This is the story of how, on a rainy night in the Japanese Alps, we came to eat the worst meal of our whole trip: a train station fast food burger from the Mos Burger chain.
One of the things David was looking forward to in Japan was the cuisine. Lana was a little apprehensive about it, as she’s not a big fan of fish, especially raw fish, or things that have been cooked but are served cold. All things heavily represented in Japanese cuisine. We also knew that we could not expect an English description of dishes or ingredients, and that generally, things come exactly as they’re traditionally made. Substitutions are not really an option. The very polite staff may smile and nod to your “no this/no that” request and then the dish will come out exactly as the cook always makes that dish. We can respect that. We also knew, from previous experience using translation dictionaries, that menus often contain specialized vocabulary that’s not in a common dictionary. We knew there would be challenges, and we didn’t even know all of them yet.
