Sunday, July 17, 2011

Gohan desu yu! It's time to eat!



Meals in Japan are eaten on a regular schedule. It is said that “in order to increase one's energy, one must eat meals regularly.” In Japan, young people are not often given a choice of what to eat. At meals, the mother serves the children what she has cooked, including what they drink. It is considered polite to not give you a choice but instead provide you with what has been prepared. In North America if we are hungry or thirsty we would simply go to the cupboard or fridge and get what we would like to eat. In Japan this would be considered very rude. Children almost never help themselves to something to eat but instead wait and eat only what was prepared and served.

Since I am visiting Japan in the summer time, much of the food is served cold since it is very hot in the summer (often in the mid 30's with high humidity). This includes cold rice, tea, soup, meat and noodles. A typical meal would have a number of items served including rice, a soup, a meat that might be chicken, pork, fish or beef (beef is very expensive) and then different vegetables, fruit and other smaller dishes. Everything is eaten with chopsticks. Chopsticks are used for picking up food from communal serving bowls on the table and for pulling food apart. Rice is served at lunch and supper and can also be served at breakfast.

Since arriving in Japan last week I have been eating a lot of vegetables. Twice we have ate meals that consisted of only vegetables. Early in the week we visited Karakura. Karakura is located about an hour outside of Tokyo. We ate at a vegetarian restaurant and our lunch had eight different courses, all vegetable based. We started with a tomato based soup, then a plate of seasoned cucumbers, then seasoned spinach. Next was a HUGE plate full of big and small tomatoes (not my favourite food!). After this we had some small dark green hot peppers, then squash, sweet potatoes and mushrooms. This was followed by a flat bread with basil leaves and tomatoes. Dessert was a melon slice. You can see why the Japanese people are generally healthy and thin. You hardly ever see an individual that overweight or on the heavy side. This is probably due to the healthy diet they eat and the amount of exercise they get on a daily base. Since most people walk or bike to the local train station, they are always on the move.

Prior to eating your meal you say “itadaki-masu” which means “I gratefully receive this food” and after eating say “gochi-sou-sama dishita” which means “thank you for the delicious meal”. This is said before and after each meal, even when eating out.

I have been in Japan for over a week now. We have yet to go to a grocery store. Most foods are delivered directly to the home. The family I am currently staying with is also a part of a cooperative buying group. There are seven families in this coop. On Mondays, all the food is delivered to my host families home and placed in the carport (one of the cars had to be moved down the street to provide enough room). All the food and products were in bins and coolers. There was even a scale for weighing amounts of vegetables and products they are taking.

Throughout the day, families involved in the food cooperative stopped by with their shopping basket and picked up the items they had ordered, sorting these the buns and weighing things on the scale. The food included everything from fresh meat, frozen products, vegetables and eggs. There was also a lot of visiting that took place as the neighbours came by to pick up their groceries. One of the neighbours was a single gentlemen. He said I was very beautiful and asked if I was available. Upon leaving with his food, he forgot to take his order form for the next weeks delivery. My host mother had to call him later that evening asking him to swing around. She laughed and said that he had probably forgotten it on purpose so he come back and see me again. I just smiled and continued cleaning up and putting the bins away.

1 comment:

  1. The food looks delicious Tory! I wish I could have somebody make food choices for me...maybe I'd get skinny that way! LOL

    It looks like your have a great time. What an experience. Stay safe and out of the storms.

    Lawna

    ReplyDelete