of pickled veg and raw horse.

It’s not just the food.

But

it is

mostly

the food.

See, I spent most of my 20s and 30s being weird about what I could/should eat and how fat I was/wasn’t. Which has left me with what can only be described as an undying fixation on all things edible.

I think about food, and look for food, and plan food, and buy food, and eat food, very, very, very, often. Like, perhaps most minutes of the day. Every day.

(which is largely why I run so much and why I notch up 35000-ish steps a day)

Japan is wholly befitting such an obsession. Not so much as say, Thailand and Vietnam and Taiwan (where I have also lived and eaten) but Japan is cold (at the moment) and the roads are infinitely more runnable than the aforementioned.

This is my third trip to Japan and, while I am ashamed to say that I have failed to refresh my high school Japanese, I can certainly attest to having eaten everything. And, unfortunately, to having broken every possible rule of Japanese food etiquette (apart from eating on the train. I refuse to stoop that low.)

Japanese do not eat while walking in public. If they purchase food “to go”, they either eat it in the shop or stand outside and eat it before continuing on their way. Or, take it home (obvs). This concept confounds me. If I’ve bought something to eat, I have to eat it NOW.

Japanese do not eat slowly. They power through their ramen/udon/sushi/yakitori while watching a movie on their phone screen and within five minutes they’re up and gone. Me, I’m there for at least forty minutes, chewing slowly through my free-refill pickles or that one piece of raw squid (I f*cking HATE raw squid and I always end up with at least that one piece) or dropping my chopsticks on the floor or filling my tumbler with rice instead of tea or picking the bones out of my mackerel with a spoon.

Japanese eat all the noodles and leave behind the broth. Me, I slurp up all the broth and leave half the noodles.

Japanese don’t seem to need fruit, raw vegetables, chocolate, or biscuits. At least, not in the way I do. I am yet to see anyone studying/stashing/scoffing any of these items as fervently as I do. But then, I guess the Japanese (and most humans, really) are able to apply certain levels of restraint. In public, anyway, Me, no hope.

But enough about me. Here. Look. Food.

I think we’re done here.

The snacks are a whole ‘nother story.