Day 3 : Living Like Locals
Today, my friend’s mom told me we’d be hanging out with a friend of hers who doesn’t speak English. She mentioned that we were going to a very traditional lunch.
Let me preface this by saying—in America, I’m a pretty picky eater. I eat meat… a lot of it. I know Japanese traditional meals often include a little bit of everything, so let’s just say I was scared. Very scared. I didn’t want to disappoint anyone or offend anyone, so I knew I had to eat whatever ended up on the table.
This was the kind of place you had to have a Japanese reservation or been a long time local. I might also add that there was probably no chance a foreigner could eat here unless accompanied by a local. You could say I felt honored.
They ordered beer and food sets. When the food arrived, it included raw fish (tuna, squid, and a white fish), miso soup, seafood-stuffed eggplant with cheese, egg soup with the consistency of pudding, vegetables, steamed fish with radish, and sweet tofu wrapped around rice.
To my surprise, I don’t know if it was the fear of offending, my brain rewiring to accept Japan, or just a desire to fit in—but I ate everything. And honestly? I didn’t have a single problem. It was all really good.
I don’t usually eat much fish or vegetables—especially not in the early afternoon/morning or with beer—but somehow, it all just worked. Lol.
After lunch, the friend asked if I was okay with seeing a traditional show. I happily agreed—I don’t mind trying new experiences, and this was definitely deep in the heart of the local area.
I will say… it was very loud. Right away, the performers appeared, wearing beautiful kimonos and moving slowly and fluidly to the music.
I thought it was okay, I enjoyed it, very interesting.
After the show, we wandered through a vendor market and a fish market. Most of the time, I just listened to my friend’s mom and her friend talk, trying to translate bits of it in my head as practice. It was challenging, but also kind of fun—like a real-time brain workout.
For dinner, we went to an izakaya (a casual Japanese pub). We ordered french fries, chicken wings, and meat skewers, along with sours, beers, and shochu. The shochu, though… to me, it just tasted like warm water. Even after they made it stronger, I couldn’t really tell the difference. The friend found this hilarious.
Not satisfied with a small selection, we hopped on the train to another izakaya for round two. I saw a lot of people wearing S-Pulse jerseys and learned that soccer is pretty popular in Japan and there was a game that night. When we arrived, things got a bit more adventurous. We ordered liver, fried fish, pork cheek, beef tongue, and chicken with edible bones.
I couldn’t bring myself to continue eating the chicken with edible bones—my brain just couldn’t comprehend swallowing them. The liver tasted a lot like chalk to me, and the fried fish wasn’t really my favorite.
On the other hand, the beef tongue and pork cheek were fantastic! Honestly, I’m just happy I tried everything.
Even with the language barrier, my friend’s mom’s friend was great company and was a lot of fun to be around.
On the way home, I grabbed a pancake and a piece of fried chicken from the convenience store. Then I collected my clothes from outside—it was my first time drying them the Japanese way. I honestly thought they were going to fly away or get dirty, but they didn’t.
