So, it seems there is more fun to be had with food allergies. As you might recall, about two months into my stay in Japan, I developed a soy allergy.
My initial reaction had been to learn the Kanji for soy and strictly avoid all foods containing even a trace of soy. After a while, I began experimenting with small doses of soy sauce. Luckily, it turned out that small quantities did not cause any problems. So I've been happily eating soy sauce and other products containing soy traces, but avoiding cooked soy beans or tofu.
Then, my allergy was put to an unintended test last week when I unknowingly ate a hamburger made of a meat-tofu mixture. And - surprise, surprise - it seems that my allergy has disappeared again!
There probably won't be too many opportunities to eat soy-based foods in Germany (where I'm headed right now - I'm actually posting this using Kansai airport's free wifi), but always having to keep an eye on the ingredients of each and every meal is annoying anyway. I'm really happy that I won't have to do that anymore :-)
So, the lesson learned is: you can acquire food allergies by repeated consumption of the same food, but you can also get rid of them again if you avoid the stuff for a while.
