Tokyo Outer Market

 The Tokyo Outer Market is closer to maybe what we might experience as a farmers’ market although focused on the goods from smaller providers which are more likely to be sea food in this situation. Of course to those from the midwestern state siders, the wares are often weird - items other than the main meat from fish and other unusual animals or vegetables.

It is often not so much the ingredients, but the methods of preparation that are unique. We are visiting Cindy’s Japanese interpreter from her first visit - Myumi. We are staying at her bed and breakfast in Odawara. The large differences between major cities such as Tokyo or Moscow and the smaller outlying cities are probably what you don’t appreciate unless you can spend some time or have a unique connection. She wanted to take us to a local famous restaurant and asked would be rather have sushi or Oden. We confused Oden with Udon and since we had already eaten lots of sushi we thought noodles sounded good. Oden turned out to be a process of boiling things like eggs, and daikon radish cross sections and fish balls in a broth. I can’t say I really liked the preparation because it was such a different experience, but it was interesting. This restaurant was small with a single row of customers sitting in an L shaped configuration around the server. We had conversations with a student from Taiwan who was a language major and spending a year to learn Japanese. Great skills in English and Japanese. Not the stereotypical tech guy I would have expected. We also met a couple from Lahaina in Maui so we talked about disasters and our own experiences in Kauai. The conversations with fellow travelers and local are such an important benefit of the experience.