somewhere in imaginary japanese restaurant a young lady enters:

M: Konichiwa

B: Hello. Don’t worry, I speak english.

M: Oh, really? Am I in imaginary japanese restaurant?

B: Well, of course! You can sit here, there is a hot wet towel to clean your hands with and to wipe your face if you want to, here is a glass of water with ice, chopsticks and menu. So, what would you like to have?

M: Hmmm, sushi?

B: Rice blocks with raw fish on it or with fried eggs or with squid or shrimps or… with spicy wasabi and tasty ginger.

M: ok, delicious (oyshi in japanese). okonomiyaki?

B: A special type of pancake. We mix cabbage, meat or fish or noodles or other vegetables and egg and throw the mix on warm “grill”, then pour special sauce on it and then you cut it and eat it from the  grill

M: Fantastic! Udon?

B: It is a noodle soup, enriched with vegetables, sometimes tempura…

M: Tempura?

B: Yes, not tempera (kao temperaaa, kisa nebo obojiii, takve je boje…-ok, even in imaginary japanese restaurant they do not sing this song…), it’s fried meat or vegetables or fish, shrimp…

M: Chashu rice?

B: Rice with topping made by egg, vegetables, also meat.

M: Oyshiii… And there is sooo much more. Well, that’s great that your menus have pictures of food.

B: Of course. So, you’ll have all this, I suggest also all kinds of tofu, some other never seen vegetable before (well, almost never seen), some row fish (maybe cooked fish head and you just must try the part behind the eyeball!).

The bartender brings everything on different plates in small portions and the young lady starts enjoying the paradise of flavors…

M: Itadakimas!

B: Dober tek!

M: mmmmmm, this is soooo…. mmmm…. I LOVE this food! what is this? and this? nato-(very sticky euro-popular calory burning source wannabe-like caramel but very very sticky)-mmm, okey, let’s rather try some other calory gaining sources…  o, my god, this bbq things are making me nuts…mmmmm… I mix rice with soup with vegetables with meat with fish, mmmm, such a choice… my brain is grateful for all this palette of flavours and this food diversity, every day!!! and yes, of course I’ll try pineapple from Hawaii or Philippines and of course I’m going to eat these small fish which are almost antiosteoporosic medication because of all this calcium…

B: Beer or sake or some more tea?

M: which one?

B: japanese hot or cold tea, uran cha (chinese one, good for digestion) or maybe jasmine tea or other green tea?

M: But it’s evening. I won’t be able to sleep…Do you know what caffeine does to me?

B: Then maybe some sweets?

M: Manju, anmitsu, mochi, warabimochi, azuki (sweet bean-we make almost everything out of it), macha ice cream, rice cakes and other rice products…I WANT IT ALL, well except from macha ice cream-it has strong flavour!!!for me…

B: well, are you ok?

M: mmmmm… I can’t even talk anymore..there was so much food, I’m so fool/full. Delicious and I’m keeping the chopstics!!!

Except from the first part with English spoken bartender everything is almost true. But there is one thing that is for sure. They eat wonderful food, prepare it in all kinds of ways, even fry it and they are still a nation of very fit people… Metabolism probably…and not so big consumers of alcohol (damn, this lack of appropriate enzyme!!!);)

one of the dinners

japanese style

oyshiiii

the hands are just waiting for the start...

OKONOMIYAKI!!!

And there is of course yakisoba (japanese noodles) and takoyaki (balls with octopuss)…

Fantastic food eaten at home with family and good food eaten outside, everything!!! And really really good!!!