The Marmite Of Japan

On my second day I met Jody, one of the girls who lives downstairs. She had a day off so showed me around Nash. It’s quite a big shopping area, surrounding the station. Food shops, department stores, arcades, second-hand English books, scuba diving centres, gyms, and so on. And rather amazingly, a three-storey bike park. Most of the stations have these shopping areas, which puts into perspective how big central Yokohama and Tokyo are.

There is also a fantastic 99Yen shop, which works out at about 50p, which has everything you can imagine..

We walked down to the next station, Okurayama, where the Ward Office is, so that I could register for my Alien Registration Card. You have to register for everything in Japan: new bikes, changing address, having a baby. Registering was pretty much straight forward although I had to sign twice and each time, the man on the desk said my signatures weren’t similar enough. One “P” was either too curvy or my squiggle was smaller than the other. On the third try I was accepted. I found out about Japanese lessons in the area. 100Yen an hour, although I was told that it was more a big discussion room where you could talk to others interested about learning and pick a topic with them. Nevertheless, it sounds cool.

In the evening, I went with Jody to the 100Yen Sushi conveyor belt restaurant in Nash. Free Green Tea and then every plate is 100Yen. Each plate had two pieces of fish, or one if it’s a more expensive fish. Even at 1000Yen for ten plates, that’s only £5.

I’ve been warned off Nato, Japan’s version of the “love it or hate it” marmite. Nato is fermented beans, which are meant to smell worse than they taste. One Japanese man convinced us to try it, so Jody and I shared a plate. On the count of three we both ate a piece. Bare in mind that it’s rude not to eat a piece of Sushi in one go, so we had to stick the whole thing in our mouths. I broke off about a third of it and tried to swallow. It was the most horrific thing I’ve ever eaten and I immediately regurgitated it. I could hear Jody having problems but knew if I looked at her I’d laugh and possibly throw up. At this point it hit me how much I had in my mouth and that I just had to swallow.
I still feel some of the taste to this day. It’s a once in a lifetime experience. I can always say I survived Nato. But never again.