Every summer I spend one or more weeks on professional development. This year I am spending four weeks on a study tour in Japan. This study tour will be building on a course we all took last fall entitled "Cultural Encounters of Japan" which focused on Japan's history in the context of world history. The program is jointly funded by the National Consortium for Teaching Asia (NCTA) and Fulbright-Hays Group Study Tour. The Program for Teaching East Asia at the University of Colorado-Boulder organized the course and the study tour. I have worked with TEA for over ten years, and I was very excited to be able to participate in this program with them.
We arrived Tokyo yesterday, after two rather long days of travel for me. Our first day has included several orientation elements, including different food styles and good meal etiquette, so my first comments are about food.
Flying into a country, the airplane meals always seem to reflect that country's cuisine, but it is still airplane food. So, for example, our first meal on the plane included an option for miso chicken, but it came with an American style salad and dinner roll. For the second meal, dumplings were one of the options. The dumplings were served with noodles and another dinner roll. I just find it odd that culturally appropriate entres are added to typical American-style elements. And I have always wondered why the airlines do this. Is it intended to be a reminder of home for those people who are returning home or as taste of what is to come for those people traveling to that country? I can't imagine these strange hybrid meals succeed, whatever their purpose. Or at least, they have never worked for me in either of those ways.
Tonight, our small groups used the information from orientation to select a style of restuarant to try. All three groups selected yakitori, a style in which the food is placed on skewers and grilled on a charcoal fire. The food was very good at the restaurant my group selected, although the seating arrangement was interesting.
Note that we are seated on the floor and the height of the ceiling. The waiter who drew us into the restaurant was not completely sure we could handle this seating arrangement, but it worked out fine.
We arrived Tokyo yesterday, after two rather long days of travel for me. Our first day has included several orientation elements, including different food styles and good meal etiquette, so my first comments are about food.
Flying into a country, the airplane meals always seem to reflect that country's cuisine, but it is still airplane food. So, for example, our first meal on the plane included an option for miso chicken, but it came with an American style salad and dinner roll. For the second meal, dumplings were one of the options. The dumplings were served with noodles and another dinner roll. I just find it odd that culturally appropriate entres are added to typical American-style elements. And I have always wondered why the airlines do this. Is it intended to be a reminder of home for those people who are returning home or as taste of what is to come for those people traveling to that country? I can't imagine these strange hybrid meals succeed, whatever their purpose. Or at least, they have never worked for me in either of those ways.
After checking into our hotel yesterday evening, we went out for a meal. We ended up at a noodle place, and this was my meal. On the left is tempura chicken and mushroom on rice, and on the right are the noodles. These were hot noodles served in a broth with green onions, seaweed, and another condiment that I did not recognize. It was delicious and far better than what we got on the plane. The most interesting part of this meal was the ordering process.
Outside the door was this machine where we ordered. After inserting the money, the diner selects whichever meal he/she wants and pushes that button. The machine issues a ticket and the change. Then the ticket is turned in to the kitchen. It was a pretty slick system.Tonight, our small groups used the information from orientation to select a style of restuarant to try. All three groups selected yakitori, a style in which the food is placed on skewers and grilled on a charcoal fire. The food was very good at the restaurant my group selected, although the seating arrangement was interesting.
That ordering system is pretty nice. It's a neat idea! I hope you didn't hit your head on the ceiling! Wow!
ReplyDeleteLooks like a great trip so far!