The food was obviously very different, but so were the customs while eating. We had to take off our shoes to go in the dining room, where four low tables were sunk in to the floor. Blowing your nose is not allowed in the dining room, and sneezing in general is frowned upon. Of course, everything is eaten with chop sticks. It is considered rude to gesture with your chop sticks, and you are not supposed to use them to stab your food.

The menu was completely in Japanese. Fortunately, our group member Emiko was able to tell us what most things were. Everybody ordered a beer, but after that no one could decide what to get, so we had Emiko order an assortment of local cuisine.

As with most Japanese restaurants, many small portions of different foods are split among everybody.

We started off with a small bowl of carrots and string beans in vinegar. My goal for this trip is to try a little bit of everything no matter how strange it looks, so I tried the dish. It wasn’t bad! My friend Riki from Ann Arbor taught me the basics of taking close-up photos of food, which helps to show off all of the subtle details.

Next, we had salted pea pods. To eat them, you bite the pod and suck the pea out. These were really good – they tasted a lot like edamame (which is what they probably are).

The seafood salad was also pretty good. It had raw tuna, shrimp, roe (fish eggs) and assorted vegetables. Many Japanese foods have a lot of complex, subtle flavors as opposed to American foods with a few bold flavors.

The egg cake with grain sauce had a very strange texture and taste; I couldn’t decide whether I liked it or not.

If there was one thing I was scared to try, it was octopus. Little did I know, these delicious dumplings pictured below actually contained octopus meat and sauce. I tried one, and really liked it. After eating several more, I asked Emiko what they were; lo and behold, I found out they were yakitori, or octopus dumplings.

I assumed these small, fried bits were popcorn shrimp. I tried one, and it was strangely crunchy but tasted pretty good. Apparently, they were chicken bites.

Pieces of fried pork were also delicious. These tasted like something that an Asian restaurant in the United States would serve.

Next came the sashimi sushi plate containing tuna, salmon, shrimp, yellowtail, and of course wasabai. Interestingly, wasabai is not served for its flavor; rather, it helps kill bacteria so raw fish can be eaten safely.

We finished up with some steak, which was undercooked by American standards but delicious nonetheless.

Between the beer and all the plates we shared, my portion of the dinner cost about 1200 yen ($12). Not bad for a night on the town! My fellow traveler Mariam summed it up pretty well by saying, “Live like a king right now, because you’ll be rich with experiences when you get back.”

After dinner we returned to the hotel, ready for sleep after being up for almost twenty-four hours. Kom ban wa!