The textures of various Japanese foods may make trying new things a challenge for those with weak stomachs. In Japan, there seems to be an abundance of slippery and gooey foods. Instead of trying to tone down the gooey-ness, it is sought out, and even celebrated for its beneficial effects. The name for this texture even feels slimy when spoken: neba-neba.

How you are introduced to these things (and Japanese people love to introduce foreigners to native dishes such as natto) can make all the difference in the world. There are a variety of ways to prepare these slimy ingredients. If your neba-neba guide has a benevolent heart, you may be able to develop an appreciation for the texture, eventually. If not, you may never enjoy wrapping spider web-like strings around your chopsticks in an effort to keep them from sticking to your chin.

Foods that may overload your sliminess receptors are natto, nagaimo, satoimo, mozuku, and mekabu. Natto is fermented soybeans, usually eaten with rice, rolled in sushi, or even mixed with daikon radish and spaghetti. Bacteria used in fermenting the beans are supposedly good for digestion, and the big intestine, especially. If you can stand to try it more than once or twice, you just may develop a taste for natto and impress your colon.

Mozuku and mekabu are sea plants or the roots of sea plants; nagaimo and satoimo are potato varieties, starchy, gooey ones whose tough skins bely their innards. To release the ooze, many of these foods are scraped over graters before being dolloped on top of a bowl of rice and doused with karashi (“yellow mustard”) or shooyu (“soy sauce”).