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Journal lingqi's Journal: July 7th, 2003 14

Journal by lingqi

July 7th, 2003 (6:12pm)

Saturday. Work. Two words that should not go together.

Actually, even the digilent japanese apparently realizes this too - and most (maybe 80%, from the look of the parking lot) took the day off. The building is empty and quiet. Very ethereal.

One thing about Japan that I noticed (well, asked and found out) is that it seems parents generally do not have the same tendency as US parents to shove their child to a separate room at an early age.

I mean, indeed space is at time an issue, but the dogma that "sleeping in your own room promotes independence" isn't quite as strong, or if it exists altogether.

This, apparently, also couples with the fact that reading a story at bedtime is quite insufficient for the child to fall asleep - but they often demands their mothers' arms or at least her presence (salary-man dads arn't usually available for this), would seriously impair a japanese mother's ability to get things done after their kids' bed time; as "fell asleep with them" isn't exactly rarety.

I have heard of examples where a 16 year old girl still sleeps with her father (well, same tatami-room, in any case).

Another cultural tendency is that the shower head seems always without fail left in the bottom receptor on the wall. Well, this I should explain a little:

I have yet seen a attached-to-the-wall shower head in Japan. showerheads are always connectedby a hose, which allows you to take the shower head off and rince to your satisfaction - including, possibly, facilitating rincing of the bath and the likes. There is also always two receptors for the said showerhead. One is at the normal take-a-shower height, and the other about 80cm off the ground - for when one is taking the shower while sitting on a fancy japanese shower stool.

The sitting I can understand - it prevents water and soap from splashing into the bath next to the shower, which is shared by all. However, in a standalone shower, such as the one in the men's locker room at my company, the lower receptor should provide no value whatsoever (there are no stools, so unless one plans to sit on the floor).

Every morning, I finish my shower by leaving the shower-head on the top receptor, and the next morning I would return to find it relocated back to the lower one. Given the completely uselessness of this endeavour, I am almost tempted to webcam the said shower to check usage patterns that trigger this behavior. Of course - that's not going to happen because it's a shower, but I guess that's just another question that will go unanswered for a long time.

Last trivial thing - sticking chopsticks in rice is considered taboo, but actually, the positioning of dishes on the tray has its set of rules too. Apparently it is necessary that the soup be placed on the right side of rice (as seen by the person eating), because the reversed position is reserved for funerals, when ceremonial dinner is presented to the deceased.

I have something awful to complain about that - the soup bowl on the right really gets in the way when you have to reach across it to access the rice with your chopsticks. If the sleeves are long, they would also have a tendency to dip into the bowls and make some tasty miso-sleeve. I believe japanese are mostly right-handed (i.e. be inconvenienced); why would such a silly rule come about is another mystery.

Due to the aforementioned point of convenience, I did the funeral-dinner thing for about eight monthes before being corrected. I still cannot eat one meal without lamenting that, gosh, if only I wasn't told, I can still eat freely with rice on the right side!

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July 7th, 2003 More

July 7th, 2003

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  • Ok, so soup goes on the right side of the rice, but am I correctly infering from your JE that the set of rice/soup goes on the left side of the main dish? If it goes on the right then I'm not seeing the issue for the right handed eater. What would be the proper placement of other dishes/utensiles such as your drink container? I am well aware of the chopstick/rice taboo and of where to point your chopsitcks (actually where not to) and the issues with just picking up some food and talking on and on while w
    • if you are doing real drinking there is no etiquette involved.

      but your main dish etc are arranged generally further north from your rice and soup. imagine that your dinner is in rows. the bottom roll is chopsticks (generally pointing horizontally to the left so it doesn't point at somebody directly), and above that to the left is rice, to the right is soup. and firther up is main dish etc.

      i think your drink sits on the outside of your food-group. right top seems acceptable (corresponding with western etiq
  • I do recall on the times when my soup and rice haven't come separately (honestly, that's pretty rare, as most of my eating is done at sushi bars or, when I can afford it, seriously expensive places serving 10 course meals, and the soup comes as an independent course) that the soup is delievered on the rightmost side of my eating mat. Believe it or not, as a lefty, I also find this wholly inconvenient. I'm left in a position where I reach across virtually everything else to get to the soup. It's kinda awk
    • "inverting" the fork and knife (fork in left hand and knife in right, permanently) is very much a tradition in EVERY OTHER COUNTRY except the US. it's actually called the "international style" I think. You can almost say it's the metric way of using utencils (as in forks and knifes, anyway). I think that is the reason why the forks are on the left side and knife on the right in a dinner setting =)

      I can't speak for what it's like to be a leftie though - in asia, as far as i know, lefties are much rarer perc

      • Re:Dirty sleeves (Score:3, Informative)

        by Caoch93 ( 611965 )
        Just as a clarification, when I was referring to the "inversion" of the fork, I was actually referring to the way my Cornish hosts (and my girlfriend) grip the fork. Rather than holding the fork with the tines curving up, using a grip similar to that of a spoon, I noticed a tendency to grip the fork so that its tines curve down, with the index finger placed on the backside of the fork where the handle and tines meet.

        Do you follow Japanese baseball at all? I'm sure they still treasure southpaws there. ;)

        • hmm. pointing the fork with the convex face upwards is universal regardless, no? otherwise i would imagine that cutting things would be tremendously difficult...

          I don't follow japanese baseball; sorry... so can't get reference on what you say.
  • I discussed the answer to your problem in my journal. [slashdot.org]

    By holding the bowl of rice, you minimize the possibility of dipping your sleeve in your soup. Also, it's good manners to hold the bowl.
  • How are the portion sizes for meals different in Japan? Larger, smaller, equal?
    • about half-size.

      actually it's pretty neat. when you get a glass of water at the restaurant, it's almost always a glass the size of a teacup. (compared to, say, TGI Friday's in the US, which give you 20oz glasses) Granted there is a TGIF in roppongi, but i never been there, so can't speak for them.

      the hamburgurs (MOS burgen - i don't eat McD and no BK around) are about the size of a bisquit; with buns made of rice instead of bread. almost a rice-bisquit, actually...

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