The story so far

I haven’t always liked food.  That is not to say I ever had an eating disorder. When I was a baby, or so my mother tells me, I didn’t like to eat.  She would struggle to get me to finish my bottle (I never did) and later she would buy me very expensive jars of baby food which I would eat a couple of bites and that was it. 

But at some point, I started a love affair with food.  It was probably when my family moved to LA in 1965 and I discovered ice cream.  Not the anaemic low butter fat content stuff I had in Japan, but full fat American ice cream.  We lived not far from the Carnation store in LA and it was a frequent treat.  We ate lots of red meat for the first time and although my mom did make some Japanese food, my sister and I were just in love with the junky, fatty food available in the States.  We both developed weight problems and there are school photos from those days I would just as soon never saw the light of day.

After 5 years, we were transferred back again to Tokyo and what a shock to the system!   It was cold there, first of all, 5 years of not owning an overcoat in LA and then October in Tokyo.  We also reverted to a Japanese diet.  1970 was a time when there were no American fast food restaurants; the diet was still pretty typically Japanese.  There were shops selling ready made food, but made in the shop, not some large factory somewhere.  Even the box lunches you got for train trips were made in small batches somewhere near by.  Within 6 months, my sister and I were back to our normal weight.  I would never be the ridiculously skinny kid that I was pre LA but I no longer stood out in a country with very few overweight young people.  Gym class was a horror.  I had never been particularly athletic, not being the most coordinated person in the world, (just ask my trainer) and the once a week volleyball gym class in LA did nothing to enhance my fitness.  In Tokyo, there was gym class 3 times a week and they would make us run, play softball, basketball, jump these ridiculous boxy things which all my class mates did with some degree of ease since they had been doing it since they were 6.  Hmmm change in diet, exercise three times a week?  Sound familiar?  I actually never put that together till just now.

My mom went on a cooking rampage.  She re discovered the wonders of Japanese food.  She took a kaiseki course and prepared elaborate meals for us, only to have my sister and I not appreciate them in the least.  My dad was rarely home in those days, being a “salary man” and all so life was mostly the 3 of us.  I really regret that my palate was not developed enough to appreciate my mom’s kaiseki, she’s always been a remarkable cook and I’m sure it was wonderful.  Having children of my own now and having them be really appreciative of everything I make, I feel bad I couldn’t do that for my mom.  Kaiseki was followed by bread making.  That we appreciated, especially the crusty rolls with cubes of cheese she used to make.  Because you see, the Japanese diet was slowly starting to merge with the west.  Frozen vegetables were introduced, KFC came to town, all things which should have set off alarm bells, but at the time were embraced as new and exciting.   I remember watching a documentary about the struggles the American companies faced, trying to bring frozen vegetables and KFC into Japan and it was definitely a little patronising and depicted the Japanese as having to be convinced of this new way of eating which was already a part of every day life in the States.  Oh if we only knew what we know now, dieting probably still wouldn’t exist in Japan.  More tomorrow