(no subject)

[rachelmanija]

telophase posted a (too brief) account of our Koya-san trip. Check her LJ-- this isn't letting me cut-and-paste a link.

I forgot to mention that after our magnificent feast of rice, miso soup, tea, stewed vegetables, not-vegetable-of-the-ocean, sweet pickles with thin rice noodles, soba with dipping sauce and an orange slice, chewy mock-sashimi, mysterious glowing pink jello triangles tasting like dilute raspberry jello, tempura, eggplant (which I didn't eat), tofu (which I didn't eat either-- it had a strangely repulsive texture, like toothpaste), and grapes (fermented in the heat)-- we were informed that we should eat at a restaurant the next night, as the next night's meal would be identical.

The next night we set out. the International cafe of Mystery was closed. So was every other restaurant in town! So were most of the convenience stores. Though if we wanted to buy manga, T-shirts, sunglasses, or makeup, those stores were open. We finally ended up in a convenience store which, unlike most in Japan, was very poorly stocked. Shockingly, it had no bento. We depressedly poked at the pathetic offerings, grabbed two pastries, two mystery onigiri, a small thing of mystery fried stuff, and a packet of potato salad, and decided to eke out this meager meal by making sandwiches. What we first took for mayonnaise proved to be cream, so we decided to forego condiments and just buy ham and a loaf of bread.

On the way back to our room in the temple, Stephanie grabbed a melon soda and I got my addiction, the chalky-lemon sports drink Pocari Sweat ("The exact composition of human body fluid. Refreshing!") (The temple had an indoor drink vending machine. Of course. Also a mural of rowdy chubby monks engaged in raucous activities, such as playing with the rope-like white eyebrows of one monk, or sitting on an unhappy-looking tiger.)

Back in our room, we made the following discoveries:

1. The melon soda smelled like bubblegum and tasted like revolting chemicals.

2. One of the onigiri was both mysterious and inedible.

3. One of the fried things turned out, upon dissection, to be chicken. That was OK. The other was a scary mushy thing with black speckles. We didn't try it, and you wouldn't have either.

4. The "loaf of bread" turned out to contain stale whipped cream and balls of gelatinous apricot jelly, rendering it useless for sandwiches.

5. The pastries were awful and largely consisted of the same stale whipped cream as in the bread loaf-- which was ordinary bread, by the way.

6. The ham and potato salad were pretty good!

But overall the meal was awful: so we had our best and worst meals in Japan on successive days.

The next morning the monk inquired as to our dinner, and insisted that in fact, at least one restaurant in town had been open, and if we had only turned left at the tourist information office as was clearly marked upon the map, we would not have been forced to pathetically resort to the convenience store. At least I think that's what he said. However, such advice would have been useless even had it not been after the fact: I am certain that we also failed to find the tourist information office.

Comments

[fialka.livejournal.com]

I just read this out to my colleague and we're both howling with laughter. This may be a better indicator of our stress levels than anything else, but still... I always did want to visit Japan, but now exponentially so because what's a trip to a completely different place if it doesn't come with Adventures in the Food Trade? (Well, okay, AFTER the fact, and only so long as emetics are not required.)

This reminded me of the time me and my roommate in Prague decided to see what exactly was in that untranslatable tin with the unidentifiable picture that only the old Czech grandmas in our local shop ever seemed to buy -- and it turned out to be boiled, marinated fish brains. At least that's what we *think* it was. No definitive identification has ever been made and the item has since disappeared from the shelves.

Some mysteries must remain unsolved :)

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

My family joined a tour group in Japan a year ago. I was disappointed that we didn't have a tour of a supermarket or the basement of a department store. "What's that? Oh. And people eat it!?" :)

We didn't try it, and you wouldn't have either.

Don't bet on it. Did you take a picture? Depending, I might have given it a nibble.

I'm also reminded of the time I went to a pastry shop in Chinatown here in Boston. There was something they said had egg in. Maybe it was advertised as "3 egg pastry"; I don't quite remember any more. I think they warned me it had preserved egg in it, and that made me even more eager to try it, because I like the the salted egg yolks in moon cakes. I bit into it...

...and discovered it had normal eggs in it. Yay! Maybe the salted egg yolks; if so, yay! And also century eggs. Yuck! Now, I like century eggs -- with soy sauce. They are an abomination in sweet pastries. Well, ok, not that bad, but certainly not good. I still finished eating it anyway.

[ckd]

When visiting Tokyo in 2001, I bit into something that I had thought, from external appearance, was an apple-filled pastry.

It was filled with curry sauce. Good curry sauce, but not what I was expecting to have for a breakfast snack.

[chomiji]

I love adventures (especially in restrospect), but not necessarily adventures involving food ... the bread loaf description reminded me irresistibly of what happened when Jame tried to bake bread in Godstalk!

[seajules]

I'm glad you're there to have these adventures so I don't have to. *G*

[oyceter]

HEE! I am sad I am not there with you! Also, I think you must have found the worst conbini ever, as all the rest of them seem to be amazingly full of tasty items.

Oh Pocari Sweat.... I would miss it if I had ever dared try it in Taiwan.

[homasse.livejournal.com]

Aww, I like melon soda! And I'm curious to figure out what the mushy thing with back specks was.

And what day was this? A lot of restaurants and such are closed on either Monday or Wednesdays, so.