2011 Is Going To Be Delicious!
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Loading ...Happy New Year! I wish everyone a year full of big smiles and laughter.
Well, it’s the new year again. It seems to come quicker year after year (they say it happens when you get older… what? I didn’t catch that 
). I don’t think I’ve ever created a new year’s resolution in my life (or I just don’t remember), but this year I can say that I have come up with a pretty good one.
I will go cycling! A long cycling trip to be exact, from Okinawa, the southern tip of Japan, all the way up to Hokkaido. This is going to take months.
Just to give you an idea of what a challenge this is going to be for me, the longest cycling I have ever done in my life was up to two hours at a time, and that was just strolling along the beaches in Los Angeles, followed by a glass of beer and French fries.
The “daikon legs” (legs like daikon raddish in Japan, a phrase for women’s big legs with no definition) nurtured by the soft couch and fluffy bed are going to take some toning action.
Why, when there are many other new year’s resolutions I could make?
For over the last 10 years, I have lived in the US and UK for school and work. In those years of being abroad, many friends have asked me what I ate as I grew up in Japan. “Sushi?” they ask. I pause. “Ahm, not exactly.”
When I think of what my mother made for meals, our everyday food was definitely not sushi. In the last two decades or so, many sushi restaurants have sprung up in major cities around the world. Also in Japan, more sushi restaurants have popped up and it has become even more accessible and much more affordable compared to before, but that was and still is not what we eat everyday at home for dinner.
Just like you have much more than burgers in America, and just like you have a lot more than fish and chips in the UK, there are so many wonderful, delicious, huge variety of food eaten in Japan – much more than sushi.
Explaining what they are and how we make them were something I found a bit difficult to do to my friends in the West. Some of my friends were quite acquainted with Japanese food, but many others had never had it. Some of the frequently made comments from my dear friends included:
“I love teriyaki!”
- Yes, me too
“I hate tofu. It’s bland.”
- There are many ways to eat it, and there are some real good ones you’ve never had.“I don’t like fish. It’s fishy.”
- That’s because the fish was old. I’d give it another try where it’s fresh.“You eat seaweed? Yuck!”
- Clearly you’ve never had it. It’s not yuck, it’s delicious and nutritious!
How do I explain, in the best possible way, what wonderful things we eat in Japan? How can I show this different, yet incredibly delicious and healthy other side of the world that I grew up in?
That is the reason why I want to go cycling this year. On top of that, I LOVE to eat. What better way is there to burn off the calories as I eat and show you the food all around Japan? I think I’ve got myself a project.
I hope I can entertain and educate you and myself as I embark on my journey starting this spring. Now I need to prepare for my big trip!
About the Author: Sachi
