Japanese foods that suck...

So as most of you know I love Asian food. From Thai curry to Japanese Natto each region of Asia has it's own unique flavors, cooking styles, and dishes. Japan by far has my favorite cuisine but there is some food here believe it or not that just outright sucks. So I want to try and dedicate some space on my blog to this shitty food as I encounter it.
Now I love Japanese food so I don't want you to think that I'm lumping it all into this category but there is some food that even I have a hard time stomaching (this coming from a guy who can down balout).
Today I want to talk about Mochi.
Mochi, as I knew it until today comes in a variety of colors and is filled with goodies such as Anko or Ice Cream and is quite the tasty dessert.

So when my host mom told me I'd be having mochi for lunch today I was rather curious...Why is that I'm having mochi for lunch? I wasn't about to question it but as I sat down I realized this kind of mochi wasn't filled with anything. It was just a solid cube of pounded glutinous rice (don't worry I'm not ragging on my host mom's cooking, it came from a package). So we then heated said brick in a toaster over and it began to grow, and grow, and grow....and......pop.......???
After 5 minutes in the toaster over I took said lump of goo and doused it with soy sauce. I'm not talking a little spritz I mean filling a bowl with the stuff and rolling it around in it, which is then wrapped with a piece of salty seaweed and eaten.
Now there's another Japanese food I have a hard time eating that I'll talk about later due to the amount of salt content but this seaweed wrapped ball of packed rice and salt was pretty rough. But I had to put my best foot forward and eat it....nono not just one....but three!!!!! THREE!!!!!!
As I was eating my host mom popped her head out and said "Isn't it delicious?!"
while trying to chew this was nearly impossible the best response I could give was "mufffmrrruuummpphhhmumphmuph"
well after two my host dad told me I didn't need to add more soy sauce in the bowl for the third mochi because there was already enough in it....so I replied "well I'm kinda full from the last two so if you want it.....?"
"No that's not what I said" he said, "You don't need to add more soy sauce...please....eat it".
Now I was trapped and had to eat a third mochi. With the best effort and with the biggest exertion of mastication ever I managed to down it as quickly as possible, with it slithering like a slug all the way down my throat.
Once again my host mom pops out of the kitchen saying "Isn't it delicious?!"...
I personally enjoy eating weird food but packed rice and copious amounts of salt....not my bff....but I managed a "yeah it's pretty good" back to her.
she then tells me how much she loves the stuff.....why wouldn't they eat the third piece?! :(
So if you're ever in Japan and you see this:
http://www.pjvoice.com/v51/photos/mochi.jpg
You're safe to eat it.....
but if you ever see this:
http://oohara.mt.tama.hosei.ac.jp/nk/jpegfiles/mochi.jpg
don't even think about eating it........it feels like a solid brick has been dropped in my stomach....because it has.

Japan....

So I've been in Japan for 10 days now and it sure has been quite the ten days.
The first day was real rough and ended in me ralphing from the ninth story window of my hotel...I felt really bad for the passersby.
My Japanese wasn't exactly what I would call "up to par" and going out to dinner was mostly a giant awkward fest. What with the Japanese students being unable to communicate with me and vice versa (I refuse to use English!!!!).
the next couple of days were racked with orientation sess after orientation sess. Boring, but useful information.
After three days in the hotel I moved in with my host family, the Isohata's :).
They're some of the nicest people I've met. Sweet, friendly, willing to hear me out, despite the language barrier. I'm really glad they don't speak english though because this is how I'm going to become fluent, by only using Japanese.
I found a nice gym near my house with a pool I go swimming in twice a week. Next week I'm also going to resume training for the Tokyo Marathon. I'll find out next month whether or not I get in but I can't quit training.
Tocay, we had our last orientation session, where after meeting some pretty ladies (They're everywhere!!!!) I headed off with my new friends for Karaoke. After that my host mom arranged a meeting for me with a really famous yoga instructor. and Tuesday I'm going to her class.
Sure has been quite the experience thus far. The food is amazing, the people are great, and school starts in two days. Well that's the short of it.
Until next time.