Your environment is something you never think about until it changes: the people, things, foods, sounds and smells that surround you every day of your life. In the 18 years since I started my Great Adventure in Japan -- I remember promising to be gone just a year -- my mother has visited me several times. Although I've been here long enough that I don't pay a second thought to signs warning you not to urinate in public or to beware of chikan (perverts), whenever my mother comes for a visit I become more attuned to some of the stranger aspects of the country. Like big trucks that play the Disneyland Main Street Electrical Parade song to let you know they're backing up. Kids going to school on Saturday. Extremely professional taxi drivers with immaculate vehicles. Peeing in a public toilet while the cleaning lady works nearby. Green traffic lights that are universally referred to as ao, which means "blue." Or the way you'll get amused comments if you don't slurp your noodles as loudly as possible -- people will actually point out how quietly you eat. It's always fun to surf the various differences and see how they compare with things back home.
Japanese men really love to pee in public places.
3 comments:
No matter how much time I spend in Japan, I just can't make myself slurp noodles.
I've always thought that slurping was a much more practical way to eat hot soup-style dishes like ramen, so I really enjoy being able to slurp away with gusto in Japan and not get any sidelong glances from other diners. ^_^
I come from a small mountain town in the middle of Europe. I'm a mountain monkey. Of course I slurp!
It's funny, I was just thinking about that. When I was a kid slurping the soup was something you could observe among the adults, it was rather common. Not sure how it is today, haven't really observed table manners in restaurants in my home town for a long time.
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