Food

A little while ago I went to one of the other teacher's apartment for 'temaki-zushi' or hand made sushi. You basically need seaweed, rice, and whatever else you want to put in sushi (including various fish, cheese, ham, cucumbers, pork, eggs, among other things). She brought me over early to help prepare and most of what's pictured here was cut and arranged by me:


Another great dish from Japan is 'okonomiyaki', a pancake-like dish that could be roughly translated as 'whatever you like grilled'. There's generally a bunch of cabbage or green onions, sometimes soba noodles, and anything else you like. I usually get squid and/or pork, but this giant okonomiyaki was ordered by someone else and includes cheese, potatoes, mochi (rice-cake) and lots of stuff I generally don't like in okonomiyaki. It tasted okay anyway:


One advantage of the apartment I moved to last April is my landlady. She's a sweet old woman who sometimes brings me stuff, like this fruit I got earlier this month. Fruit is comparatively expensive in Japan, with these three things probably costing more than $10. The thing on the right is a 'nashi' or 'snow pear'. Really it tastes like a mix between a pear and an apple with a crispy texture: