It has become a habit for me to eat a banana every morning after waking up.
When I was a child, bananas were still a luxury item.
When I was a child, bananas were still a luxury item, so when I was sick, the bananas in the fruit set in the sympathy basket were a dazzling sight, and I remember only being able to eat them on such occasions.
Bananas were cheap before the war, but after the war they suddenly became very expensive. This is because the bananas sold in Japan were produced in Taiwan, and Taiwan used to be a Japanese territory.
After the war, Taiwan became independent and Japan could no longer import bananas directly. During the U.S. military occupation, it seems that Japanese were not even able to buy bananas from Taiwan.
After that, import restrictions were gradually eased, and in 1963, when banana imports were liberalized, bananas from the Philippines began to be distributed in Japan along with those from Taiwan.
And now, 80% of them are produced in the Philippines.
It is a common belief that bananas originated in New Guinea, and then came to be cultivated in Southeast Asia.
However, wild bananas have seeds and are hard, and are said to be completely different from the bananas we usually eat.
The bananas sold in supermarkets in Japan are the Cavendish, a type for desserts, which are sweet and soft.
In the Philippines, the slightly more sour Lakatan variety is generally preferred.
The picture above, "The History of Bananas," is interesting because it describes the history of bananas.
It describes how the banana plant spread around the world, as well as the culture associated with bananas.
I started eating a banana every morning because I kept getting leg cramps in the middle of the night and I thought I might be deficient in potassium, and bananas are one of the foods that are high in potassium.
It's easy to eat, inexpensive, and delicious, and if you can get potassium from bananas, you can't stop eating them.
When I move to the Philippines, I'll plant a banana tree (actually it's not a tree, it's a grass) in my yard and eat homegrown bananas.
So, I'm thinking of continuing to have a banana every day.
