People were curious about what nattou (納豆) really looks like when I posted about it awhile back. So I made a video of me dissecting a container of it.
Natto is a staple food for many in Japan, especially in the Kanto region. It’s made from fermented soybeans using the bacteria called Bacillus subtilis. It’s also well known for it’s overpowering (some say gross) smell and it’s sticky, spiderweb, mushy-like texture.
Natto actually has some really cool legends behind how it was made. Originally it was just some soybeans that they left on accident in a straw bag for a few days. You see, the straw bags contain the bacteria Bacilus subtilis naturally and after a few days, it would ferment the beans. So… these people hundreds of years ago opened up their bag and saw their perfectly good beans appeared to be covered in snot and tried eating it? Reminds me of the gastronomy article. Check wikipedia for all sorts of other crazy information on natto.
Anyway, I decided to get a close-up of how it looks in the container, what it contains and …. how gross it looks when you stir it up. Enjoy!
(Yes, I did eat it afterward. In fact, it actually tastes really good on top of rice, which also kills the smell a bit) 
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Yeah!!!!!!!!!! That was awesome. I think I’ll get me some snot covered rotten beans too!
I’m curious as to why it’s a staple item though. I’ve heard that it’s healthy and cheap?
By the way.. I think I have those exact same chopsticks. They must be popular or something, hah!
It’s around 100¥ for a pack of three of these things. You put this on top of some rice (also cheap) and it will fill you up pretty quickly. I’m not a nutritionist, but I’ve read too many times that beans and rice makes a complete protein or something. Not to mention the claims that natto is healthy and probably has magical healing powers and can make you smarter and prettier.
Those chopsticks are called お祖父さん (or was it 叔父さん？ I forgot) chopsticks probably because they’re thick and heavy making them easier/harder to handle for older men (that may not be true, it could just be the name of the brand, but follow me around the room). I simply bought them because they were black and a I wanted a pair of black chopsticks to look cool in front of my friends