Some new foods

Our sponsor's wife took me shopping the other day at a local farmer's market and at the larger commissary in Hario Village. It was so neat to get off the base and see the countryside while driving - this is the time of year when they start flooding the rice patties and they were everywhere! The farmer's market surprised me because it was a permanent building, but different farmers bring their crops there everyday (I forgot my camera or I would post some pics of it!). I was really surprised by how many of the fruits and veggies I had never heard of. We had a good laugh as I tried to guess what stuff was like. I stopped trying when I guessed something was a spaghetti squash and it turned out to be some kind of melon.

She helped me pick out some of the pre-made things for dinner that night. By the time I got home, I had seen so many new things that I totally forgot what she told me about them.  Nathan and Wilson were good sports and tried everything with me anyway! I will try (pathetically, I'm sure!) to describe what they were.

The thing on the left was a ball of rice in the middle with a kind of a soggy bread type outer casing. There was a sweet stuffing in the middle and it tasted kind of as if it were dipped in soy sauce. We really liked it!

The square thing on the right she described as sushi but not with raw fish. There was a lot of rice and in the middle I thought she said it was a mixture of veggies, but we definitely tasted some kind of (Nathan says tuna) fish. It was an interesting taste and definitely more exotic than the other piece. We both agreed it was pretty good.

For dessert, we got this bun that was filled with a red bean paste. She told me these were really popular and everywhere.

The bread was like a really light butter roll, and the insides were a very thick paste and a little sweet.

We ended up finishing the bread, but decided the bean paste didn't taste too great to us.

The last new Japanese treat we tried we found in the candy section of a convenience store. I told my guide that we liked dried fruit and she said we would love these. They were from a vegetable (or fruit?) that looks kind of like a radish before it's cooked. They tasted a bit bitter and sour and Nathan and I weren't big fans.

Guess who loved them??

If you've made it this far, thanks for bearing with me and my awful food descriptions! I'm sure this will be a post that I can look back on in a few years and laugh at when I actually know what this stuff is. Oh well, we're still learning here!!