Week 40: N

N brings us a NASTY, NAUSEATING entry: NATTO. [From Wikipedia]: Nattō is a traditional Japanese food made from soybeans fermented with Bacillus subtilis. It is popular especially as a breakfast food. Nattō can be an acquired taste because of its powerful smell, strong flavor, and slippery texture.

See this woman? Doesn't she seem sweet and jolly? She is not. She is the harbinger of despair. If you see her, run for your life!

Most of my students love natto and eat it every day. I would have to side with my fellow natto taster who said that she would rather eat her own vomit than ever eat natto again. It looks about ten times better than it tastes.

Naggy-town. Poor NAGOYA. I thought that if I took this picture from an artsy angle that you would look more exotic. I don't think it worked.  (At least you don't have a lot of tourists clogging your streets.)

An old fishing boat on the NAGARA river in Gifu (about half an hour away by train).

NIHON (or NIPPON): My host country for this leg of my journey. It means the origin of the sun or, as we call it, the Land of the Rising Sun. I just wish the sun would rise a little later. Since they don't observe Daylight Savings Time here, the sun rises at 4:45 in the morning and it is already dark by 7:15 at night. I had to search for a long time to find a Japanese flag. Not many flying on the buildings here. (I know that the picture is backward, but I guess it doesn't matter with this flag.)