Monday, April 23, 2007

Fermented Soybeans or Nattō なっとう (納豆)

What’s up with all this Natto hatred among the ex-pats? Did you guys never have okra? BTW eating okra like natto is very good too… Everyone that doesn’t like it state it’s the texture… frankly, I never understand that comment… “So it’s slimy”… it’s good slimy especially on hot rice…

I love natto, especially combined with tarako (Alaskan Pollock roe, 鱈子) and shiozake (salted salmon, 塩鮭)… YUM-O if you haven’t given it a go. Of course you’ll have to like the said ingredients to enjoy it completely…

:D

Anyway, I do have a point to this. I know a lot of Japanese people have problems with Natto too.

The thing is that Natto might be an acquired taste, but I think America people in particular have problems with a lot of food.

(If you already didn’t know Japanese people are obsessed about food. Odd since most Japanese women look like anorexics. Or maybe because they are anorexic they get more obsessed about food. God knows I get more food obsessed when I’m on a diet, which I’m on right now and hence the whole food talk… But I digress, because of this obsession with food, Japanese people like to eat all kinds of things. Sure they Japanize (oppose to Americanize) their imported food like we all do. Although, I have yet to try this crab/corn/mayo pizza, this will be on my list to try when I go to Japan because it sounds so funky, could you imagine me ordering this in the states? Also, I tend to have a more Japanese tongue so maybe I just might like this pizza combo… Kewpie Mayo is good, on a pizza it might be genius… Anyway… )

This relates to the Lunchbox entry… but what’s up with American kids/adults nowadays and the lack of variety in there diet?

I like trying different foods. When I hear someone is a “Meat and Potatoes” type, I literally feel bad for that person. All I’m thinking is how limited his food life is. Actually, I feel this way for vegetarians and vegans too… Japan’s obsession with food is probably the main reason why Japanese people do not have any sympathy or compassion with the whole vegetarian concept. My mother who grew up in rural Japan had a really hard time eating growing up because she didn’t like meat. (Although she didn’t consider fish meat and most Japanese people don’t) She basically ate cold tofu everyday. Her thoughts on this vegetarian thing changed when she had no money and starved for a month. On the other hand, I eat meat all the time. I really don’t like vegetables all that much, unless it’s cooked with some oil or cooked in a Japanese way, cooked in some food containing meat or covered in ranch dressing. For ex-pats in Japan who are vegetarian… there is no way anyone would be sympathetic to there dietary choice… They wouldn’t comprehend it, frankly, I don’t comprehend it… Meat is good… and I like eating it.

Actually, I have no sympathy for vegans or vegetarians wanting to live in Japan… they should know that they have no compassion for you… they’ll just look at you as if you were some prissy picky person… you’re going to be looked at as weird and if you can’t handle that, don’t go! Or give up being vegetarian while in Japan. Trust me, Japanese people will never understand… they like food way too much. This is the country that invented Iron Chef and countless of other food related shows!

Talk about food obsession… I’ve been avoiding this journal because of the whole food issue. I wanted to write about how it was going to be difficult when I go to Japan because of my weight. First of all I’m not the typical anorexic Asian. Actually, I’m very far from that. I’m on the chunky side I suppose. I have large breasts, and some hips, this girl has major curves. This is what’s killing me. I’m totally going crazy regarding going to Japan because I’m a nervous wreak about my weight in general. Where a girl is pretty average in the states, they are considered morbidly obese in Japan. This dilemma is enough to make me not want to see my relatives. They’ll probably put me on a diet the moment I set foot in Japan. Ugh… I’ll probably write more about this when I come back from Japan… But for now know that I’m about to go crazy with this whole diet and Japanese obsession with thinness.

O.o

Monday, April 9, 2007

Lunchbox べんとう (弁当)

First time I had a chance to take a lunch to school was when I was when I moved to America in the second grade. Up to that point in time, I lived in Japan and went home for lunch everyday since my house was only a block away. I’m not sure if I was allowed to, but I did it anyway. When I get home for lunch I would always have something hot and ready for me to eat. Often times I remember eating Ramen… I liked ramen, still do, especially tonkatsu-ramen. Anyway, before this time only time I really ate a bento box was when we traveled or New Years, Hanami, or whenever the Japanese occasion deemed it necessary.

I really don’t want to get sidetracked but up until I came to the States, I really don’t remember much about school. Yes, I went but I wasn’t at all interested. I had other things way too important on my mind. Like playing and where I was going to go modeling the next weekend. My life was full of adventure in Japan and it was a great time. When I came to the States, my mother, who was the primary source of us traveling, didn’t have a driver’s license and wasn’t comfortable going anywhere. This put a major damping in going anywhere and doing anything. When this type of things happened in my family, my mother would compensate by making really good meals, hence starting my bento boxes in the second grade.

So, I’m in a foreign country, America, (it was foreign to me because I grew up in Japan) experiencing major culture shock. I missed Japan like crazy, I know we can’t go back anytime soon, and I kept asking my father why the US government hates us. My mother probably experiencing the same, wanted to bring a little bit of Japan to the both of us.

So, as you can imagine. I’m in an American School, in Los Angeles. I think there were 5 Asians in the entire school. The school had about a good representation of the other cultures though. Anyway, as you can imagine… not much bento boxes were being brought to school. So I started bring my bento boxes to school and ate it at lunch. The kids first started to make fun of me, then they start asking questions, then my second grade teacher hears about this and all of a sudden my lunch becomes a spectacle.

After my second grade teacher finds out about my lunch, she wants to view it everyday before the lunchtime starts. Basically my lunch had a set time of viewing everyday in my class. I recall the words, “Okay, it’s time to look at Joanna’s Lunch!”

Do you have any idea how weird that is? Thinking back I still think it’s weird. How many people do you know had to “show and tell” their lunch everyday?

All be it, my mother’s lunchboxes were absolutely beautiful. I had all the right proportions, excellently prepared, balanced nutritionally, and artistically sculpted. She woke up at awful times to make my lunch every morning. She truly put all her heart into that lunchbox. Sure, she was a layout artist/chef as a profession, but still she took a lot of time into preparing my lunch for me.

That’s one thing I completely recalled about American kids. There lunch wasn’t as thoughtful as my lunch was. Even if I had a sandwich, my mother would make lady finger sandwiches, cut off all the crust, put it in a special container, separated by artificial "grass" and gave me a variety of sandwiches because I might get bored with just one type. I don’t recall one kid in my class that had that thoughtful of a lunch. Sure they brought lunch, I’m sure their mom made it, but the quality of my lunch was far superior to any of the other kids.

I sometimes wonder why American mother's tend not to do that with lunch. It might be because presentation in American cuisine doesn't seem all that important (except in high end restaurants). They say they’re busy… sure if your mom works, but what about those stay at home moms? Being that my mother is Japanese, I never really had an experience with American moms… maybe the kids just have a lower standard of what they want to eat… I don’t know… I was a very refined eater even at 7… I didn’t like peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch; I considered it more of a snack food than proper lunch. Maybe American kids just prefer P&J over fish, vegetable and meat or other bento stuff.

Also when I can home around 3pm, my mother would have oyatsu (3 o’clock snack) ready for me when I got home. Whether it was cookies, cake, fruit, or rice crackers she would have it ready for me on a plate with something to drink next to it. I’m guessing many American kids didn’t come home to that. During that time she would ask me how my day was at school and what my homework was. If I had math homework she would answer my questions on a chalkboard next to the dining table while I ate my oyatsu snack.

I do miss the lunch boxes my mother used to make. Mainly because it was nutritional, I so rarely eat as nutritionally as I did when I was a child. I still think it’s amazing how much care my mother actually put into what we as a family ate. How diligently she would look through nutrition books to make certain all the vitamins and minerals were accounted for in her cooking. I really took it for granted growing up.

Friday, April 6, 2007

Abandonment ほうき (放棄)

Japan hospital sets up drop-off hatch for unwanted babies

Only reason I’m writing about this is because as a hafu child it reminds me of something. In Japan after World War II, a lot of Japanese women got pregnant with American Soldiers. These children where abandoned, thrown away, and killed all because of the stigma of being half anything. These children were often called freaks and doomed to the life on the streets or death

I was actually in a movie that showed this when I was little child called “母たることは地獄のごとく 炎の女”. (I’m one of the kids who yells “Mommy, Don’t Die!” in a scene where Miki is really sick) It’s a story about hafu children after World War II who was abandoned by the Japanese mothers and the lady, Miki Sawada, who rescued and raised them with her devoted staff. Miki Sawada was one of the founders of Mitsubishi’s daughter. She basically sold everything she had to buy back the family estate that the state took from her after World War II to open this orphanage. The orphanage was called the Elizabeth Saunders Home because she was one of the first people to donate her money to this cause. Also this movie had a side story about a half Black /half Japanese guy who was trying to adjust in Japanese society even though they were still looked as an outsider and almost an abomination. He also found his mother and father and that, as you can imagine, didn’t end well. Japanese society can be cruel especially to hafu children back then… actually, I’m pretty sure they still get teased today… because in Japan even if you’re half… you’re not Japanese… and they let you know it every chance they get.

A lot of Japanese people like to write off hafu children born back then as “War Children” as if the women were all raped or something. It’s not true… maybe for some but most of those ladies probably fell in love with those American soldiers. Americans are so different from Japanese men back then that they probably got seduced quite easily. They probably loved and left them pregnant. Single mothers everywhere had a stigma at the time, but if they were Japanese kids they wouldn’t have been left by the women as these kids were. Some Japanese people write it off as, “Well who would want the kids of people occupying your city”. Well… frankly, I’ll tell you this… THAT’S BULLSHIT! I don’t care who the father is that’s still that woman’s child. Which means the child is still part of a family… How dare they think its okay to abandon a child because they don’t look exactly the way you want them! That’s sickening.

Frankly, I blame the old Japanese mentality for that. It’s “there” pride that was hurt, not these women, I’m certain most of those mother’s did not want to leave the child or kill it. But because of that old Japanese mentality of needing the purity of the race, these kids were left like trash. This prejudice of being different made these kids’ life a living hell. As if it was there fault for being half… The reason Miki Sawada cared was because she was more cultured, educated and was exposed to America. Not to mention an incident in which she was accused of abandoning a hafu child on a train. It wasn’t hers and she was cleared of all the charges. She tried her best to get those kids adopted in the US, because these kids were the untouchables in Japan.

I understand there mentality… but that doesn’t mean I have to accept it. That’s where I guess I’m different. Just because I understand, it doesn’t mean it’s excusable. I completely believe morality is something people can identify without the help of a higher being. I don’t believe in god and I still know in my gut when something is wrong. Perhaps it’s because I’m not into “group” thinking that I speak out. But frankly, that’s what I hate about Japanese culture at times. They have this weird superiority complex and think that “group” thinking is all great. Frankly, this superiority group thinking is how all those kids got left and how they justify cruelty.

There is this one part of the movie I recall that really got to me… it’s a scene where the mother is telling the half child (probably around 2) to go through the tunnel and see the “new” mommy. “The tunnel of separation” which still exists today at Oiso, Japan, is where the women left to abandon the kids and babies. I walked through that tunnel when I was little and I couldn’t help but cry going through it… because even if I was only 4 years old, I knew the implications of that tunnel. I knew that it was a place where your mom left you and there was nothing you say or do to stop her from leaving…

Frankly, I’m never going to understand how someone could abandon their own child…

Monday, April 2, 2007

Mongolian Spot もうこはん (蒙古斑)

For some reason in Japan, Mongolian spots are important especially when hafu children are concerned.

Mongolian Spot is a birthmark most East Asians get when they are born. It disappears by the time they are about 5. Often thought of as a mark of a Mongol, it’s supposedly a sign that the child is of Mongol decent.

Due to Japanese propaganda most Japanese people think only those of Mongol decent has this mark. (Hence the term “Mongolian Spot”) It’s not true, other ethnic groups can have them, just in a less of a percentage. The reason it's called Mongolian Spot is because East Asians almost always get this blue marking on the body.

This “myth” makes Japanese Families more focused on the fact that some hafu children do not get Mongolian Spots. Apparently, I had it when I was a child and my mother was very happy about it. But this happiness about a blue spot on your butt is a weird Japanese thing.

My mother believes that the Hafu children who are born with Mongolian Spots are more “Asian” than those who are not. Which is stupid, but you’ll be surprised how happy Japanese families (especially grandparents) are when their hafu children get Mongolian spots. It almost makes them think that somehow the child is more them. (My sister who did not get a Mongolian Mark was very popular to advertising firms to do diaper commercials in Japan, but my mother commented that she’s too Caucasian. She almost said in a derogatory way…)

I recall my mother’s friend had a boy and he got a Mongolian Spot and how excited the grandfather was that his grandson had the mark. He was so happy that he stated this whenever he talked about his grandson. Weird considering it’s just a blue mark on the butt.

I guess my main problem with “Mongolian Spots happiness” is the fact that my mother and her friends use it as some sort of marker of their Asian heritage. In a strange case of reinforcing a stereotype, they truly think it makes them more likely to be smarter (like in Math and Science) and more Asian in general.

My sister without the Mongolian Spot wasn’t as good in Math as I was, which I actually liked because she blew the stereotype of all Asians being good in math, but reinforced the idea that my sister was indeed not as Asian in my mother’s mind. I can't imagine how that made my sister feel to be segregated even a little because of a blue spot on the butt. If a full Asian kid didn’t have this mark would his “Asianess” be questioned? Probably not… but as a hafu kid… one is never really treated equal… are we?