Life in Japan has been challenging and interesting at the same time.  
First of all, upon arrival, the first challenge was to adapt to Japanese food and culture.  Here, there is no nshimaor or akabwali (Zambian staple food), not even the basic ingredient, unga or white maize meal which one has to make at home.  For me, to think of living without this stuff is like trying to force a lion to become a vegetarian! Though time is a lousy beautician because one grows uglier with time, it has been a good healer for me.  I have since adapted to living on Japanese food, my favorites being rice with fish (salmon), sashimi, okonomiyaki, ramen, tofu, natou and guess what?  Mozuku !!!  As strange as it sounds to you, I like that slimy stuff made of special seaweed grown in the Ryukyu (Okinawa) islands.  

And thanks to my Japanese host family, Mr. and Mrs. Makoto and their two daughters (Asami and Masumi) of Hiroshima city, I can now even prepare the Hiroshima style okonomiyaki on my own at home.  Paradoxically, despite the abundance of very delicious meat in this country, especially the famous beef from wagyu (Japanese black cattle), I decided to become a vegetarian just a few months after arrival for personal reasons.  Coming from a landlocked country where seafoods are not readily available, I have yet to psychologically convince myself that certain seafoods such as crabs (kani), octopus (tako), squid, etc. are supposed to be human foods.