In the same way you acquire a taste for initially unappetizing foreign food, the reverse can happen you lose the capacity to digest food which previously you'd gobble down with gusto.

On a recent snowboarding trip to Hokkaido, we decided to go French. The galettes smothered in thick, rich cheese seemed like a good idea. A few hours later, however, my stomach was rebelling. Sick and weakened, I looked forward to my slope debut slopes with trepidation, but the icy air proved a bracing tonic for my food-poisoned state.

Everything was fine until that evening's trip to the local onsen. The contrast between freezing air and hot water made my head spin. I panicked as nausea took hold and I envisaged myself puking amid strangers. Into their bath water. So I ran, starkers, toward the toilets.

In my semi-delirious state, however, I wrenched open the door that led straight into the hotel lobby, surprising gathered skiers, without even the dignity afforded by a tiny onsen towels. It was then that I fainted. I only hope no one in the lobby did. Nikolai in Tokyo

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