In most of the places I've traveled, the breakfasts are pretty similar. Maybe they give you slices of cheese in Germany, or lots of different meats in Prague, but it's all pretty bog standard. Not so in Japan!! Here is our first Japanese breakfast, in a lovely ryokan called Fujitomita, looking out onto Mount Fuji.
All Japanese breakfasts consist of steamed rice, miso soup, and various bits of pickled vegetables. You will get a bit of green or black tea to wash it down with. This is the basic breakfast, but if you are being served breakfast in a nice inn (or presumably someone's home), you will get a few other dishes to go with it.
This particular morning our extra dishes were an egg, cracked onto some lettuce - very simple but very fresh and tasty, some lightly steamed broccoli with sesame seasoning, various types of seaweed, soft and delicious, some fruit, a little bit of radish, and .... the main attraction... an entire fish!
I've only been confronted with an entire fish body on a plate a handful of times in my life. This was the first time I was told to eat the entire thing! The fish is cooked for 7 hours, and so the whole body becomes soft and edible. Horrors!
The entire meal was prepared so beautifully, and tasted incredible, so I gave it a go. I started with his stomach, then his back... all very sweet and sticky and soft. I even ate his spine.
I'm sorry to admit it, dear readers, but I did not make it as far as his face and tail. I just couldn't do it. I did get brave later on in the trip and eat an entire fish (minus the tail, which looked like a brush), but on that particular morning underneath Mount Fuji, I just couldn't pull it off.
The Husband ate the entire thing though - brave soul! I really should have done it, as it was so tasty, but the entire meal was fantastic! I did get pretty addicted to pickles and rice and miso for breakfast, and now that we're back in the UK, musli just isn't doing it for me....
