"All right, folks," Raiden said to his students, "today we're headed to Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Tokyo is the largest metropolitan area in the world--over forty-one million residents!--so we won't get to explore all of it, but we'll get a little taste that might just leave you hungry for more.

"You may already be familiar with one form of Japanese food from the Sushi Station in town, but there's a lot more out there, and you may not know that 'sushi' refers to the rice, not raw fish.

"Now, Japan is an archipelago, which means it's an island country. Until very recently, this kept it pretty isolated from most other cultures and outside influences on its food--except for China, its nearest neighbor--although these days that's changed and you'll see foreign influences in things like the wild proliferation of different flavors of KitKat." To name just one. "Rice is a staple, as well as the products of the sea, like fish and seaweed, and spices are used sparingly, because they were hard to get here for a very long time, resulting in a different flavor profile from what you may be used to.

"Today we're going to go on a food tour before we stop by a 7-Eleven, where you can try some other classic Japanese foods (or one of those sandwiches with whipped cream and strawberries) and pick up some snacks."