Category Archives: Japan

30 Days of Natto: The Aftermath

A package of natto contains just about 40 grams.  Doing some quick math the sum total amount of natto I have consumed over the last 30 days comes to 1200 grams which, for those of you who find that touching the metric system causes you physical pain and blisters your flesh, is over 2 and a half pounds. 2 and a half pounds of beans and slime.  I have eaten it with mustard, with soy sauce, with mayonnaise and kim chee.  I have consumed it for breakfast, as workout fuel, as dinner and as bedtime snacks.  I have tried almost every single brand of natto they stock at 3 different supermarkets and can tell you the differences between them.  Let no one question my natto credentials. I have earned my wings.

So what have I learned?

1) Natto is gross, but then so are a lot of things when you really think about them.  One of the things which constantly eating natto did was get me thinking about a lot of the other things we routinely consume, and how they’re just as gross and weird.  Is “beans + bacteria = natto” really any weirder than “milk + bacteria = yogurt”? What about the myriad range of cheeses with molds that are not only present, but desirable and indeed an integral part of the flavor.  Let us not even broach mechanically separated meat and the other myriad forms of strange processed foods.  Hell, give me a description of natto and mech-meat side-by-side and I’ll take the natto every day.

2) Natto does not give you superpowers.  It’s damn healthy, don’t get me wrong.  But if you’re looking for a magic bullet to help you lose 40 pounds of fat, put on 50 pounds of muscle, quit smoking, learn French, build a rocket and then perform brain surgery on it, well then I’m afraid you’re SOL.  Now it can certainly help with at least…2 of those things (maybe 3? correlation to smoking or French learning abilities untested), but I’ve got something of a pet peeve for the magic food mentality which has become increasingly common. “It has 10 times the vitamin C of an orange!” Great, maybe if you eat enough of it it will equal a negative cheeseburger.

3) Natto + any other food = Natto.  Ad infinitum. Inclusion in the same meal can produce this effect, even if strict segregation protocols are maintained.  For a food which is not honestly all that strong tasting, it has the uncanny ability to make everything taste like it. You have been warned.

4) We’re mostly bad at things because we think we are.  It’s a recurring theme throughout my time in Japan so far.  I couldn’t eat natto mostly because, well, I assumed I couldn’t eat natto.  But the reality was I couldn’t eat natto, and didn’t even try to eat it, because I assumed I would throw up all over whatever kindly Japanese host was thoughtful enough to give it to me, which would be rude, and embarrassing for everyone involved. Someone would probably have to kill themselves to make up for the shame of it all. A bad scene all around.  Assumptions beget reality.  The implications are staggering.

Meta-implication: Next time there is something you want or need to get done, try ceaselessly drilling the idea that you are absolutely awesome at X, born to do X, and the only way you could fail at X is if the laws of physics themselves changed to spite your birthright.  Now it’s possible that I’m just way better at lying to myself than anyone else who has ever lived, ever, but I do not think this is an isolated phenomenon.  I have always had the vague sense that my subconscious is toiling away at secret machinations, but shoves them under the bed or something whenever I come by for a visit.  I think that constantly bombarding your subconscious with this kind of positive reinforcement will eventually always start to affect your actual success with that project.  If for no other reason that you aren’t wasting untold hours and days building your own walls with a lousy attitude.

In Conclusion

The mission was by and large, a success. We’ll see over the coming weeks if I continue to consume natto in any form. I’m keeping a few packs around for snacks, since it really shines as an appetite killer when you get hungry at odd times.

All in all, a pretty fun way to spend a month, albeit it wasn’t like every waking hour of my time needed to be devoted to natto related activities (now that would be a challenge).  I’ll be spending the next few weeks entertaining random guests to the island while paradoxically trying to avoid spending any money outside these guests so I can make the most of my Summer vacation and the Japannanigans I have planned.  Stay tuned.

30 Days of Natto: Week 4

I am now so used to natto that I I am jaded to its visage.  Does one more photo of natto evoke its stickiness further? Just like 3 days of hiking through primeval forests, no thank you, I have ceased to care about epic, thousand year old trees covered in moss. They are common place now.  And natto slime is no different.

The final full week of natto consumption (can you believe it’s been nearly a month already?) yielded a few interesting discoveries.  Chief among them is that natto is among the “Swiss Army Knife” categorization of foodstuffs. Not in that it can be prepared in so many ways, or that it contains a corkscrew, but in that it is just so useful at so many times of the day.

Natto is Awesome at the Following Times:

It’s great in the morning, when you have zero time because you were up too late watching South Korea/America/Mexico/England, or any of the other soccer teams you care about fail to succeed. You can make it in seconds, and it’s got good staying power combined with a piece of fruit or something, so you don’t start feeling hungry again until right around noon.

It’s wonderful when you get home from work, and have an awkward little window where normally I would either end up eating dinner early either because I spent the day throwing little kids around and have worked up an appetite. Or more likely it’s because of prolonged exposure to an island on which half the population is has cleared the half-century mark, which means I am basically a senior citizen by osmosis, and thus my body recognizes that 4:30 is the perfect time to have dinner. Natto to the rescue.  A pack of natto is only about 40 grams of food, which is enough to fill the void until I can eat at a reasonable time, rather than hate myself at around 9:30 when I got hungry again on an earlier schedule.

Natto is also nice for a little something pre-workout if I’m feeling a little draggy. If I only eat a banana or something I die about half way through, but with some protein mixed in (and all the natto slime superpowers) I can keep genki-ly throwing my ball of metal with a handle on it around well into the evening.

Natto is Incredibly NOT Awesome at the Following Times:

Natto is the last thing you should ever try to eat if you’ve got any kind of nausea.  Even though I’m used to the stuff, there is nothing like slimy beans to really bring that feeling of nausea to the forefront.  Unless you find slimy things soothing for some reason, probably best not to test this one.  I have already thrown myself in front of the bullet of progress for you on this one, and you may consider yourself honored to know such a hero and patriot, one that would suffer so that you need not.

I also find that post-workout natto loses some of it’s appeal for some reason. I think the general loss of appetite that comes with working hard + aforementioned slimy oddness is just enough to remove it as a viable post-workout protein source.  Go eat a dead animal, or some other form of legume instead.

Home Stretch

I’m almost done with 30 days, as of today I should be at 28ish, minus the one off day.  I’m calling it mission success this Wednesday, and I’ll be back some time this week for my final thoughts on the whole gruesome experiment.

I’ve got some other things in the works right now which I started about a week ago which I should also be going live with some time soon, so keep your ears pricked and your eyes glossy and any other marginally old-timey body-alertness related metaphors you can think of.  I’m going to go watch Japan decide whether my tomorrow is full of bright, perky, patriotic co-workers, or bitter, angry, sarcastic hate-balls.  たのしみ~(/^ ^)/|  o |

30 Days of Natto: Week 2

Day 8: Karashi and soy

Day 8

Went out with some guys from the shamisen group tonight after practice, so I didn’t get home till 11:45 or so.  I decided to take it as a challenge to see just how quickly I could eat the natto. Two or three minutes later, I was staring at an empty natto pack and a fairly unexpected result.

Now it might just be the new brand of natto I’m trying out, a lovely Kyushu local variety, but tonight’s shot of beanie goodness was…good?  Either this brand just tastes more like beans, or I’ve gotten so used to the slimy and bitter parts of natto that I’m starting to notice the other flavors that have always been there.  It’s encouraging.

Day 9: Strangely sweet dressing, prepackaged with new brand

Day 9

A friend was over and I explained my perverse desire to get used to natto. His favorite preparation was with soy sauce, and nothing else added, which might explain why he also said that the dressing that comes with this new stuff would be good. To be fair, it wasn’t bad, but man was it ever sweet.

Also I apparently still look like I am going to die while eating natto. My subconscious is still grimacing.

Day 10: Soy, mustard

Another shot of the late night natto, but I think I’m pretty well used to the stuff by now, so I can start adding it in in the morning and seeing how it holds up.  Japanese TV is apparently on my side on this one, as there was a feature about how natto with cheese is apparently famous in some prefecture or another. Tomorrow perhaps?  They also made natto cheese toast, which I think is also worth a shot. It seems strangely palatable…

Day 11: The usual fare

Day 11

Natto is officially a viable breakfast food.  I have so many people I need to thank.

Also if you will turn your attention to the rear-right you will see the first of the island passion fruit which is just coming into season, served with some yogurt.  Ah, the perks of island life.

Day 12: Oh no!

So I went out diving with an English teacher from the next island over who is occasional forced to fly to Kikai and teach, and spent the whole day underwater, sightseeing, and eating wild boar feet (complete with just a little bit of boar hair, mmmm). I just didn’t want to make the run all the way out to the supermarket that’s still open at 11 at night.  So Day 12 was a natto-free day.

OH NO!!! Is this the end of natto as we know it?  I mean, I have pretty clearly stated that I need to be eating it every day, regardless of circumstances, so by this rubric I just failed and need to go sell all my possessions, retreat into seclusion in a mountain monastery, and spend my days in quiet reflection of just how much of a failure I am.

Well, no. At times like this, it’s important to remember that my actual goal is to get used to natto, not to eat it for 30 days. Eating it for 30 days is just the means I chose to get to this goal.  Short term failure does not equal long term failure. In fact, I would argue quite the opposite: short term failure is often necessary for long term success.  We learn so much more when we fail.  For example, I have learned to buy in bulk. I have also learned it’s better to eat it in the morning if I can, since I should eat some breakfast anyway and it’s an easy time to make sure I get it done.

Day 13: Cheese, parsley

Day 13

As per the recommendation of a Japanese tv show.  The cheese is pretty much entirely masked by the natto, but the parsley is kind of present.  All in all not one of my favorite ways to eat the stuff.  Mustard and soy is still a heavy favorite.

Day 14: Natto Toast!

Natto Toast: Day 14

Saw this one on the same show which recommended yesterday’s recipe. I honestly don’t get it though. Natto+cheese just tastes like extra slimy natto. Natto plus melted cheese doubly so.  Even the flavor of the toast is hard pressed to shine through all the natto funkitude.  However for those of you who have never seen Japanese bread, there’s a hearty inch-thick slice of it lying under all the goo.

Sliced Japanese bread gives me the general impression that the first people to manufacture such bread in Japan did so with a good deal of guess work.  It’s like a lot of the “western” inspired food over here. Vaguely resembling the original in theory, but uniquely Japanese in reality. If one were to describe them they would both seem to be a thing called “bread”, all the essential descriptors are there, and yet the Japanese version possesses unique qualities that would prevent anyone from mistaking it for the thing on which it is based.

Final Thoughts for the Week

As much fun as I’m sure you’re all having of the blow-by-blow, I think I’m going to write the next 2 weekly updates in summary fashion.  See which way feels better.  Plus there is certainly a point of diminishing returns to “photos of natto slime”. I think you get the point.

I’ve got some other posts I’ve started working on, but the weekly projects keeps the blog present in my tragically disorganized mind. I know reading about natto may not be exactly what you’re looking for if you fall into the “family” section of the readership, or the “friends who do not have an unhealthy obsession with Japan” section of the readership, but stick around. Other things in the works.  Besides, you know you that while you are overtly disgusted you are secretly fascinated.

You want to run out and try it right now.

30 Days of Natto: Week 1

Day 1:

If the camera work wasn’t too bad, there should be a video of my first run at natto floating around the top of the page somewhere.  Initial thoughts:

Yeah, I could do this for a month.

It was more or less like I remembered it, although as stated repeatedly in the video, the addition of soy sauce and mustard, plus a little green onion really did change the flavor dramatically. The aftertaste and the feeling like your lips are coated in slime for 3-4 hours after eating were the same as always. But then, it wouldn’t be natto if you weren’t still tasting it on your lips 3 hours later.

So why could I eat it relatively nausea free this time, despite there being no real change between now and 2 years ago in Tokyo?

The main difference is that since I am voluntarily going out of my way to eat the stuff this time around, it is infinitely more approachable.  It’s like the difference between volunteering to go first on presentation day, and hiding in the back hoping the class runs out of time before you have to go.  The more you build something up, the scarier it becomes and the harder it is to actually dive in.  So dive in early.  Don’t be natto‘s bitch.  Don’t make it a big thing, and it won’t be.

Day 2:

Day 2

Immediately after a workout, so my arms are more or less down for the count, and wasn’t in the mood to do anything fancy with the natto. Plain, with the soy and mustard.  I wanted to see if the green onion changed the edibility of it significantly, since yesterday seemed almost too easy. Turns out it’s still pretty…good, isn’t the right word. Turns out it’s still pretty not horrible with just the soy and mustard.

It’s only been 2 days, but I already feel like I’ve overcome a significant hurdle in the natto challenge. I still wouldn’t say I “like” or “want to eat” natto, but I will say that the smell no longer really bothers me, and the taste and general slippery mouth feel are both totally manageable.  If snickering Japanese people put it in front of me I think I could defend my honor.

Tomorrow I’ll give it a shot during it’s traditional breakfast time slot, see if it gets any more or less appetizing when I’m half-asleep and cranky.

Day 3:

Day 3

Today’s natto bears no special preparation but does bear the distinction of being the first shot of natto eaten during its customary time slot.

A note for future generations: while natto is certainly no more or less edible during the morning, and could easily be part of a balanced and energizing breakfast, I do not recommend eating nothing but natto, and I particularly do not recommend eating nothing but natto in 3 minutes because you are in a rush.  I felt like natto slime was crawling back up into my mouth for the entire first half of my day.  Gross.

Day 4:

Chibiko Natto

Trying a new brand of natto today, with this adorable animated…circle? as a mascot.  It’s also pretty much the cheapest natto available, coming in at an epic 120 yen for 4 packs.

Also trying a way of eating natto recommended by my dive buddy, and quasi-island-father Yoda-san.  He claimed that mixing natto with mayonnaise, drastically reduces both the smell and the sticky, sliminess. He was half right. Guess which:

Day 4

Open Wide Kanshoku Desu

However, the taste was pretty surprisingly good. It tastes kind of like slimy Camembert, but not as buttery.  I’d be ok eating this on a fairly regular basis, except the mayo certainly takes a chunk out of the “healthiness”.

The quest for the perfect natto preparation continues.

Day 5: Natto with mysterious green sauce

Day 5

Tried the new natto brand’s condiment tonight, which tastes something like…honestly I don’t know if I can describe it.  It’s definitely Japanese, kind of sweet, vaguely reminiscent of some kind of sea vegetable, and only barely noticeable alongside pungent natto.  Went down pretty easy, and the preparation phase had a lot less of the “poking and prodding to ascertain whether it is indeed food” stage than previous days.

My subconscious is beginning, I believe, to grasp that natto is indeed some kind of food, and that consuming it will not cause me to die in some kind of horrible, sticky, smelly manner.

Note: Post-natto dishes should be taken care of with all due haste, or you will come home to your entire house smelling vaguely like bad feet, good cheese, and day-old bodily secretions. It is every bit as unpleasant as it sounds.

Day 6: Karashi mustard, and soy sauce

Day 6

Tonight’s natto is brought to you by the letter L, for lazy.  I have an avocado which is sitting in my fridge ready for tomorrow morning’s natto but tonight I made homemade spaghetti sauce and meatballs and wasn’t feeling additionally inspired.

I will say this though, using real karashi and soy sauce rather than the packet which comes with the natto makes for a much tastier product. The mustard is much more pungent and present.

Day 7: Soy sauce, and half an avocado

Day 7

So.  It turns out that natto has superpowers. Not particularly cool superpowers, but superpowers none the less which really need to be taken into consideration when mixing natto with other, non-sauce substances.

Natto by itself is a sticky, strandy, slimy mess.  Adding sauce adds flavor, but no extra mass worth noting.  The actual physical amount of stuff you have to consume has not increased significantly.  An avocado on the other hand, is quite a bit more mass.  And it turns out that natto + anything causes a horrible chain-reaction in the “anything” which causes it to have the exact same sticky, slimy, strandy-ness as the natto itself.

Natto with avocado is actually pretty good. But there was about 2-3 times as much of it as I’m used to eating.

It’s also worth noting that this superpower does not limit itself to consumables.  Doing the dishes, I learned early on that you do the natto last unless you want to be using strandy natto-soap on the rest of your dishes.

Final Thoughts for the Week

I hope it has been an entertaining first week, and that the photos have not caused you any undue psychological trauma.  It’s honestly not nearly as bad as you might suspect.  So far I myself have been surprised by the general ease with which I have already gotten used to natto. I have not yet reached a point where I am actively desiring natto, but I’m about as willing to eat is as any of the other myriad “it’s good for you but tastes like the inside of a sewer” products available on the market.

Week 2 might see some inclusion in actual meals, natto tempura or natto fried rice, and I still need to tackle natto over plain rice at some point. I intended to do so at some point this week, but an incident involving a bowl of rice, a tray, a thin ledge, and a general failure to understand the laws of physics as they pertain to centers of gravity deprived me of that opportunity.

Always next week.

I also need to do the natto + raw egg one of my students recommended.  I don’t think she was just doing it to mess with me, but then she’s one of the smarter ones so I wouldn’t put it past her entirely.

30 Days of Natto

Creative Commons License photo credit: snowpea&bokchoi

The Mission

The slimy little beast you see in the photo above you is natto. Its major claim to fame in the greater Japanese sphere of influence is that gaijin such as myself, hate and cannot eat it, while Japanese 4-year olds happily slurp it down and laugh at us.  Well I’ve had enough!  No longer will I suffer the indignity, the shame of having to bow under natto’s cruel yoke!

For the next month I’m going to be eating natto once a day, every day, without exception.

For this, the inaugural admittedly scientifically unsound experiment here on Kikai Castaway, I resolve to test whether I can overcome my aversion to natto with overwhelming force, and a simple change of viewpoint.

A Little History

Nihon shoku…daijoubu desu ka?” Can you eat Japanese food? For some reason people all over Japan always ask this question like they’re diffusing a bomb.  I suspect they may be afraid they are going to offend me. That they will force me to admit my terrible gaijin-y shame, and I will burst into a tearful chorus of:

DEKINAI!!!! DAIJOBU JYANAIIIII!!!!” I CAN’T! IT’S NOT OK!

Then I will be so shamed that I will have to leave the island forever, perhaps the country, maybe get a job somewhere selling body parts in a land with a less harsh culinary climate.  They don’t want to do that to me, but they just have to know.  So they ask like they’re cutting the blue wire.

Un, daijobu.” “Yeah, it’s fine” I am entitled to reply smugly.  Or at least I would be if not for the, sigh, single Japanese food I have still not managed to conquer. My Achilles heel, my nemesis, my foe of foes: Natto.  Instead, I have to settle for “Un, daijobu…natto igai ni” “Yeah, it’s fine…except natto“.

Do not get me wrong, by any rubric I am already a mighty combatant in the Japanese food arena. I have enjoyed every raw sea creature that it is legal to consume (and perhaps one or two that are not, I’m on too clear on the legality of some of the shellfish they keep dragging up), blindingly sour homemade umeboshi plums, and every manner of slimy sea vegetable that has been placed before me. Salted fish ovaries, raw horse and goat, whole grilled sardines (head first), roasted pig face, shark steak, and conch mouth.  I will not only eat every last one of them, I will enjoy them.

But it rings hollow.  Though there are plenty of weird Japanese foods I haven’t eaten yet: bee larvae, fish sperm, and tiny live fish drunk whole in a bowl of water to name a few, I would have no problems trying any of them.  I would eat them.  Natto is the only thing which I, as of this moment, will reject on the basis of can’t.

(Note: I also make it a point not to eat whales, dolphins, or turtles. I’m a diver, and I rather enjoy meeting all of them underwater. And it’s kind of a have cake or eat it situation.)

It’s due time I climbed my Japanese food Everest.

But Adam, Just What Is Natto?

I’m glad you asked! Natto = soybeans + bacteria + time. It is a food renowned among terrified foreigners for its overpowering stench somewhere between old cheese and gym socks, as well as it’s truly mighty neba-neba-tude, a Japanese adjective which combines all the best parts of slimy and sticky.  If you’ve ever eaten okra, you have some idea of what neba-neba is, only natto makes okra look like dry crackers. Natto expresses its particular brand of neba-neba by producing long, incredibly sticky strands of rotten bean juice, that have enough structural wherewithal to stretch from bowl to mouth  without flinching, often requiring the poor eater to have to take several swipes at the strands to dislodge them. Yumm!

Natto is customarily consumed as a breakfast food, and the two most common preparations I have come across seem to be:

A) Given a vigorous stir to really rile up the natto for maximum strandy neba-neba, plain, over warm rice.

B) Given the same aggressive once over with some chopsticks, then further mixed with soy sauce, and Japanese karashi mustard.

But it doesn’t stop there.  Natto can be seen mixed with mayo, served as a filling for onigiri (rice balls) and a topping for sushi, or battered and deep-fried to make natto tempura.  There’s even natto ice cream. Google it.

Given its checkered reputation, you are probably wondering exactly what has possessed me to decide I want it in my diet.  Perhaps the island sun has finally gotten to me?

Aside from the visceral joy of furthering the myth that I can do anything, bragging rights throughout the Japans, and the added fun of getting to learn and teach along with the folks playing the home version (or just reading along), there is one other major reason why I decided I really need to learn to love this particular fermented treat:

Natto is nutritional gold.

If we are to believe the word of the wiki (and I see no reason why we should not), natto consumption can lead to one or more of the following superpowers:

  • Reduced likelihood of blood clots.
  • Alzheimer’s prevention and potentially treatment.
  • Super-human bone density from all that vitamin K. Watch a 90-year-old Japanese dude sprint up a mountain wearing a full pack and then tell me that bone density doesn’t matter.
  • Suppress excessive immune reaction.
  • Prevent cancer.
  • Lower cholesterol.
  • Shoot fire from your finger-tips.
  • Antibiotic properties.
  • And a truly impressive 7-8 grams of protein per serving to boot.

Did I mention the fire from the finger-tips bit? It’s very important.

You Can Get Used to Anything

Despite the dogma, the truth is that not all Japanese people are in love with natto. A lot of them denounce it for the slimy beast it is along with the foreign natto hating public.  Certain regions of Japan have a particularly insatiable lust for the spoiled bean goo, generally starting in Tokyo and reaching north to Hokkaido.  Other regions, basically everything east of Tokyo, are not head over heels for the stuff. You can find it, but the rate of exposure tends to be lower.

My dive buddy, and island otousan (father) Yoda-san comes from Kansai, where Osaka and Kyoto are, a region located firmly in anti-natto territory. As a result, he did not grow up sucking natto down with breakfast, and didn’t really like natto throughout much of his early life.  At some point though, after coming down to Kikai, he started eating the stuff for reasons he refuses to explain, but I cannot discount mob involvement.  Wouldn’t you know it, slowly over repeated exposure to the rotten slippery mass he came to tolerate and then enjoy eating natto.  I don’t think it was the result of any sharp skull trauma either. I think he just wasn’t used to the flavor at first, and over time he got used to it. This isn’t a particularly novel leap of logic, but for some reason it’s one that people are surprisingly slow to make.  You can get used to just about anything, with enough experience.

There are a lot of things which people tend to try the first time, denounce outright, and then repeatedly reinforce their hatred of.  I didn’t like natto the first time I ate it, probably because everyone told me that I was going to hate natto the first time I ate it, so I went out of my way to make sure I ate it in a fashion which was most likely to meet my expectations (plain, in a bowl, scowling).  Every time after that, whenever natto was around, I’d start up my chorus of “oh how awful that stuff is, how can you stand the smell, and it gets everywhere, and you feel like you’ve been making out with a dead fish after you eat it, and did I mention the strands of rotten bean juice…”

The hatred naturally grew stronger. I reinforced my own largely irrational hatred of natto every time it was presented before me. I’m sure I also helped to plant that image in a lot of other people’s minds.  But there’s no reason it has to be like this.  Clearly from Yoda-san’s story, there is no reason why someone can’t learn to like natto.  Further, if we accept that people are particularly good at interpreting events to meet their expectations (self-fulfilling prophecies, if you will. More on these in later posts), then someone looking to add natto to their diet could potentially do so by:

A) Eating a lot of natto to get used to it and,

B) Doing so with a positive attitude. I really do want to be able to eat natto. It’s one of nature’s super foods, and one of the healthiest foods in the famously healthy Japanese diet.

It’s that simple.

Bring it on.

So, How Are We Doing This Adam?

Once a day, every day, for 30 days.

I’m defining a serving as one single-serving natto fun-pack, which comes in at about half a cup of natto. No, I’m not going to actually measure it as I don’t want to create a precedent of scientific rigor.

I’m arguing that at least one day a week should be for each of the two most common natto preparations, with the other days open to the addition of other less-common ingredients, or even some really oddball fun stuff like tempura.

Aside from that, expect me to be back about once a week to keep you updated on this project.

I fully encourage any of you who want to play the home version to do so in the comments section down below.

Happy Eating!