The Charbonneau Villager Newspaper 2019 Mar issue Villager newspaper | Page 2

2 THE CHARBONNEAU VILLAGER March 2019 Beyond the Village: Fish out of water My mantra in Japan was simple: try everything By PATRICK MALEE PAMPLIN MEDIA GROUP EDITOR'S NOTE: WE'RE ASKING CHARBONNEAU RESIDENTS TO SHARE THEIR TRAVEL TIPS/ EXPERIENCES WITH THE VILLAGER IN THIS FEATURE WE CALL "BEYOND THE VILLAGE." THIS MONTH, VILLAGER ASSISTANT EDITOR PATRICK MALEE SHARES HIS CULINARY ADVENTURES ON A TRIP TO JAPAN. SEND YOUR STORIES AND TIPS TO [email protected]. Y ears ago, when I was a child who took the meat off of his McDonald's hamburgers and generally ate like someone allergic to flavor, I'd have never believed that I would one day eat fish and prawn heads. But there I was, packed like a sardine around a restaurant table in Japan that was far too small for our party of nine (they don't really do big dinner parties in Japan), staring at the black, beady eyes of a hefty prawn. I don't recall how the prawn got to our table — we may have ordered it by accident amid the confusion of working with waiters who didn't speak English — but no one was particularly interested in it. No one, that is, except me and one of my uncles. But let's backtrack for a moment. When I flew across the Pacific to Japan this past October, eating fish heads wasn't anywhere on my list of priorities. The two-week trip was a SUBMITTED PHOTOS Biting the head off a prawn was not something I expected to do in Japan, but it fi t with my goal of never saying “no” to new experiences. blend between vacation, family reunion and self-discovery for me and others from the Japanese side of my family, most of whom had never been to their ancestral country before. We started in Tokyo, then moved on to Takayama, Kanazawa, Kyoto and Wakayama (the last of which being where my ancestors hailed from). Heading into the trip, my goal was to eliminate the word "no" from my vocabulary. I wanted to push myself to try new things whenever possible, and really experience the country without the weight of fear or inhibition. And for the most part, I succeeded. When we rented cars for a segment of the trip, I volunteered to drive and got to learn what life is like on the left side of the road ("confusing" would be a charitable way of putting it). I bathed publicly for the first time in my life when we stayed at hot springs. I walked tens of thousands of steps almost every day, quite literally pounding holes into my shoes. My one regret is that I never found time to do a go-kart ride through the streets of Tokyo. Perhaps that was for the best. Avoiding "no" was toughest, however, when it came to food. To be clear, much of the Japanese food we ate was delightful and plain enough for any taste palate: endless variations of noodles and rice, tuna and salmon cuts that melted in your mouth, meat skewers you could eat until you dropped. Yet almost every meal also included something that tested my squeamishness. Those skewers I mentioned? Sometimes they held liver or (gulp) pig intestines. There was the raw snail that came as part of a many-course meal at one of our hotels. And sushi was also an adventure — there were salmon eggs (weird texture, no taste), eel (tasty!) and what I believe was sea urchin (I ... don't recommend this). But, while this might sound a bit barbaric, I'm proudest of the fish heads. The first came as part of a meal in Tokyo that was made almost entirely with tempura batter. That familiar gold coating was comforting when I bit headfirst into a small swimmer, which was very salty with an odd, chewy texture but otherwise didn't have much taste. The same could be said for the aforementioned prawn, which came later in the trip, although I'll admit I was glad to have a hulking mug of beer to wash it down. That's the irony of it all: the strangest things I ate in Japan often had the least amount of flavor. If you could get past the look, feel and sound of what you were eating — no easy task at times — the experience itself was oddly tame. It was a good lesson for travelling in general: try everything. You never know exactly what you're going to get, but you can bet on the experience being worthwhile. ■ Target Charbonneau and beyond Promote your business to neighbors in your community and beyond, fast, effectively and affordably. Advertising contact Jesse Marichalar  [email protected] | 971-204-7774 J. Brian Monihan Leslie Pugmire Hole Patrick Malee Corey Buchanan Publisher Editor Assistant Editor Reporter bmonihan@ pamplinmedia.com lhole@ pamplinmedia.com pmalee@ pamplinmedia.com cbuchanan@ pamplinmedia.com NEWS Holly Bartholomew Reporter hbartholomew@ pamplinmedia.co m 503-479-2377 „ [email protected] Kim Stephens Circulation Kstephens@ pamplinmedia.com Jesse Marichalar Rick Fryback Display Advertising Jessem@ pamplinmedia.com Real Estate/Auto Ads rfryback@ pamplinmedia.com Have an idea for a story? We want to hear about it. Leslie Pugmire Hole  [email protected] | 503-479-2377 ADVERTISING 971-204-7774 CIRCULATION 503-620-9797 ONLINE wilsonvillespokesman.com Published monthly at 400 Second St., Lake Oswego, OR, 97034. Periodicals postage paid at Wilsonville Post Office and additional mailing post offices. POSTMASTER, send address changes to: Charbonneau Villager, P.O. 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