Tofu, grilled fish and burdock root. I had it all planned out. Japan would be my fountain of youth, my supplier of all things healthy so that I could become part of the statistic: Japanese are to this day known to live longest in the world. (As of 2005 life expectancy is an average of 81.15, according the CIA World Fact Book). It’s not as if I was trying to magically turn a KFC diet into a daily ingestion of kelp and soybeans either. I am already practically a hippy by default, coming from the North American west coast. I munch on raw nuts and haven’t touched red meat in almost fifteen of my twenty seven existing years. I make a mean bean salad.

So I’ve had all sorts of salads and tender fish at many an Izakaya. When I go to the casual eatery chain... Read More