We came for the food (and the skiing). Well planned trip but poorly timed pregnancy. I was just on the cusp of entering into the 2nd trimester. But the nausea hangs on. The only thing that worked was taking Unisom + B6 twice a day. I tried weening myself off of it, but after 24hrs of not taking the Unisom (still took B6), the nausea came back full force. We were on our first leg of 5 trains to get to the fabled Onsen town called Kusatsu, about a 2 hour drive from Tokyo. First I think it’s the fact that I was sitting with my back to the direction of travel, so I switch seats with Dylan. But after staring out the window intently, I just get this horrible feeling — like car-sickness.
So I took unisom again and found a double seat, laying my torso on the chairs, legs hanging off awkwardly. I did not care what I looked like, though it crossed my mind that in the US I would maybe look like a destitute homeless. Those don’t exist in Japan, so maybe I looked like a pregnant woman in her first trimester. I just wanted to make sure my early breakfast from 5:30 this morning didn’t come up. It was only around 7am at this time, and we were clunking along the deeply snowy landscape in a one-car train, heading somewhere to warmer climates.
Thankfully the nausea got better by the time we transferred, and stayed mostly at bay for the rest of the day.
After 2 local trains, 3 bullet trains, 2 more local trains and a bus, speckled with about 8 bathroom trips, we finally got to our final destination (of course it’s still cold and blowing snow). By now, the nausea dragon was waking up again, and all I wanted was a giant salad with lots of avocados and tomatoes. Sadly, Japan is not the place to get that. Lesson learned. Don’t travel to Japan while pregnant – the flavors are too intense or too salty. All I wanted was some grapes and I hadn’t seen those in a grocery store yet.
After finally sitting on a fancy hot toilet seat for 25 minutes, counting the 6 painstakingly expelled deer-turds plop away beneath me, I felt well enough to entertain going into a dive-bar like place. The food was apparently good, and thank the veggie gods, they had a dish of sliced mozzarella-tomato with olive oil and salt + oregano flakes. It was a life-saver, so refreshing, and exactly hit the spot. I got two of them, one in the beginning, one at the end. My main dish was a basket of fries with tomato dipped from a heart-shaped tiny sauce bowl. Yay – happy valentines day. Heaven. Meanwhile, Dylan’s ordering the most weird AF dishes, like grilled eel and chicken on a stick, then deep-fried squid legs. Isn’t that technically tentacles? But I digress…
We also got a mushroom soup that was way too salty. But I ate some anyway, chugging two mugs of water to chase.
Next day, going to a coffee shop, I saw ham and cheese toast on the menu. Although I don’t normally eat bread or cheese due to reactions like stomach upset, brain fog, and diarrhea, it just sounded so good. And I didn’t care; it seems like being pregnant kind of hides bad food choices. So far I had eaten bites of egg and pastries with no obvious consequences.
So out came this phat bread like 1 inch thick with the promised ham and cheese on top, looked like a square pizza. OMG. It was the most deliciously good cheese bread I had ever had. I blinked my eyes closed, deeply ignoring the fact that ham is a bad idea because deli-meat increases the risk of food-borne illnesses. Whatever. I had taken so many ‘risks’ (like skiing, soaking in hot water daily, eating raw fish) and the baby was still holding on.
I finished the forbidden cheese-ham toast off with a chocolate shake topped with a large scoop of chocolate ice cream. At home, this would never happen, and under non-pregnant circumstances, I’m pretty sure I would go home and have a debilitating stomach ache a few hours later. Well.. I’m watching the clock 3 hours now and so far, the belly is happy. I think the baby wanted the cheesy bread. Maybe I’ll name it Cheese Bread Teichroeb.. hmm would that translate to Cheesy Breaded Pond-Turnip?
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Of course 4 hours later, I’m doubled over with the most intense stomach pains yet – coming like waves. Is this what birthing contractions will be like?, I ask myself. I’ve definitely suffered these types of cramps before, when I drank a quart of chocolate milk probably over ten years ago. Never again I had told myself…
I was moaning, sweating, unable to think straight on the tatami bed, thinking my guts are going to come out with my next bowel movement. Hold on, baby!! (Thankfully it did). And after a few runs of painful diarrhea, the pain abated. The in-house Onsen was a godsend. Maybe being in Japan isn’t so bad after all – who knows, it may have been just as bad at home.