2007年5月9日水曜日

Japan we see from abroad

I came to the United States from Japan the end of March two years ago. Since I came here, I became to like Japan more. I became interested in Japan more. Of course, I found the parts I do not like in Japan. Including that, I think Japan is a good country.
When foreigners, I mean people who are not Japanese, think of Japan, what do they imagine first? I guess, it is sushi. I was very surprised that there are many sushi restaurants. Even in Japan, I do not think I can find so many sushi restaurants. It might be because the place where I live is kind of countryside. However, every sushi restaurants have the same qualities as sushi restaurants in Japan. It might be difficult to find really good sushi restaurants. I found sushi restaurants whose owner is Korean or Chinese. That happens because it is much easier to become a sushi chef than becoming a sushi chef in Japan. I have a friend who is a sushi chef. He train himself to become a sushi chef in Japan. He said that his master never let him touch fishes for the first five years. He just had to clean in a restaurant, prepare for cooking and odd jobs. And after his master allowed him to touch them, finally he could begin to learn sushi.
And I was also surprised that teriyaki is very popular here. Actually teriyaki is not so popular in Japan. But here, if they think of Japanese food, they imagine teriyaki such as teriyaki chiken, teriyaki beef and so on. It is very funny and interesting for me. I do not know how teriyaki was introduced to the United States. But I think that teriyaki is going to get more popular.
Japan is an island country. That is why, it was hard to convey foreign information from abroad. They used to close the country. I think Japan is still an isolate country. Of course, nowadays it is said that we live in an international age. Even so, I feel that Japanese people's thinking is isolate a little bit. Therefore, we should go abroad at least once and learn how big the world is.
Every countries have both good and bad points. We should build on the strengths and remedy the defects by comparing with other countries.

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