Our First Three Days in Japan

Hii, my name is Mark a second-year computer science student from central Thailand. I decided to join this dialogue because I really like Japan and I love the idea of going on a study abroad program since I believe that it will give me a more in-depth perspective on what life would be like in a country compared to going there as a tourist. I also found the topic of this dialogue, Japanese food, to be fascinating since it would help me explore more types of Japanese cuisine and let me try foods that I wouldn’t normally be able to try.

On June 30th most of the group started to arrive at either Narita or Haneda airport from the US. For me, I have quite a unique travel plan for the day since by this point I have already been in Japan for 10 days. I have spent the previous 10 days with my family on a road trip through the central and southern parts of Hokkaido. As a result, I started my day journey in New Chitose Airport going on a flight inbound to Tokyo. The flight itself was uneventful but it was still quite an interesting experience for me since it was my first time flying a domestic flight within Japan + I got a clear view of Tokyo Bay before I landed.

Since my flight arrived in Tokyo around 4 hours earlier compared to everyone else, I decided to head straight to the hotel from the airport without waiting for the group meet-up that was happening at Haneda. This resulted in me being the second person to check in at the hotel we are staying at right behind Daniel. Logan also arrived at the hotel quite early so the three of us ended up going out to have a meal together. For dinner, we decided to go to a place that served Kushikatsu, deep-fried meat and vegetable skewered, which we paired with udon and rice as our side dishes.

On Monday morning, I finally got to meet everyone in the group during breakfast since almost everyone woke up bright and early due to jet lag. It was an exciting moment when I finally got to speak to the group of people who I would spend the next month of my life with for the first time. After breakfast, we took the Yamonote line to CIEE center in Tokyo for orientation from both our program coordinators and Professor Ito. During the orientation, one of the topics I find really interesting is Japanese food etiquette because there seems to be a lot more nuance than I originally thought, and I found that a lot of the etiquette are based on trying to disturb other people as little as possible.

We ended up in Shibuya for lunch after orientation. With how small each restaurant within the area is the group naturally split up into a group of 4-5 to explore different cuisines around the crossing. For my group, we ended up in a Chinese restaurant where I got to sample Tantanmen noodles topped with fried pork and shrimp shumai. Talking with others in the group I also found out that there are some people going out for tonkatsu and some that got udon for their meal.

Fast forward to dinner, we have a hotpot together hosted by CIEE (our event organizer). The meal started out with an assortment of sashimi, salad, and edamame which are all very fresh compared to those I normally eat. This is followed closely by a large pot of Nabe filled to the brim with various kinds of vegetables and meats. I found the subtle saltiness of the dish to pair well with the sweetness of Tamagoyaki that was served as a side dish. Sharing this filling and delicious meal with a new group of friends that I just made will definitely be a memory I will remember far into the future.

A person standing in front of a large screen

Description automatically generated The third day of our trip is mostly spent inside of a classroom taking the first lecture of the course with our guest lecturer Elizabeth Andoh. The main topic of the lecture is about Washoku which is a Japanese culinary philosophy where one tries to balance different elements of a meal when preparing and eating food. Within the mindset of Washoku, you should aim to have 5 different colors within your plate (red, yellow, green, black, and white) since having all 5 colors will be an easy way to ensure that the food is nutritionally balanced and help the food look more appealing. The second thing to consider is having 5 different flavors inside a dish including sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and spicy. By balancing these flavors out, the dish will provide a more enjoyable eating experience. Lastly, there are 5 different methods of preparing food within Japanese cuisine which are simmer, grill, raw, steam, and fry. Using a combination of these cooking methods will encourage you to have full use of the ingredients you have at hand.

In afternoon class, we finally got the chance to have our introduction to the writing class with Professor Ito and biology class with Dr. Young where we got a glimpse into how the two classes will link to our overall food experience in Japan. Even though this may only be the beginning of our class together, but I am already excited to see where both of the class will take me during my journey across Honshu.