''I tried raw fish once before, and I don't think that I will be eating it again anytime too soon,'' said Gretchen Ubion, a member of the U.S. women's ice hockey team.

But Slovenian ski jump coach Gabrijel Gros has advised his players to eat whatever traditional Japanese food they like. He says he went with some Slovenian Olympic officials to a local Japanese restaurant and asked the chef to prepare some traditional food.

''We had soup, noodles, meat and vegetables. I would have to say that the lunch was perfect,'' Gros said.

Most athletes seem to regard Japanese delicacies like raw fish, prepared in sushi or separately, as the most exotic food.

''Last year when I was here I tried the sushi, but it wasn't so good. This year all I've eaten is the 'miso' soup,'' said Anna Eckner, a women's short track skater from Germany.

Sushi is not offered every day at the Olympic Village, but when it is on the menu, it is all eaten up, says Hiroki Mihara, general manager of the Olympic Village restaurant.

''So far, 'udon' noodles with Nagano mushroom tempura added on is the (Japanese) dish that is most popular with foreign athletes at the village,'' he said.

Japanese food makes up 15% of the menu at the village, and Western cuisine 75%. The remaining 10%, which is Chinese, also has proven popular with the athletes, Mihara said.

U.S. snowboard coach Peter Foley, who has visited Japan five times, said he had hoped for more traditional Japanese food at the village, especially sushi, which he regards as very healthy.

''I love sushi. I eat it all the time, even in the U.S. I like 'ebi,' 'maguro,' 'sake,' I like it all,'' he said, using the Japanese terms for shrimp, tuna and salmon, popular items in sushi.

Foley said his snowboarders travel a lot and have enough experience to know what foods to eat, so he tells them to eat whatever they want.

''Some of them like Japanese food and some of them don't like anything at all,'' he said joking.

The Japanese food also was popular with the Chinese team. Chinese athletes especially liked Japanese rice and the wide variety of pickled vegetables, said Qin Na, a women's short track skater.

''We mostly eat the Chinese and Japanese food because we are Asians, and we have Asian tastes,'' she said. (Kyodo News)