Omiyage　お土産 and Meibutsu　名物

So, since I have just a couple months before departing for Japan, I'm beginning to collect for Omiyage　お土産 and Meibutsu 名物　now. The last time I went to Japan, I did this too, but I think I have an even better understanding of the custom, after having lived with Japanese roommates for so long. Food items and local items are best, and NEVER NEVER NEVER anything in even numbers (this is really bad luck!). I've talked a lot about the tradition with my roommates, and have been given many omiyage from them. Now, it's my turn to step up and participate.

Omiyage is the tradition of giving a small gift to people when you meet them, come to their house, or come to a meeting. I will be expected to give many omiyage once I arrive in Japan, and the expense and size of the gift depends who I will be giving it to. For people I just met and am becoming friends with, something small will suffice such as candy or American snacks, but for co-workers, my landlord, and of course, boss, it will have to be something a little nicer. For these people, so far, I have elected to buy 20 flavor variety packs of Jelly Belly jelly beans. It's still a food item (which seems to be one of the easiest and most acceptable gifts to come up with), and is very American. Also, it wont melt in the plane and the layout of the candies in the box (almost like a box of chocolates) is asthetically pleasing (which is kind of important too! Presentation!). A bag of M&Ms wouldn't quite be the same. It's also nice because it isn't especially expensive, but certainly something my coworkers wont be able to find in Japan easily (or at least not with English writing all over it!). Gifts that are local are really cherished because it shows that you were thinking about the person even when you were not with them (or had not even met them yet!) and it is really cool to get something you can't get in your hometown. I'll need a few things that are a bit nicer than this (I'm thinking about a few small bottles of Jack Daniels Whiskey for bosses because this is very expensive and well-liked in Japan, but not unreasonable here in Tennessee! And, of course, it's a local thing. Liquor is a very common gift for bosses - I've seen it done many times with my friends' and their parents' business associates). I'll also need about 50 really small inexpensive things to give random people upon kind of chance meetings. My idea for this was that when I was in Alabama in the summer I'd look into buying some cotton twigs and picking the flowers off, putting them in very small boxes, and putting a nice hand-made label on the inside of the box that explains a little about cotton growing in history in Alabama, but it seems that cotton may not be blooming by the time I leave, so I'll have to think of something else! However, something LIKE this, and really regional, would be perfect. Otherwise, I may elect to buy a large pack of a nicer candies that can be divided up and given out individually for such occassions. I'll alsi want to bring some American stickers for kids in my class (if I end up working with school-aged children) or at least for children I'll meet there (neighbor's/coworker's kids). When I tutored ESL for Japanese students in high school, they all loved stickers, so I think this will be a big hit! It's popular to put them on the students' electronic dictionaries, notebooks, etc. Omiyage is very important to Japanese people because, as my roommate put it, it strengthens good relations between individuals. I think this is true, because Japanese culture emphasizes very much thinking of others first and keeping relationships positive for social reasons. Though I would probably be excused on account of being a gaijin 外人(foreigner), it is very important to me to be upfront about the fact that I am accepting of the culture and its customs. I don't want to walk in giving the impression that I think things ought to be just how they are in America while living and working in Japan.

Speaking of dictionaries, I'm looking to buy my electronic dictionary very soon. They're really expensive, but I have some money set aside for it and my friend, who is a current Jet, says he uses his at least 100 times per day. The one I am planning to buy is intended for Japanese users, but the ones aimed at English-speakers were too low for my reading level, and didn't seem like they'd be helpful. For example, entries were made in romanji (Japanese words spelled with English letters), and Japanese words were shown this way. I can read Hiragana / katakana, so I need something that will support this. Furthermore, I will need more help with Kanji (non-phonetic Chinese character) words than Kana anyway. The dictionaries intended for English users are VERY limited in their kanji-translating abilities. The one I am looking at, however, has input for a stylus pen where I can write the kanji and it will translate it to Kana. This is perfect, I think, for my reading level and I've seen these kind of dictionaries in person before - their ability to interpret the stylus imput - even if the Kanji is written out of order - is amazing! The one downside is that all my buttons will be in Japanese, but my roommates have offered to help me learn to operate it and read those kanji.

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