Japan, 1985–86

I was stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, and what I did with those two years is the reason this section exists. I bought a car. Most weekends I drove — and the best food I ate came from driving around southern Japan with no destination, stopping at the sea, at the docks, and asking around for somewhere to sleep. More usually than not, I was invited to stay with a family. I got to sit and eat meals with people who had very little, who had amazing food from their irori hearths, and I have said ever since that I doubt I could ever replicate the taste of food cooked that way. Writing this, I found out I was right — and why. Much of what I ate I could not name at the time, and some of it I still cannot. Where that is true, this section says so.