Changing impression of Japan

    

As being a Japanese, taking this course and writing this blog meant that I had to re-think what Japan is and what the unique aspects of Japan are. The last couple of posts which I had to come up with interesting topics by myself was quite challenging. In the beginning of this course, everything about Japan I could see was not quite interesting enough for me as I have been living in Japan for my entire life.

 If someone asked me in the begging of this course, what are the Japanese culture, what makes Japan interesting place to visit, all I could think of must be the old, traditional aspects of Japan that most people outside of Japan have had enough of. Then, I had to force myself to look into Japan from the outsider point of view. I realized how our culture is a great mixture of the East and the West. Everything I see in my daily life were not quite Japanese but were not quite Western neither.

 And then, when I tried to imagine Japan, I could only see the positive, peaceful and calm Japan in my head. In the latter part of the course, we watched The Cove, The Great Happiness Space and Against Coercion. These two films reminded me of the dark side of Japan and I realized I had been ignoring the negative aspects of Japan.

 Controlling of the media, moral issues, nightlife, night jobs, stressful society, conservative government structure and irrational rules. I started to think that Japan is not as peaceful as it seems to be. We might not feel the downsides of Japan in the daily life but then when I look back on my past, I was always under the pressure of something and was not able to tell or follow my intentions due to this inflexible Japanese society. This course gave me an opportunity to observe my own culture from the outside and to  rethink when I stumble on something that I do not understand well.

Japanese Snack food 2 -Snack food for wait loss-

There is always a stereotype of all Asians being skinny. This is not true. As we often eat western greasy food such as hamburgers and pizza (yum!), people are gaining weight. Especially girls are concerned about their appearance and most people wish to be in fit....or skinnier. Going to a gym is almost like a trend here, not only for young girls but also for middle aged women. Many books on weight loss and work out DVDs are always popular and picked up in TV shows as well.



Since many people are willing to try any possible low calories snack/ sweets, we have uncountable number of them. Low calories cookies, candies, cakes, chips, jelly, drinks, rice, soup, smoothie etc....



Snack food I want to introduce in this blog is "Harusame noodle soup". It looks like noodles but these are made from gelatin (!!). Noodles, pasta, bread....these are all made from wheat which is carbon hydrate, meaning it is the biggest factor of fat. Why not eat gelatin noodles instead of wheat noodles?



There is a always a pile of Harusame noodle soup in my apartment. I usually buy these noodles by ¥100-¥150 yen each. Price varies by flavors and sellers. Sometimes I eat this for breakfast, lunch and even for light supper. Also, when I am hungry at late at night, I do not want to eat heavy food (eating heavy food at night makes you fat...!) so I always choose Harusame noodle soup.



There are so many flavors available at drugstores, supermarkets and convenience stores.

----Introducing Harusame Noodle Soup-----   This is a short clip I made for this blog post. Enjoy!