Japan Tastes like MMMMMMMMMM

The food in Japan is Amazing, and yes that is with a capital A. I love it because everything tastes how it should. Unless you have had fresh food before that is prepared well, you have no idea what I am talking about. I have never loved a green bean like I do now.

Brett took me out on our second day together here to a place that is called Pepper Lunch (even though it is served all day and night). You order your meal from a vending machine that spits out tickets that have your orders placed on them. You then hand them to the worker that gives you food faster than McDonald's would and what you get is a little taste of heaven. You get a beautifully cut piece of beef that is placed on a extremely hot cast iron grill in front of you with a garnish of pepper corn and garlic. You then cook it to your desired doneness and voila! You have a meal better than anything steak you have had at home...all for about 1000 yen (10 dollars) per person. We also ordered garlic green beans and those so far are my favorite things that we have had. They are crisp and taste sweet while soaking up the garlic flavor. It was awesome. I could eat those all day.  I will post pictures once we get our own camera.

We have also enjoyed the delights of yakiniku, which is Japanese BBQ. Anyone that comes to visit, this is where I am taking you first. You order your choices from a point and pick menu that consists of an array of meats and vegetables but the best is there beef. You have a little charcoal grill sunken into the middle of your table that you cook your items on. The smell of the food cooking is intoxicating makes you look forward to the food that much more. You can eat all you want for 75 minutes but after about two rounds Brett and I were done.

Yesterday Brett took  me for my first taste of real Ramen...not the kind out of a package. No, this was so much more. Every piece of this dish was prepared with care and portioned to properly balance the meal. Everything from the broth to the noodle to the hard boiled egg was scrumptious.

Another little delight from the land of the rising sun is all the vending machine goodies you can find here. Most machines here on base consist of drinks (hardly any soda in there) and some have a few snacks. Off base though anything that you could ever want you can find in a machine. Want a new MP3 players, easy you can find that anywhere. In that same machine you can buy a shirt and a drink. The technology here is amazing. One drink that I came across so far that I am strangely in love with is a drink that comes in a can and has a pancake with syrup and butter pictured. When I first saw it I wanted to gag but when I tried it I drank the whole thing right then. If any of  my fellow children of the 80's remember this cereal, and who knows they may still have it, Waffle Crisp, that is exactly what it tastes like. Well it tastes like the milk that is left in the bowl after the cereal is gone. Heaven.

My food adventures will continue along with the rest of my journey. Until then, farewell from the other side of the world.