The first bite is the nastiest...

After living in Japan for nearly 7 months, I finally did it - I ate natto. For those of you that are unfamiliar to natto, it is nasty ass, sticky, fermented beans. I failed to bring my camera to school yesterday, but you can see pics of it here (taken from Yamada3 Flickr site): http://flickr.com/photos/yamada3/59250366/

This wasn't the first time I encountered natto: The first time was a few months ago at the JHS (which incidentally, was where I did the deed yesterday), and I just flat out passed on it. The kids were eating it and I swear, I felt the bile rising. I've read so much about it, that it felt like I've already tried it. So when the principal called me over while he was eating it and asked me if I'd be willing to try it, I said no thank you. But then I changed my mind for a few reasons. I'll try to explain as best as I can:

For a little while, I've been riding the culture shock wave, probably from sometime while I was in China. It's been up and down since then and while I've felt like things were going up and I was getting better, I'd have a crash. They were usually subtle but there were there. I have been working on getting out of this funk and I felt like I finally succeeded yesterday. At first, I didn't think Monday would be a good day because my mind was racing from the moment I got up about things too personal to write about in a public blog (the main reason why I haven't posted for a little while). Even though the day was beautiful, I couldn't really see any of it because I was lost in my own headspace. When it rose into a fine mental crescendo, I decided to take out my paper and pen and just write a manifesto of sorts. I felt my heart rate lowering and my mind clearing. And that's when I decided to live in today, worry about the future later, and find my faith again. Shortly after that, I decided to eat THE NATTO. I know trying something different is really what life is all about and this was totemo chigau (super different).

See natto just isn't a culinary adventure, it is also an exercise in physical prowess. You get a dixie cup sized portion of the food and you peel off the cover. Right away you'll notice the sticky-cum-snotty consistency and it would be too easy to get turned off. But you gotta perservere.

Next, there is a liquid packet you must open and pour into the cup. Then you mix. And mix. And mix some more. After a sufficient time has passed, you can add the fish flakes. I'm not sure how usual this ingredient is in eating natto, but we had it yesterday. Fish flakes are strong in smell, but more subtle in taste. So you pour it in, and mix again. Then you should be ready to chow down.

Ok, I gotta admit that the first bite was disgusting. The stringy and slimy textures did not bode well for my Western stomach. I thought I was going to upchuck into poor Ami-chan's tray. It also didn't help that I didn't eat rice yesterday with the school lunch, which seems to take the edge off the natto, but I kept chowing down. And you know what? It progessively got better. It wasn't great, but I didn't die. I actually felt proud of myself, and my kids that I was pretty cool too.

The day ended well, even though there is a full on flu pandemic at both schools now and half of my classes were cancelled and first and third graders were sent home. Before I left school, I decided to get off my ass and do 30 minutes of cross country skiing in the school's field. It felt great! I felt so alive. I feel whole again.

So here I am. Sitting in my living room, somewhere between contentment, a regular routine, and wishing for Canada. I'm knackered because I went to the Tomidaya grocery store after school because I'm out of food. I don't usually venture anywhere during the week because the sun goes down about 5:45 now, but I needed to be independent plus I was hungry. It took about an hour round trip (by train) to do a modest grocery store run and I'm tired. Proud, but tired. I gotta get off this thing to watch an episode of Degrassi downloaded for me by David in preparation for my 3rd grade JHS class tomorrow. Yes, that's work.

Later.

Oh yeah, I know about that weird space at the top of this blog. I don't know how to fix it and it happened to Dancing Chaos, and according to her, it eventually went away. So we'll see.