Barbeque

I went to a barbeque the other day with Robert, my roomate, and his girlfriend Yoko. We drove up to Fukushima city to one of Yoko's friend's house. It was a little random but really sweet. The Japanese people were so hospitable; they kept offering us drinks and food. They had all these questions for me (a couple of them could speak broken English). They asked me if I'd had this food called natto. It's fermented soybeans; it has a pungent odor, quite a bitter taste, and a very sticky, stringy consistency. So they ask me if I'd like to try some, and I'm like "sure," and quick as that they run off to get some. It was pretty disgusting. A little later they asked me if I'd had sake. I say no, so they run in the house and grab a bottle of sake. Then they find out I like spicey foods, so they run in and get all this hot stuff; they had curry popcorn and these hot potatoe chips called Mama Zuma's Revenge. What the heck. Anyway, it was really sweet. Their house was kind of on the edge of town, so there were these hills right outside their front door. I felt very much like I was in Guatemala on a misty, foggy day.

This was their front porch. It was tiny, and yet they somehow made it feel very comfortable.


This is the man and woman of the house


That's Robert in the yellow, if you couldn't guess. Yoko is the one nearest him.




Apparently, just through that fog, there's a big mountain that is famous for its cherry blossoms in the spring. They said last spring, there was a ridiculous amount of people that came to see it, something like 50 or 70,000. I can't remember exactly.


Natto

Mmm. It's so good.

And good for you.