Being vegetarian in Japan does limit your choices somewhat when it comes to lunchtime. There's a few decent restaurants near the office where I work, but there's not much on the menu that doesn't include chicken, pork or beef, so if I don't feel like having fish (yes, I'm one of those fish-eating vegetarians) there's not much else to choose from. Even the Vegetable Curry in our local curry house has meat in!
Is it just Japan where the concept of vegetarianism is so alien?
Anyway, this is just one of the reasons I like to take a bento (lunch box) to work. Fresh homemade salad, rice, salmon, and a selection of fruit - love it!
One thing I was surprised about when I first came to Japan was the size of the fruit - I'd never seen a nashi (pear) as big as this one!
How do they do it? Are all the fruit trees on steroids?! Is fruit like this anywhere else, or is it a Japanese speciality?
Another first for me was green mikan (satsumas) in the shops. They're kind of sweet and sour - not bad.
I'm a bit of a mikan addict to be honest, getting through a whole bag a day when they're in season. In fact, I like them so much that a couple of years ago I travelled all the way down to Ehime (on the island of Shikoku) to work as a volunteer on an organic mikan farming co-op. It was an unforgettable experience, and now, whenever I eat a
mikan I wonder if it came from those terraced hillsides.
Bananas too are something I eat a lot of. When I was an exchange student at Tokyo's Rikkyo University the local greengrocer would often tell me that he'd bought too many, and I could have as many as I wanted for 100 yen - I became known on campus for my banana cakes that year!
Anyway, I'd better sign off. I'm on the Hibiya subway line and have almost arrived at my stop - a hard day at the office ahead after what has been a great Silver Week holiday.
Joseph
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