When one moves to a foreign country, it is quite natural to change eating habits and adapt to the new culture's cuisine. It is also natural to long for the familiar taste from childhood. Among American ex-pats, there are numerous stories of substitutes for the Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts. Some inventive minds once mixed strawberries and umeboshi (pickled plums) to approximate American cranberry sauce. I don't know what the result tasted like, but the color was probably appropriate. There's also a tale of someone mistaking fuki (butterbur) for rhubarb with a disastrous pie as a result.
Almost 40 years ago, when I first arrived, one of the fall rituals was ordering American sweet potatoes from the Christian Center Bookstore in Kagoshima. They even came with a small cookbook. After that service stopped, we had to settle for canned sweet potatoes. But last week, unmistakable American yams were in a tiny greengrocer's in Hamadayama (Suginami Ward). The owner told me they are called "anoimo" or "aniimo" in Japanese and come from Kyushu. I baked one and it was heavenly. There must have been more shipped to Tokyo. If you're lucky, you might find them near you before Thursday.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.