Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Deprivation makes us really grateful for ordinary things (if it doesn’t make us neurotic or OC first). In February,when our six month home assignment began in the States, my kids thought that Campbell’s soup was delicious, fish sticks were exotic, \u00a0and frozen pizza weekly was the height of luxury. Fast forward to our recent return to Japan, and you can see above one of the first meals I cooked after arriving here. Seven months ago this boiled pumpkin and stir fried noodles with veggies and slivers of pork would have been greeted with groans and mutters. Tonight it disappears quickly. My youngest regretfully asks if there is more pumpkin, and I’m glad to tell him there isn’t. If there was, he’d no doubt down it and feel the effects of too much fiber tomorrow.<\/p>\n
I’m so grateful that my kids have had to adapt to life in Japan, had to learn to eat a variety of foods most Americans have never cooked before or made a meal of. I wouldn’t have the will to push such a totally different lifestyle on them if we were living in the comforts of the US with the siren call of frozen pizza (deep dish and thin crust) \u00a0only a supermarket away. I see how the work and struggle of having to eat, with gratitude, \u00a0a variety of unusual things during their sojourn at Japanese school and at home has produced a flexibility and appreciation of a wide variety of flavors, textures, and smells.<\/p>\n