I have gone overseas for a period of a month and it was great. easily could have extended it however long I wanted... just a little problem of cashflow :)

This thread seems a little pointless.
Does anyone even eat the food of a single culture?
I very much doubt it. And what of the Japanese "interpritation" of western food?
The staples really are pretty similar, beef, pork, wheat, rice, fish.
All that really changes is the flavour/spice combo and perhaps the serving.
Can i eat the food as is the culture in Japan, yes indefinitly, as the culture in Japan includes KFC, Pasta, Pizza, curry, steak etc.
but thats the culture of REAL Japan,
would I be able to eat only the food in the fantasy japanese culture that exists only in the minds of some of you lot out there.
No, I wont be having Miso soup for breakfast

If you think it is pointless feel free to not respond.

I said "Japanese food" not "food in Japan"...but I guess I should have expected the nit-picking.

When I say "Japanese food" I do not mean KFC, pizza, pasta, etc. The question is how long you could go WITHOUT your food from home. I didn't realize it was that complicated.

Eat it exclusively? Always? Yes I do doubt that, because of 'imports' that now have a long-standing in Japan and are taken for granted as part of the modern japanese diet. If we go by the idea that anything introduced post-meiji hasn't been around long enough to class as traditional then that's going to include a lot of things. Chocolate, for example; introduced only in the mid 1900's, but i'd be highly surprised if there was anyone in Japan who had never eaten chocolate at all in their life nowadays. Curry rice, pretty much considered wholly Japanese has a similar story. Croquette, hayashi rice, nikujaga, curry pan, omu-raisu, all pretty much 'japanese' to our minds, but still technically classed as 洋食. Sorry, even the humble カツ isn't 和食.

Moreover, 和食 is more than just what foods fall into that category. It's more of a conception of food and how it should be approached. five tastes, five methods etc etc. It's a lot of effort and I suspect that very few people adhere to that on a daily basis.

Edit: Ok, so I'm arguing a lot of semantics here, but I think it still stands that the modern Japanese diet is a lot broader than the kind of stuff that the word 和食 really means and it's kind of over-stretching the term to try and define 'japanese food' as being just 和食. That's why I asked, where does "Japanese food end?". Back to Toast and coffee again, or salad, which have been around a long time, but still aren't really 'Japanese'. two fold idea really, the spaghettification of japanese food, and the japanification of spaghetti. It's all dove-tails~

EDIT 2: Bother, I didn't mean to double-post. Sorry about that.

Wow, you guys are getting picky today. I know many people in Japan who almost only ever eat what Japanese consider "Japanese food". Whether that has roots in other countries is something you can argue, but by that argument there is almost NOTHING that can be considered "American food". Pizza, pasta, cheesburgers, steak, fried chicken, BBQ, all came from somewhere else.

Again, the basis of my question, if you choose to answer it is, how long could you go WITHOUT food you are accustomed to at home?

Gonna get pickier. I was very accustomed to eating ramen and sushi in Texas. Like way too often, and it didn't make my pocketbook happy. DFW has a large Japanese population. It even has its own Japanese Shimbun. But I get what you mean:

I make pastrami sandwiches at least once a week. I adore them. I live above a grocery store that has pastrami and sandwich bread. Japanese available, but certainly not something I see other people doing. Japanese people put pastrami slices in salads, not in sandwiches.

As for pizza? There is no pizza here. Those corn infested concoctions are not pizza. KFC? It's actually not the same, but I do like it. MickeyD's? Better than in the States...

Mexican food. Nonexistent. When I visit the States or have friends visit me, there are always Taco Kits in transit...

That's why 'American' food is much harder to define. It's an indistinct creature with a polygamous background, much more so than Japan, where there are things that are distinctly Japanese. Dried bonito. Miso.

I have answered the question, but if you mean, how long could I go if I purposefully selected food stuffs solely on the grounds of they are not something I can eat in England, despite availability or social normality, possibly only a fortnight. It depends on a lot of factors.

But still, that's kind of ridiculous; and the point of why probably so many people are saying they could go some considerable time. The fact that ingredients are available, and that western ways of eating are incorporated into Japanese food anyway, makes the question moot. What happens is that people living abroad balance their eating probably in favour of 'japanese food' but with 'western' treats now and then to take the edge off. They might not revert back to a western diet, but it's mad to say that they would have to cut it out completely when there are chocolate bars and sandwiches hanging around and are a perfectly normal part of food in Japan. And carrots and chicken are carrots and chicken regardless of where you are and what you do to them.

I think provided you are happy and enjoy being adventurous with food, then there is no reason why you can't go a long time before you really start to crave home foods. That's how it is for me, anyway.

I do agree though, that people who think they could go years are probably kidding themselves. I'd say 6 months would be more realistic and actually somewhat impressive.

^^; sorry to pull things apart so much MMM, I know you only meant this to be straight-forward. Your question has certainly raised some interesting points!

good thread, i guess it depends on what you have been eating during the time without food from home. i can go on for months without eating any home food because it simply doesn't taste good, even if i go out to eat i don;t eat a lot of the salty, fried, or juicy stuff rather i prefer to eat simple stuff that taste like home food. but the major concern for me is the cost :P, at least that is a factor that determines how long i can be away from home food.

o my bad, did not read the in japan part.