Homework #7

Homework questions

1.Have you ever eaten in a restaurant in a foreign country? Where? What did you eat? Did you make any mistakes? Please explain your experience.
2. Did you learn anything?


Answers
1. Since I am in Japan right now, I have to say "of course I have eaten in a foreign country's restaurant," haha. I love all kinds of Japanese food, so I tend to eat in restaurants a lot. I really like Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki! And yakiniku!! And nabe!!! I am really interested in some of the ways Japanese food is served for large groups of people. For example, with yakiniku everyone shares the same grill and the same food, and you cook it all together. Nabe is sort of the same, it's a "communal" meal that you make along with everyone else at the table. I think those type of dishes are so fun. Since I've studied Japan a lot, especially the food, I haven't made a lot of mistakes in restaurants. I did have to learn the right way to eat nigiri sushi, though: most Americans don't know you should eat nigiri with your hands, and dip it in the soy sauce fish-side down. I watched a TV program about Japanese food and learned the right way to eat it.

2. Actually, I have a couple of funny stories about learning the *wrong* way to eat something in Japan. My mother also loves food, and she has visited Japan with me a couple of times. But when she doesn't know how to do something, she sometimes just tries to figure it out on her own without asking anyone. She was staying at a host family's house, and they once left her alone at the table with a bowl of edamame. My mother had never seen edamame before, but she wanted to eat one, so she picked up the whole bean pod and put the entire thing in her mouth. The fuzzy outside of the pod was like trying to eat a towel, she said. Then her host family came back and showed her the right way to eat edamame, by popping the beans OUT of the pod. She said she was really embarrassed but it was funny, haha.

Also, I once went to a kind of expensive, nice restaurant in Osaka when I was studying abroad. This restaurant was "Japanese + Italian fusion," which means they served dishes that were kind of Italian-style, and kind of Japanese-style combined. It's a great restaurant that was very popular with all the students at my study-abroad university. I liked one of their dishes (a kind of garlic spaghetti) so much that one time, I picked up the plate and licked it. I wanted to get all of the sauce off the plate because it was delicious. When I looked up, all the Japanese people in the restaurant were staring at me. Honestly, even in America you probably shouldn't lick plates at a nice restaurant. But I couldn't help it, it was too good to let the sauce go to waste!!

Homework assignment #6

Homework questions

We talked and saw many international weddings and compared them with Japan.

1.Since Japanese weddings are expensive, do you think having a massive wedding like Korea or UAE is a good idea? Why?
2. What do you think about eloping? Is it a good idea or romantic? Why?
3. Have you ever thought about having a wedding in a foreign location like Hawaii? Would you do it? Why? Or Why not?
4.What is your ideal wedding?
5.What would you definitely do, wear or go to on that big day? Why is that important?
6. Have you ever been to a foreigner's wedding? What was your impression?

Answers

1. For myself, I think I would get wayyyy~ too stressed out if I tried to have a huge wedding. I panic easily. Also, I hate spending money for something that isn't going to last very long (unless it's food!!) So to me, having a massive big wedding doesn't seem like a good idea. It would cost a lot, and then be over in just one day, so there doesn't seem to be much point. I would rather save the money, have a small wedding, and then go on a long vacation afterwards... or maybe buy something important that will last a long time and be fun for me and my husband, like a nice kotatsu!

2. Mmmm I guess eloping might be romantic. While you're hiding away together, it could be super fun. But if you and your new husband's families don't like it that you ran away together, you'll have a big problem when you try to go home... so, if you're going to run away, you might as well run away forever, not just for the wedding. So maybe eloping is romantic, but it's not really a smart or practical thing to do - most of the time. It kind of depends on the circumstances and what's happening, I guess. If you feel like it's the only way to be with the person you love, then I would say "do it!"

3. I want to get married in Japan, at a shrine! 神社 are beautiful and I am Shinto, after all. But I'm not sure I like the idea of a Japanese wedding reception. It sounds very formal. Four of my friends got married this year, and they all had big parties afterward for the reception - people danced and sang and ate a lot. Those parties were very very fun, so I'd like to have a reception more like American style. I kind of worry it would be hard to get a Shinto wedding here because I'm a foreigner though... my Japanese is sort of okay, but it might be difficult to communicate. And what if there are no shrines that will marry 外国人...？

4. To be honest, I don't know if I'll ever get married. I have a lot of different ideas about getting married, and about what sort of wedding ceremony I'd like if I did. If I had to pick just one way, I guess I would stick with wanting to have a Shinto wedding at Fushimi-Inari Taisha 伏見稲荷大社. (I don't even know if they allow people to get married there, hahaha...) But if I could, I'd do the traditional Japanese ceremony there, and then have a big American-style reception. There would be tons of good food - all my favorite things to eat. Also, I'd want a huge, huge HUGE beautiful cake. In Japan they sometimes have fake cakes that the bride and groom cut together, but mine has to be a REAL cake, and it has to be delicious. Yeah, those are the most important things to me... going to a shrine and then having delicious cake... and then afterwards a fun trip somewhere for the honeymoon. Like Disneyland.

5. If absolutely nothing else works out, I'd definitely eat lots of cake. The cake is the most important part of the wedding to me, because I love food... and wedding cake is special, special cake. You don't get to eat it very often. And of course, on that day I would cry alot. I'm the type of person who cries when they get emotional - even when I'm very happy.

6. Actually, I haven't ever been to a foreign wedding. Those four friends of mine who got married this year all had sort of "normal" American weddings, mostly Christian-themed. Many foreign wedding customs sound interesting, though. I think Americans like to pick and choose different events to include in their weddings, sometimes they pick things from foreign traditions even if they don't belong to that country.