Advertisement
Published: December 31st 2007
New Year's Eve in Japan, and the supermarkets are INSANE. I think I know what culture shock feels like now - when you're squished against a trolley stand, surrounded by the scent of fish and soba, hearing the shop assistants yelling 'welcome' in rapid Japanese every 5 seconds, the only foreigner in a supermarket absolutely packed with Japanese people.... you kind of feel like curling up into a ball and hiding in a corner. Although, like I said, I was squished against a trolley stand, which was kind of a corner.... But GAH. Who knew going to the supermarket would be such an overwhelming experience? I was like a weird, tall, blonde fish in the sea of Japanese.
Apparently everything is bigger in New Zealand - I have to stoop down to talk to people here, half the time! And people always ask me (with an expression of disbelief on their face) what my shoe size is - I don't know whether to feel offended or powerful. The other night, my host family and I had a conversation about New Zealand lunchboxes. My host mother was laughing at how big they are, and said that in Japan, amongst schoolgirls, the smaller your bento (lunchbox), the cooler you are. I had a patriotic moment, and was about to say 'actually, I like my big lunchbox, and would rather be full than cool'. I decided against it though...
The other day I went mandarin picking. Mandarins are really cheap in Japan in Winter, and so with that comes mandarin jam, mandarin juice, mandarin cake, mandarin chocolate... mandarin everything. My mandarin picking took place in a place near Yamaguchi, about an hour and a half away from Hiroshima, with a Japanese family, whose grandparents owned the mandarin field (field? Farm? Orchard? I don't know...). The grandparents looked about a hundred years old, were hunchbacked and ill-looking, but still, spent 3 hours picking mandarins with us. And I couldn't believe my eyes when they both hopped on a pair of bikes afterwards, and sped off down the uneven mountain track with incredible grace and ease. Awesome.
I am sad to say that the chopstick situation is not improving. I still drop one (or both) on the floor most days - they just slip out of my hands. The other night, I thought I finally had the skill while eating chili prawns, but then managed to drop a whole prawn (covered in red sauce) into my lap. It was very embarrassing; you can't take me anywhere. And it makes things especially difficult, for example, when we're eating something yummy (like tempura), and I'm trying to sneakily grab the last piece (that will have been sitting there for a good 20 mins, my host family are very slow eaters)... but I just can't do it inconspicuously, and by the time I've stabbed and prodded and dropped whatever I want, my host family will have noticed me being greedy. Oopsy daisy.
Tonight, being New Years, which is very special in Japan, we are going to 'enjoy' a traditional New Years meal. This includes raw fish, pounded rice cakes (that are notorious for getting stuck in people's throats, and have to be sucked out with a vacuum cleaner), and sweets made out of black bean paste. Yum. -coughsplutterchoke-
However, it will be interesting - it certainly looks interesting．
Advertisement
Tot: 0.106s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 5; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0817s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Monica
non-member comment
Happy New Year, Shivvy. Good luck with the feast! I had to re-read that line about the rice cakes that have to be sucked out of people's throats with a vacuum cleaner a couple of times. ^_^ Keep up your very admirable taking up of many challenges. You're doing great. And write lots, it's wonderful to read all these details of Japan. Maybe post some pictures in the New Year, hey? Please? XD Love and luck from, Monica