Pickles?

This evenings dinner was salmon, corn on the cob, coleslaw and rice with pickles. The salmon was fried with garlic, probably our favourite way to do salmon, easy and tasty. The corn was done to perfection. Cooked yet still juicy and fresh. Our coleslaw was made with the fresh dill we have and man does that every bring out the flavour buds. But this evening I want to talk about the pickles. I always thought of pickles as those green cucumbery things. Some sweet, some dill end of story. However, in Japan they pickle just about everything. These little brown numbers are kind of a tangy sweet combination and they go just beautifully with rice. Which leads me to a gripe I have. When living in Japan I was often chastised for putting soy sauce on my rice. Rice is too good tasting on its own and the soy sauce spoils the flavour. Yet they have hundreds of different rice toppers, from pickles to something called furi kaki. How can I be the bad guy here. Everyone else is putting something on their rice to liven it up. Why was I, the soy sauce guy, left out. Perhaps someone can explain it to me cause I don't get it. I am away for dinner again tomorrow night. We have our Annual General Meeting. Can't wait to see what will be had.