To compensate for the small dinner portions and some of the foods I can't bring myself to like, I have found some protein bars to occasionally supplement my meals and I will buy onigiri between classes sometimes. Food can be amazing in Japan, but only if you are willing to try new things and admit when you don't like something.
One of the first foods I got to try was onigiri, which is a rice ball wrapped in seaweed, usually filled with meat or vegetables. I can find my favorite onigiri at the AIU shop on campus after my first class. I love the salmon mayo and the tuna mayo onigiri. The fried chicken with aurora sauce (tomato sauce) is also amazing.
Some foods that I had already eaten in the U.S. were ramen and curry, but I wanted to try them both in Japan and see how they compared. Curry tasted exactly the same as my friend’s home cooking, but ramen definitely has a healthier taste here than back home. Two foods I could not wait to try were udon (wheat noodles) and soba (buckwheat noodles). Unlike most noodles in the States, these are full of whole wheat, so they have more nutritional value. In terms of look and texture, Udon is much thicker than soba, and soba is an interesting grayish color.
The foods I was very reluctant to try were takoyaki and squid. We made the takoyaki in my dorm lounge, where I saw that we were going to eat the tentacles of the octopus, suckers and all. But I tried it and it the taste and texture were a lot like scallops.
