An old friend came to visit me in late December in the 90's in Fukuoka. He is a pretty good cook and we decided to make rack of lamb (which was fairly easy to find) and also a salad nicoise (sp) amongst other things.The olives for the the salad were proving a bit difficult but he found some at the Iwataya Depatika in Tenjin. So we invited some friends , roasted the lamb and he made the salad . We all sat down to eat, and we were enjoying the meal when I looked over and my friend had turned beet red. Seems that the olives weren't olives at all.........they were those glistening giant black beans meant for someones osechi............