Shingen was said to have eaten it in his battle camps. Mom doesn't like it so much-- I thought it was brilliant. Hitoshiojichan made (extremely) delicious gyoza a couple times. Oden was probably the least healthy food, but one of the most delicious, as it's just a hot pot full of fried tofu, mochi in fried tofu bags, tofu, cabbage, spring onions, shirataki, konnyaku, mushrooms, and many different types of fish cakes. Oden night is a happy night. Its cousin, お鍋 (nabe; "pot"), is a similar idea (actually, oden is in the nabe family, but anyway) and that, too was delicious. We had sukiyaki a couple times, although secretly I prefer oden.

I guess this entry has evolved from "general stuff I miss about Japan" to "food I miss from Japan." It's sad, but true-- I really miss the food more than anything else. I miss the myriad of choices the vending machines offered. I miss being able to choose between 10 different brands of milk coffee, and within each brand 10 varieties of milk coffee. I miss paying a dollar for a bottle of grape Calpico (it tastes like drinking a grape). I miss iced jasmine tea in a bottle. I miss seeing giant signs for oden at 7-11. I miss the tempura bars at grocery stores. I miss the 7pm price cut on bento boxes. I miss seeing $40 bunches of grapes or singular melons wrapped in foam nets for $30. I miss endless varieties of fresh fish and mushrooms. I miss the tofu aisle with the annoyingly repetitive video at Ozam. I miss delicious single-serving ice cream treats for 75 cents.

Ridiculous? Most definitely. But it's oh so true.