in Japan

It seems that a staggering majority of posts made while in Japan have to do with eating or food. I guess that’s not all too surprising, given that eating’s mainly what I’m doing these days, anyway.

I’m of the opinion that fusion food wasn’t born out of any great leaps of creativity, but instead out of necessity or convenience. Somehow I find it easy to imagine a foreigner out there with a packet of udon that was expiring pretty soon and deciding to eat it with leftover Thai red curry from the previous night’s dinner – possibly because that’s exactly what happened to me earlier today. Happily it resulted in a pretty tasty meal. I’m quite sure that curry udon’s been done before (and is probably rather common in Singapore), but I’ve never had it before and can now confirm that it’s actually quite good.

Last Sunday I followed Ailin up to Oyama (in a neighbouring prefecture) since she was doing her JLPT there, though I didn’t do very much aside from exploring some malls and checking out the eating options. I had myself some takoyaki (perhaps better known among Singaporeans as ‘Tako Pachi’, possibly the first chain to make it popular back home), which they sell in boxes of 6 or 8 – no snack-sized option of 3, which I’m more used to.

There were actually many varieties and I don’t know exactly what it was that I’d ordered, but it had octopus, okonomiyaki sauce, mayonnaise and fish flakes, and that’s good enough for me! Funnily enough (or painfully, as it was at the time), I decided to pop one into my mouth without waiting for it to cool sufficiently – a mistake I’d committed about 7 years ago. Looks like I’m a slow learner, sometimes.

So I’m back in Japan. It’s been a nice mix of busyness and slackness, often going out in the past few days to meet Ailin’s friends (whom I’ve kinda gotten to know after all the repeated visits). Anyway, while looking through some pictures I’d snapped on my phone, I discovered this little gem.

I know Japanese toilets are kinda infamous, and I’ve already seen them billions of times really, but somehow I found these tourist-friendly instructions in Narita Airport really amusing. I guess the line ‘equipment to cleansing the buttocks with warm water’ just really set me off, somehow.

Today I took a walk to Yaoko, the nearest supermarket (I think) to Ailin’s place. I recorded the route using GPS on my phone (ohwhatfun!), so you can take a look and try to figure out where exactly in Japan I am, if you were curious.

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I’ve been hoping to cook for myself while in Japan (since I don’t usually do it at home anymore, I actually kinda miss it), but I need to stock up on groceries first. You’d have thought that was the motivation behind the supermarket trip, but since I’m too lazy to bring home bags of groceries without a car, it was really just to get some lunch.

The supermarket tonkatsu might seem a little pricey at about S$5, but considering that the quality’s better than in some (lower-end) restaurants in Singapore, I think it’s a pretty good deal. Topped off with some home-cooked rice, an orange, and milk tea, it made a pretty satisfying (if somewhat pricey) meal.

I’d never been a big fan of tonkotsu ramen prior to visiting Japan (though admittedly I’d only had it once in Singapore), and even after being introduced to Japanese-made versions by Xianna and Ailin, I wasn’t a huge fan. Curiously enough I’ve somehow acquired a taste for it along the way, so much so that I actually really wanted to revisit this place before leaving Japan, despite it being a really long drive from where I’m staying.

Daruma Taishi (named after daruma dolls), as it is apparently called (we usually just refer to it as ‘Daruma Ramen’), is supposedly pretty well-known for its tonkotsu ramen, which essentially features a pork-based broth that is made by stewing for hours. The ingredients are pretty simple – noodles, bamboo shoots, pork, egg and scallions, but the potent broth makes it extremely enjoyable. I’d originally captioned the photo (taken last December) with the line ‘With soup so thick that it reputedly gives angmohs indigestion, this is pretty powerful stuff!’, and this opinion still hasn’t changed – but I’ve come to appreciate this ‘powerful stuff’ now, and have taken to liberally adding mashed garlic and sesame seeds into the broth to create a medley of strong flavours.

I’m probably slowly clogging up my arteries by eating this stuff, but hey – at least it’ll be a life well spent!