When I went to college, I had a meal plan and was able to enjoy a lot of food on campus, however the prices of food off-campus were scary, especially at my new favorite places, the Japanese market and the Natural Foods market. But at least on campus, there was a Jamba Juice, my new obsession.
Then I went to Japan. I have never been a picky eater, but just in case, I decided that I would eat whatever my host mother cooked, especially since there were two young children in the home. Except for the first time I tried bitter melon and natto, I kept this promise, and for the bitter melon and natto, they are acquired tastes, I could handle after the 3rd time and now I like them both.
After the school year was over and I moved to my husband's place for the summer, it was time to explore living and eating in Japan on my own, and it's also when I started Youtube. which resulted in videos like this.
I miss Japan's vegetable juice.
I started drinking vegetable juice almost daily at some point during that year, and after I moved back to Japan in 2007 as well.
The most common kind of vegetable juice is the orange kind, made up mostly of carrot and apple juice, which is a yummy combination by itself, but the juice can have from 7-30 different kinds of fruits and vegetables. And then there are the different colors. There is the green one, which has a bit more of the clear fruit juices and more green veggies, there is the pink one that might have peach juice, strawberry juice, or a little beet juice, there is the purple one that is made with purple carrots and sweet potato and maybe grapes, there were yogurt blends, 50v-50f, 30v-70f, low calorie kind, imitation kind that was half sugar water with added vitamins, there were little jelly cups made with the stuff, the list goes on. And the best thing, of course, is if you were lucky enough to find a sale or an off-brand in some dusty little shop, it was as cheap as 100-150yen per 1 liter bottle....as much or a little bit more than water.
Some of my days off, when I was alone, I would be too lazy to cook for myself....I would just down a few bottles and then finally make dinner before Yasushi came home. When I had the flu and was stuck in bed for 3 days dizzy with a fever, vegetable juice and Pocari sweat were my sustenance.
And now, here in Hawaii, I do see the same juice for almost $4.00 a bottle. Which usually wouldn't be a problem, because I would just find a reasonable local alternative. However, the American equivalent, v8, simply does not measure up. Their main product is 100% vegetable juice with mostly tomato, which is not as easy to chug as the sweet apple-carrot blend I was used to. It tastes like bland tomato soup, served chilled. Or in the case of the green v8, some kind of weird green tomato soup. It also contains salt. V8 also makes a 100% juice called Fusion which is similar to the vegetable juice in Japan, however at almost $6 a bottle it is also not something I can chug a bottle of without thought. We do pick up a case of the cans at Costco when they are on sale, though.
I don't usually complain about not having my favorite juice. However, in the past couple months I have had to go on a juice/bland food diet twice.
First time was when I had my wisdom teeth out last month. To make sure I didn't get a dry socket, I went on a liquid diet the first two days and slowly introduced soft foods from the end of the second day. I had Starbucks and Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf gift cards from the holidays that I put to use to get some liquid cake and stockpile some calories, and the rest of the time I made do with every kind of v-8 I had on hand. And the second time was this week, when I woke up feeling tired and queasy and simply could not stomach any food, I took sips of water and black tea, and finally ate some canned pineapple in the afternoon and chicken soup at night. Today, I had Greek yogurt for breakfast, a salad for lunch, a fruit and vegetable smoothie for afternoon snack, and soba with tofu and wakame for dinner. As you can see, I am still eating/drinking well, but doesn't mean I don't miss my "yasai seikatsu".
