The Japanese Diet

Anyone who has ever been to Japan will probably come back and rave about the food. So good! So well presented! So surprisingly inexpensive! (Well, mostly). I am no exception and again I've noticed that despite feeling compelled to test everything unless it's of the seafood variety I've again managed to lose (!) some weight on the trip.

Here's a pretty representative summary of the culinary highlights. 

solitary candied grape on a stick (Kamakura): very yummy

Onigiri on the train: my daily midday snack. This one is filled with konbu (seaweed), but my favourite is umeboshi (pickled plum). I pretty much had 2 onigiri every day and have been craving them since coming back.

Okonomiyaki in Kyoto. The one I ordered would have had squid in it and since the menu raved about their special leek I asked if I could have it with leek instead of squid, expecting some token rolls of chopped leek. As you can see from the picture, I got a year's worth of leek...

Our vegetarian meal in Akita arrived on an individual gas burner

One local speciality in Nagoya is their kishimen noodles, which are a bit like tagliatelle. I donated the tempura shrimp to MM, but otherwise, it was really tasty

sakura mochi in Kamakura. It was the best of the three we tried in the course of our trip

On our last night in Tokyo we finally had sushi. It does not look any different from the one you would get in Vienna, but was really tasty

Our only fast-food adventure at Mosburger, a Japanese chain. Contrary to e.g. McDonald's, they serve your food in "real" tableware if you eat in.

tradititional matcha with Japanese sweet

matcha latte at Starbucks upon arrival at Narita Airport

Cuteness overkill at the Hello Kitty! Café in Himeji