Welcome back to Janelle's blog. On today's blog, we (well mostly just your host, Janelle) will be discussing three topics: a Sushi Restaurant, "How old are you?," and being part of a visible minority.
Sushi Restaurant
This past Saturday, Adam and I woke up to snow! It all melted that day, but it was really beautiful to see it on the mountains. We also had our first experience going to a sushi restaurant. I haven't eaten enough sushi in Canada to know if it's similar, so I'll write about the experience anyways. We went with a guy we met at the Tarui pia festival. He's Japanese, but grew up in the U.S.A.. On entering the sushi restaurant there's a screen in English where you can select how many people are in your party. The host gives you a number and that's the table number that you go to. At the table is a touch screen that has an English option (yay!). You order your food by going through the menu on the screen and selecting what you want. There's a conveyor belt that passes by all the tables. There's sushi on there that anyone can just take without ordering it. When you order sushi, it comes on a little bowl like plate on the conveyor belt (so you know not to take other people's ordered food). When it arrives by your table your screen makes a sound to alert you that your food is there. The plates are about 100 yen each (about $1) and there's two pieces of sushi on them. When you're done your meal, you press a button on the screen and a waitress comes and counts up how many plates you have and then gives you your bill. I liked this since it didn't involve having many difficult Japanese conversations and we knew what we were ordering. I really liked the sushi we had too.
How old are you?
I went through my blog to see if I'd already written about this, but I don't think I have.
When Japanese people meet for the first time or are introducing themselves it's common for them to ask, "How old are you?" Or to just go ahead and tell you how old they are. When Adam and I first arrived here many people asked us our ages, including the mayor! It's a good thing that we're fine with telling people. At the Suitopia centre, where we took Japanese classes, our instructors would give a mini self-introduction at the beginning of class which usually included something like: "I'm Sarah, I'm 31 years old." I'm not sure why in Canada asking someone's age is so rude. What's the big deal after all? I can understand in some work situations that you might not want people to know your age if you're young so that you're taken seriously. From what I understand about Japan is that you always have to ask an older person for "permission" before making decisions in a company. Maybe that's why they want to know your age.
Being Part of a Visible Minority
It's interesting for me to experience being part of a visible minority. You know how on different forms one question will often be, "Are you part of a visible minority?" I always checked "no." So now, it's interesting to experience being so visibly different. I can understand why sometimes people stare. I've started to stare at foreigners too because it's surprising to see them. I've never really noticed people's race before- maybe because in Canada you really do get a mix of everything, maybe it's a gift, or maybe it's because I'm a fairly unobservant person. But now, everything has changed! I see a "white" person and my eyes get stuck as I wonder, "Does s/he speak English?" Often, s/he is looking back at me in surprise. I wonder how going back to Canada will be with this "foreigner" radar and being able to communicate easily.
Thanks for joining me again on Janelle's blog. Stay tuned next week for news on a Christmas party.
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