With countries being so homogenised today, particularly advanced countries, its cool to spot things that make you think "Wow you could only see that here in ...wherever".
I know that I'm in Japan when ...
When I see a crowd at a small shop in the basement area of a railway station mall discussing the merits of five varieties of pickled plums. The most popular processed form is the umeboshi, a sour, pickled plum that is usually enjoyed with cooked rice or with tea. The umeboshi has one of the most typical Japanese flavors. The interest in the flavor is not unusual in such a strong food culture, but the sticker price of $100+ per kilogram comes as a shock, and the demand is strong. (Tokyo - near Yurakucho Station)When I see the crowd at 9pm Sunday at the local bathhouse where fathers and mothers take young sons and daughters off through opposite doors for the Sunday scrub. This is modern Japan yet the commercial bathhouse is still enormously popular. The noise of younger children enjoying their Sunday scrub and bath en-mass (the girls and women being heard over the large separating wall that falls short of reaching the ceiling) generates a strong community sensation. (Okazaki- Aichi Prefecture)
When my 6 year old niece is asked if she would like to go shopping with Grandmother or come to the Toyokawa Inari Shrine and she chooses the Shrine. She chooses the Shrine because she loves the sweet vinegar pickled seaweed that is served in the small dishes to those who make appropriate donations. So she comes for the seaweed, in preference to what she knows Grandmother might buy her out shopping together. (Toyokawa is one of the three largest Inari Shinto Shrines in Japan. People come here to pray for good fortune, as the shrine's Shinto guardian is the deity of prosperity and wealth. A Zen temple and a Shinto shrine co-exist on this site, a scenario was common until the Meiji restoration, when temples and shrines were officially separated.) (Toyokawa - Aichi Prefecture)
When I choose a Morinaga icecream and find not only creamy vanilla but also red bean paste spread down the centre surrounding the stick finished with a blob of mochi sticky rice at the base. This tastes great, and where else would you imagine red bean paste and sticky rice inside top grade icecream?
When the octopus leg that has just been turned into fresh sashimi on Awaji Island twitches with freshness before being plunged into the soy sauce. (Awaji Island - Hyogo Prefecture)
That's when you know that you are in Japan.
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