Best Of Japan...FOOD AND DRINK!!!

Food I am REALLY going to miss when I get back to the UK.....

1.) Raamen!!!

2.) Takoyaki!!!
3.) Sashimi (salmon, mackerel, red eye tuna, white tuna...aaahg!)

4.) 100 Yen Sushi

5.) Doriaki

6.) Steamed dumplings

7.) Gyoza!!!

8.) Azuki bean paste (anco?!)

9.) Okonomiyaki

10.) Japanese rice

11.) Interestingly flavoured rice crackers

12.) Brillian tofu dishes

13.) Custard-filled fish-shaped sweets from Hakata's street stalls.

14.) Green tea

15.) Umeshu

16.) Chu-Hi

17.) Octopus

18.) Dried, shredded squid.

19.) Cheap beer on any corner which you can drink in public and still look perfectly normal.

20.) Cooking your own food as you share and chat with friends (Shabu-shabu, yakki-nikku, hotplates at the table, etc...)

21.) Outdoor street stalls

22.) (Though I hate to admit it) Trandor cakes...especially curry donuts!

23.) BENTO!

Food I am NOT going to miss when I get back to the UK.....

1.) Rubbish bread

2.) Fruit and veg with hardly any shelf life

3.) Cakes which are far too small

4.) Tiny portions

5.) Yakitori (I just don't get the fuss)

6.) Rubbish crisps

7.) Green tea flavoured things

8.) Polished, waxed and fussily presented fruit

9.) Expensive fruit

10.) Having to look at packs of soft, soggy chicken skin, fish eggs and intestines in the supermarket.

11.) CRRRRRAPPY wine.

12.) Weiners

13.) EVERYTHING being covered in mayonnaise in a criss-cross pattern

14.) The annoying half-poured presentation of low-quality curry and rice.

15.) Stupid, plastic food models on display outside restaurants everywhere.

16.) The way even international dishes always somehow still taste and look Japanese (due to the above factors...)

17.) "Milk" with a two week shelf life which makes all tea taste, also, CRRRRRRRRRAPPY.

I am going to really miss Japan's food culture-sayonara! (weep, weep!)