Sunday 28 March 2010

The weird and wonderful world of Japan

Yesterday I was walking home from school and passed this little stall that is often there after about 5pm with this old woman sitting behind it. It sells Oden – it’s a traditional Japanese food where they fill a bain-marie with a broth type liquid made from water, soy-sauce and I dunno what else. Then they put in loads of items to cook, for example; boiled eggs, fried tofu, daikon (Japanese turnip), bundles of noodles, fish sticks etc and you basically grab a bowl or plate and help yourself. It’s quite good and very healthy but I wouldn’t eat it often. Anyway yesterday one of my students was sitting there with this woman. He’s a Judo boy and looks a bit like a pit-bull, he’s also marginally crazy but he’s always really pleased to see me and friendly. So he invited me over and asked if I wanted Oden. I was pushed for time but needed to eat something before my Japanese lesson and 2 hours of football so I stopped and grabbed a bite – free of charge – and chatted to him and this old lady in my terrible Japanese for about 15 mins. All the while different characters came and went and stared at the weird Gaikokojin (lit. outsider) sitting with the young kid and old Japanese lady. It was an interesting and fun experience though and just goes to show how nice most Japanese people are, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds like most of the kids at my school and surrounding area.


Anyway here's some recent random pics for your perusal:

My love of Sushi is increasing massively

The Instant Ramen Museum

So many flavours!

Plus you can design and choose the fillings for your very own Cup Noodle!