More on the hapless Alewives.

And I thought it was enough for the hapless Alewives to be used as bait for the unsuspecting and not too bright Lobsters – but in today’s paper it shows that they have been soaked in brine for 24 hours and then put in a smokehouse.

When I was on my mission in Japan, my companion and I had become rather fond of the dried and soy sauce drenched tiny fish that one particular store sold.  We stopped in each day to buy some of these delicacies.  This went on for quite a while till one day, we happened by the store in the middle of the day and noticed a buzzing sound coming from the back of the store enclosure.  We peeked over the fence and saw, to our horror, our wonderful little fish being dried in the sun and crawling with blowflies.  That was the last time we ever bought this tasty morsel.  It is a wonder we did not end up with tape worms with some of the stuff we ate and places we ate at.

Sometimes we ate Yakitori which was pieces of chicken on a skewer and loaded with soy sauce.  If the Japanese did not have soy sauce, I wonder what they would use instead to flavor their food?  If we ever ate at these little stands, we took our lives into our hands.  One day we were at Enoshima and I saw a little stand that sold Yakitako – cuttlefish cooked over a fire.  I asked for one, the man behind the stand was aghast at a white person asking for such a meal, and was even more amused when I stood there and ate it.  In Japan you do not walk in the street and eat food…..it is considered bad manners.

My favorite food was Yakimo – a sweet potato that was roasted over hot rocks and sold during the winter from a vendor who walked around the neighborhoods yelling “Yaki- Mooooo”.  I was cold and opened the window and beckoned to him and he came over and was impressed that 1) I was white 2) could speak the language 3) bought a couple of Yakimo from him.  My companion, on the other hand was not amused.  She said I should not be eating during study period and moreover, I should not be sitting there wrapped in my electric blanket to keep warm in the unheated apartment on a cold snowy Day in Japan. 

There’s just some things a girl has to do, even if it is unexpected.