Questions:
1. What do you think of Japanese food?
2. What do you think of the importance of eating healthy foods?
3. Do you like to take a bento to school or eat in the cafeteria?
4. Do you eat out often?
5. Does your family eat meals together?
6. What kinds of things influence your eating habits?

Yu's Thoughts on Food

1. I eat Japanese style food most of the time, so I can't eat oily fast food like McDonalds, french fries, and grilled meat very often (they are nice once in a while, but not everyday!) Japanese food is not oily. Japanese food is not particularly my favorite; it's just what we always have. When you eat it every day, it's reassuring and tastes good. It's good for peace of mind.

2. My mother chooses ingredients and plans our meals with the family's health foremost in mind. When I was young, I had food allergies. My mother had to be careful not to serve me anything with artificial additives and certain other ingredients. Even today, she seldom uses frozen foods. I also take vitamin C tablets prescribed to me when my face breaks out. I don't know if it is good to take nutritional supplements more often than necessary and it's probably not good to use them as a substitute for real food.

Yu's mother says: "Three months after Yu was born, she developed a strong allergy to milk and I had to choose her food very carefully. For example, in order to avoid artificial additives, I made dashi (soup stock) from scratch, using niboshi (dried sardines), kelp, bonito flakes, and shrimp shell. Now, the children have gotten older and I have less control over what they eat. Our staple food is mainly white rice, but we also eat kibigohan (rice mixed with praso millet), rice cooked with red beans, and rice mixed with foxtail millet. I often serve fish and vegetables as side dishes. Since Yu cannot drink milk, I have to find other ways to include calcium in her diet."

3. I like taking a bento rather than buying lunch at school. Bento are delicious. My mother doesn't put in anything that I don't like, like carrots. She gets up a little earlier than the rest of us to make my lunch.

4. I like to eat out at fast food places like McDonald's, sometimes. But if I ate there every day, I think I'd get sick of it. I think eating something from McDonald's about twice a week as a treat is just about right. It's quite oily.

5. My father doesn't get back until about eight o'clock, so the three of us go ahead and eat. After dinner, we have tea and fruit for dessert, while watching TV. This is our family time, which we usually spend together talking and exchanging news.

6. We eat whatever my mother serves. We have always eaten three meals a day since I was a child. That was part of our training as children. I personally like to take my time with meals. When I meet someone new, I like to eat with him or her because it gives me a chance to really understand what the person is like. You get to know people better that way.

Kanta's Thoughts on Food

1. In general, I prefer Japanese-style food. I like pickled vegetables, tofu, and rice. I love rice most of all. I like sashimi. When I was a child, sashimi was a luxury, and I always wished I could eat more.

2. I'm not really interested in health foods. Health foods (performance-enhancing foods) kind of put me off because they are too healthy. I don't think it's wholesome to be too worried about healthy foods and eat things only because they are good for you.

3. I try to take bento to school as much as possible to save money.

4. I don't like to eat out because it's expensive. I don't especially like or dislike fast food.

5. My family likes parties, so we take advantage of every occasion--birthdays, Father's Day, Mother's Day, Christmas, Hinamatsuri (Doll's Day)--at least ten times a year--to have parties. I really like it when our family gathers. When we have gatherings of my sisters and their kids now and then its really lots of fun.

6. The three biggest influences on my eating habits are, first, money; second, my lifestyle (I often eat late at night when only convenience stores are open); and third, the things I like to eat. But if someone invites me out to eat, I don't insist on my preferences.

Michi's Thoughts on Food

1. If you ask me which I like better, meat or fish, I would have to say I like fish better. I like Japanese-style food, but I also love cheese! I especially like camembert and smoked cheese. I also love sweets, but I prefer old-fashioned Japanese sweets, like dorayaki and dango, to packaged snacks. I don't like ikura (salmon roe); I don't like the sensation when the roe bursts in your mouth and the liquid runs out. Also, I can't eat spicy condiments like mustard or wasabi. I even have the wasabi left out of my sushi. I can't eat things that are really piping hot either; I love gratin but I have to wait for it to cool off before I can eat it.

2. I don't think it is necessary to take vitamin supplements and such unless it's really necessary for medical reasons. I think it is more important to eat a balanced diet every day.

3. Our usual lunch are o-bento (box lunches) that we all bring with us. The dormitory cooks prepare o-bento for those of us who live on campus. They leave the o-bento for us at the entrance of the school building, and as soon as fourth hour ends, we first-year students burst out of the classroom and carry the o-bento to the multipurpose hall for distribution to the dormitory students. It's a matter of course that the older students get theirs first. After eating, we take our empty o-bento boxes back to the hall by 12:55, where the first-year students collect them and put them back at the entrance. After that, almost every day I buy a can of coffee at the school shop.

4. There is no McDonald's and no ramen shop nearby and I usually don't eat out at all. Even though there is a McDonald's near home in Ichikawa, I rarely go there to eat. If you only go once in a while, it's quite good. If I had it every day, I'm sure I'd get sick of it.

5. Usually my parents and I eat together on Saturdays when I am at home. When my older sister is either not at home or prefers to eat by herself in her room, and my younger sister is out because she has basketball practice, I eat with my mother and father while we talk about all kinds of things.

6. Because all my food is prepared for me when I am in Shibecha (at my high school), I naturally pick the foods I like when I can choose what to eat, . [At home,] when I go food shopping for dinner, I know how to think about both the cost and about preparing a well-balanced meal.

Cf. Caption SM-D01: The first-year students gather at the dining hall at about 6:50. We're responsible for distributing the dishes on the individual trays for each person's serving. When all the students are assembled, we have roll-call. It's the custom for all the dormitory students to say "itadakimasu" and "gochisosama" together in unison. The "gochisosama" comes about 15 minutes after we start to eat, so you have to eat quickly." To be honest, I would like to eat slower. After we finish, the two teachers in charge of the dormitories usually say a few words, mostly reminders and matters of business. Cleaning up afterward is also the job of the first-year students. We stack the dishes, collect the leftovers and carry them to the counter where the women in the kitchen stand ready to wash up.

Shun'ichi's Thoughts on Food

1. What? Food? I have never really thought about it... anyway, I'm happy if my stomach is full... in a way. Basically, I eat anything. What are my favorite foods: Stir-fried vegetables. My mother makes that a lot, and my aunt, with whom I live with now, also makes it often. Now and again, I even make it myself. I especially eat a lot of stir-fried cabbage--it's the best. I prefer vegetables to meat and fish. I eat fish and meat depending on how I feel. But vegetables I can eat every day without ever getting tired of them, no matter how I feel. I also like salad.

2. I never think about whether certain foods are good for me or not. There are some foods I don't like (I eat whatever is served), like winter squash, it has a dry and pasty texture and is hard to swallow. I don't like fish with spiky parts, like irabucha (a species of sea bream), the popular Okinawan fish gurukun, and konbu (salt-sweet simmered kelp).

3. I kind of like bento. Really, I'd like to eat some fancier types of food, like steak. I think my school lunches are probably pretty typical--they are neither really good nor bad. I like a bento made of curry and rice with a deep-fried pork cutlet. I also eat a lot of pork and eggs. I like to eat meat at lunchtime. Because I don't eat breakfast, I get really hungry. But for supper I don't want anything oily.

4. I don't eat out often. I am allergic to shrimp, crab, and squid. I think they taste good, but my skin gets itchy if I eat them. Too bad, that means I also can't eat the fresh crayfish and spiny lobster that are so abundant in this area . . .

5. Foods that are commonly served in my family include stir-fried vegetables, especially stir-fried cabbage. We also eat a lot of fish my father catches, prepared in either tempura or sashimi style, and shigai (a type of octopus) as sashimi. My father also catches a lot of lobster. Lobster are expensive in Tokyo, but in Izena, they are just there for the catching. We eat pork, too. My aunt, with whom I live now, makes a lot of stir-fry vegetables and ramen. When there was not much in the refrigerator, we would just have stir-fried vegetables, and tamago gohan (rice covered with fresh raw egg).

6. I really don't like traditional Okinawan food much, but that's okay because we only have it once in a while. My mother makes foods like goyachanpuru (stir-fried squash, egg, and tofu), fuchyanpuru (stir-fried o-fu soup bread, nira, egg, mung-bean sprouts, etc.), pork and egg, roast pork, and jushi (rice cooked with meat and vegetables); occasionally she makes soba noodles, or tempura using asa (a type of seaweed) and mozuku (a sea vegetable). I like fuchyanpuru and jushi, and the other foods are all right. We eat Okinawan food mainly when we visit my grandmother's house and on New Year's Day, when we eat foods like tebichi (boiled pigs feet) and rafute (savory stewed pork). Other people in Okinawa probably eat these kinds of foods if their grandparents live with them, but probably not very often. The biggest influence on what I eat is my lifestyle. I don't have a set time when I eat. I eat when I want to. If I am hungry, I eat. I eat until I am full, without caring much about what foods I eat. I eat what I like to eat. I eat foods that make me full quickly.

Kojiro's Thoughts on Food

1. If you ask me whether I like Japanese style or Western style food better, I would say Western style, but I love rice. Bread is also good, but I am used to rice and like it better. I like Chinese food, especially spicy Szechuan. I have a phobia about slugs, and I don't eat shellfish because it reminds me of slugs. People say I have a good sense of taste.

2. I do take vitamin C and other vitamins now and then. I get canker sores easily and vitamin C cures them quickly. I don't have a very good image of health foods or performance-enhancing foods. They may be all right now and then, but I don't really like them.

3. I prefer bento to eating in the cafeteria. The school cafeteria is always crowded and with a bento I can just stay where I am and eat. My mother knows what I like in my lunches.

4. I like McDonald's and eating at ramen shops. Because I don't have a lot of money, I sometimes just eat a cheeseburger. Sometimes I just order something to keep company with my friends. None of my classmates dislike eating at McDonald's.

5. Since I have to eat my evening meal by myself, on days I attend juku classes at night, I guess I've gotten to be a lot like my father. As long as I can remember, my father has not been present at family meals, except on holidays. I think it's funny that I am like my father. I don't think it is a bad thing and it is not every day I have to eat alone.

6. I often eat sara udon and chanpon noodles. When I was in Nagasaki, this was the kind of thing they usually served, but since I have come to Kobe, I eat these less frequently (the noodles for sara udon and chanpon are not always available in Kobe). I miss eating these dishes.

Takayuki's Thoughts on Food

1. I like meat, but maybe because my family owns a fish store, I like fish more. I love any kind of sashimi.

2. The portions of food at school. They serve a lot of deep-fried dishes. I take protein tablets to build up my body bulk and to nourish my muscles, and because the coach of the football team recommended them. Now I keep on taking them for other reasons. I try to be careful of my food intake. Everyday, I eat around 4,800 calories: three meals without fail everyday and a light snack after practice.

3. I prefer bento to eating in the school cafeteria. I bring bento about twice a week. The food my mother makes is the best.

4. I don't eat out much. If I don't have football practice, I might eat out. I love junk food but I have to manage my diet so I don't eat it very often.

5. My family always used to get together on Sundays and on holidays to eat together. When I eat with my family, the food is really delicious.

6. My family is the strongest influence on my eating habits. The other influence is that I have to manage my diet and eat a lot to keep in good form for football practice.

Yoo Jin's Thoughts on Food

1. Recently, I realized how much I love rice.

2. I generally don't have any likes or dislikes when it comes to food (we were brought up that way). The food my mother makes seems very good for us, so I have no problems with what I am served. I guess it's okay to eat performance-enhancing foods if you don't have time or are under pressure, but I don't like them myself.

3. My mother makes me bento with special rice balls and something on the side. I prefer bento to cafeteria food.

4. Sometimes my friends and I go out to McDonalds, fast food restaurants, or ramen shops. I go along because in places like that we can sit for a long time, chat, and snack on inexpensive food, but not because I especially like the food itself.

5. The biggest influence on my eating habits is my mother's cooking. I like vegetables, meat, fish, and pretty much anything. Since I was brought up to be able to eat everything I was served, I can eat almost anything now. I feel bad for people who are picky eaters because they miss out on some really good food. After all, food plays a really important role in our lives! I can eat anything and I think I am lucky because I can enjoy good foods more than most people. I like everything I eat now--Korean and Japanese--and I hope to continue eating this way in the future too. I don't make special effort to eat something because it's Korean or Japanese food, I just eat what I like. When we have ceremonial occasions or special feast days, we often go to Tsuruhashi, a predominately Korean community in the area, to buy special ingredients. Since I was born in Japan, almost everything and everyone around me was always Japanese, the programs on TV and the radio, the students at my kindergarten and elementary school, and so on. So school and things outside my home are "Japanese." But at home, we speak Korean, follow Korean customs, and have been brought up according to Korean thinking. Thus, my home is "Korean." This is my natural lifestyle. To tell the truth, I'm not really conscious in my daily life of myself as either Korean or Japanese. It is really hard to explain, but it comes quite naturally for me to be living a life in two different cultures.

cf. About Kimchi--Kimchi is served with every meal. We have two refrigerators now, and one is used specifically to store the kimchi. Naturally we customarily eat Korean food. These days many Japanese families have stopped eating traditional pickled vegetables (o-tsukemono) with every meal as was once the custom, but for my family's meals, having kimchi--and there are various kinds--is as natural as having something to drink. There are also days when we eat Japanese-style, with rice, miso soup, grilled fish, and such, but we always have kimchi with it too!