No matter what country you live in, no matter where you live, there is one thing we all have in common. We eat. We gather around with friends or family in our homes or a social gathering and we eat. To be truthful, I am a picky eater. I wasn't so much as a child but as an adult I am. Since I am allergic to bell peppers, the one vegetable my Mother absolutely loves it does make choosing what to eat a little difficult. But regardless I love all types of cuisine. If you are a someone who is adventurous with their food and are willing to give anything a try I tip my hat to you. The majority of people are not that way. I grew up eating all different kinds of cuisine. Of course starting out in India I ate Indian food. In the states I ate American food and of course moving to Japan we ate Japanese food. But I actually can't remember a lot of my childhood in California about what we ate. I know my Mother was very strict and made sure we always ate healthy and we almost never got dessert. I remember the day we left to go to Japan. My Dad had gone ahead of us to start his job and secure housing and get the details of living there worked out. My parents are Brent and Sandy Rogers. They were missionaries in India and now in Japan. They always knew that being a missionary was something that they wanted to do with their lives. And trust me it is a full time commitment. Most people don't really understand that to be a missionary takes a lot of sacrifice and being able to let go of what you want to do. But that is for another day.
The day we left I knew we were leaving America but I wasn't sad or upset about it. I was excited to go. I was of course sad to leave my friends but I didn't think much of what I would be losing or if I was even losing anything. It was more of an adventure that I couldn't wait to start. I was really looking forward to seeing my Dad again. I can remember being on the plane back when they used to serve peanuts and the food was actually pretty good. It was a long boring 14 hour flight and my Mother was stressed and tired. Who wouldn't be after dealing with a 8 and 10 year old. Yes, I have an older brother but I can't speak for his thoughts on the matter. After going through customs and making sure our dog was squared away in quarantine, we were on our way home to see my Dad. Yes, we brought our big dog with us. She was part of our family and we couldn't leave her behind. After 3 train rides to our final destination, Kojima in Okayama prefecture, my Dad was waiting for us. It was of course dark out and difficult to see the new surroundings. My Mother was tired, actually exhausted. She of course cried...who wouldn't after dealing with all of that mess and two kids? Because of the time difference we got home around 7pm. And the first thing after my Dad offered us a glass of water was " Are you hungry"? Of course we were. The plane meal had long worn off and so off we went. My Dad took me with him to go get our first experience of food in Japan. I rode on his handle bars b/c I was petite and small when I was a kid. I still am...only got to be 5ft tall. Anyway, our first experience was this hamburger place called Moss Burger. And to this day I crave it. When I call and talk to my Mother on the phone..I tell her I am craving a Moss Burger hamburger and end of flinging a craving on her. It holds a special place in my family's heart. It is not a typical American hamburger but it is what my Dad thought was a healthy close alternative to what we thought were hamburgers. I think we all thought he was going to secretly grab some baby octopus from the fridge and feed it to us that first night. Not that there is anything wrong with that. I happen to love them after all this time.
Moss Burger hamburgers have a good size amount of finely shredded lettuce and a tomato and a soy seasoned hamburger. It is delicious!! Here is a link to the a google search for them. Since I don't have any pictures personally of them. http://www.mos.co.jp/english/
And I have to apologize about the lack of photos of everything. Back then taking pictures of everything you eat was not common practice and when you live in a country that your not a tourist of you tend to not take a million pictures of everything you eat. Because how many times can you take a picture of the same thing you eat when it is part of your culture. It became a tradition that every time we came back from visiting the states we would go eat there. In the time that I lived in Japan, I only went back to America twice to visit. Each time I was in culture shock for a week. Needless to say, to this day I love Japanese food. I was willing to try the unlimited amount of different food items that were offered to us. I loved dried squid jerky and I love eating sushi or sashimi. Because of all the layers of food I was introduced to and soon became a part of my life and the restaurants we went to growing up in Japan. I now crave what I consider comfort food. There are times when I cook at least 3 Japanese meals in one week because I am missing Japan. My husband has been a trooper and was more than willing to try anything I cook so now he enjoys and craves some of the same foods I do. My children have grown up eating Japanese and Indian and America cuisine so to all three of them it is normal to have a different cultural experience in one week. What I have learned is that I could feel sorry for myself that I can't just hop on my bike and go to my favorite place like I used to be able to do. And my parents will go to some of my favorite places for me. Maybe they do it because they can still see the image of me when I was 8 years old sitting across the table from them. When I cook a meal from home, the flavors invoke a powerful comfort for me. As does most food for everyone. This I have found is one of the ways I keep my home close to me.
The day we left I knew we were leaving America but I wasn't sad or upset about it. I was excited to go. I was of course sad to leave my friends but I didn't think much of what I would be losing or if I was even losing anything. It was more of an adventure that I couldn't wait to start. I was really looking forward to seeing my Dad again. I can remember being on the plane back when they used to serve peanuts and the food was actually pretty good. It was a long boring 14 hour flight and my Mother was stressed and tired. Who wouldn't be after dealing with a 8 and 10 year old. Yes, I have an older brother but I can't speak for his thoughts on the matter. After going through customs and making sure our dog was squared away in quarantine, we were on our way home to see my Dad. Yes, we brought our big dog with us. She was part of our family and we couldn't leave her behind. After 3 train rides to our final destination, Kojima in Okayama prefecture, my Dad was waiting for us. It was of course dark out and difficult to see the new surroundings. My Mother was tired, actually exhausted. She of course cried...who wouldn't after dealing with all of that mess and two kids? Because of the time difference we got home around 7pm. And the first thing after my Dad offered us a glass of water was " Are you hungry"? Of course we were. The plane meal had long worn off and so off we went. My Dad took me with him to go get our first experience of food in Japan. I rode on his handle bars b/c I was petite and small when I was a kid. I still am...only got to be 5ft tall. Anyway, our first experience was this hamburger place called Moss Burger. And to this day I crave it. When I call and talk to my Mother on the phone..I tell her I am craving a Moss Burger hamburger and end of flinging a craving on her. It holds a special place in my family's heart. It is not a typical American hamburger but it is what my Dad thought was a healthy close alternative to what we thought were hamburgers. I think we all thought he was going to secretly grab some baby octopus from the fridge and feed it to us that first night. Not that there is anything wrong with that. I happen to love them after all this time.
Moss Burger hamburgers have a good size amount of finely shredded lettuce and a tomato and a soy seasoned hamburger. It is delicious!! Here is a link to the a google search for them. Since I don't have any pictures personally of them. http://www.mos.co.jp/english/
And I have to apologize about the lack of photos of everything. Back then taking pictures of everything you eat was not common practice and when you live in a country that your not a tourist of you tend to not take a million pictures of everything you eat. Because how many times can you take a picture of the same thing you eat when it is part of your culture. It became a tradition that every time we came back from visiting the states we would go eat there. In the time that I lived in Japan, I only went back to America twice to visit. Each time I was in culture shock for a week. Needless to say, to this day I love Japanese food. I was willing to try the unlimited amount of different food items that were offered to us. I loved dried squid jerky and I love eating sushi or sashimi. Because of all the layers of food I was introduced to and soon became a part of my life and the restaurants we went to growing up in Japan. I now crave what I consider comfort food. There are times when I cook at least 3 Japanese meals in one week because I am missing Japan. My husband has been a trooper and was more than willing to try anything I cook so now he enjoys and craves some of the same foods I do. My children have grown up eating Japanese and Indian and America cuisine so to all three of them it is normal to have a different cultural experience in one week. What I have learned is that I could feel sorry for myself that I can't just hop on my bike and go to my favorite place like I used to be able to do. And my parents will go to some of my favorite places for me. Maybe they do it because they can still see the image of me when I was 8 years old sitting across the table from them. When I cook a meal from home, the flavors invoke a powerful comfort for me. As does most food for everyone. This I have found is one of the ways I keep my home close to me.
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