Dec 8

Learning to Eat – by Peter Weber

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Peter Weber (Saitama-ken, Gyoda-shi, 2004-07) is the JET Coordinator at the Consulate General of Japan in San Francisco.

Here is how I remember it… My tolerance for food has changed over the years.  When I was a child I was they referred to as “picky”.  Although exposed to many foreign and exotic foods (at least for Ohio) by my mother I would usually abstain from the meal.  The perfect meal for me was alternating days between hamburgers and pizza with an occasional mac and cheese with hotdogs dinner.  This changed a bit when I got older, but not by much.

When I was living in Japan I found one of the biggest challenges for me was the diet. Upon my arrival in Japan the difference in types of food people ate was apparent very quickly as I realized that foreign country and foreign food went hand in hand. Luckily there was always an abundance of rice that I could fill myself with until I could hunt down something familiar to my senses. Grocery shopping was also a major challenge trying to find foods that look appetizing. A typical purchase of mine consisted of peanut cream & jelly sandwiches (not peanut butter like I was used to) and potato chips. They were safe and quenched my appetite.

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