Yesterday I was eating at a Yemeni restaurant in Scheveningen with a good friend of mine from Iraq. I had never eaten Yemeni food before, so I let him take the lead. Whenever we hang out in the Netherlands, we usually end up in a Middle Eastern restaurant anyway. He knows his places, he knows his food, and I always discover something new through him.

Sitting there, I suddenly realized how much I had missed this part of life in the Netherlands. Not just the food itself, but the simple fact that you can find almost any cuisine here. Especially in The Hague, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam, you have this huge variety of cultures living side by side, and it shows in the restaurants, the neighborhoods, and the people you meet.

It’s something that is much harder to find back home in Japan. Japan has its own incredible depth of culture, but not this same multicultural mix. Being here again made me aware of that. I thought I’d spend this trip thinking about what I miss from Japan while I’m here, but instead I’m being reminded of what I have missed in the Netherlands.

And it goes beyond food. When I think of my friends here—Bosnian, Pakistani, Iraqi, Dutch, Chinese—I realize how much this diversity enriched my life. Through them, I experienced many different cultures in a very natural way. They shaped how I see the world without me even noticing it at the time.

Here is the link to the Yemeni restaurant where I ate the traditional lamb dish you are seeing in the pictures.