I know it doesn't help you at all, but a lesson for everyone else: You really can control the conversation.
Eg, "yes, I do love to eat Japanese food, but it's not my favourite hobby"
When I did the exam, we were talking a lot about the Olympics. Was annoying the hell out of me because a) I hadn't been watching it (despite saying so!), and b) I didn't know a lot of the vocab and grammar. So I ended up saying something blatantly obvious like "in my spare time, I prefer to read, and not watch TV". The examiner got the hint and we talked about reading and other shumi.