journey, culture, harmony

Talk about Japan, of course I had to talk about Japanese food. Through food, I could understand a country’s culture. When I got a chance to stay in ryokan (Japanese-style hotel) in Miyajima Island, Hiroshima, I and my friends went to a big hall to have dinner in Japanese style and to eat Japanese food. There was a small table in front of me and some kinds of foods for one person in an orderly position. The form and order of that foods was very good and amazing. The funny thing was when I saw a small food and the colour was sweet pink, I thought that it was a dessert. Then I ate it. I was very shocked because that food was made from fish and it wasn’t a dessert, but a main course. I remembered my thesis’ advisor in the university said that Japanese is very careful about form and order rather than taste. They give priority to good surface form and don’t like something too much, include taste of food. Beside food, a Japanese drink that made me impressed during my stay in Japan was matcha (Japanese green tea). The order of chanoyu (tea ceremony in Japan) was very difficult, but it was fulled with beauty and deep philosophy. The taste of matcha was very bitter, but fortunately we could eat a small piece of wagashi (Japanese sweets). After having an experience of chanoyu in Japan, I realized that Japanese give priority to simplicity. But, behind all the simplicity there is harmony between human and nature that surround them. For example, eating wagashi between a bitter matcha is one of harmony between sweetness and bitterness, so is human life. There is sweetness and bitterness in human life. Then, seeing beautiful tea bowl that is matched with the season at that time is one of form to understand harmony between human themselves with the nature surround them. Harmony (wa in Japanese) is one of a philosophy in Japan that emerged clearly in chanoyu, Buddha Zen, and so on. I can conclude that eating isn’t just something routine that we do daily without any special meaning, but through food itselves we can understand a country’s culture and their deep philosophy, more understand the culture of our own country, know the difference between both of them, not to oppose it, but to be a good lesson for ourselves that can enrich ourselves and open our mind. A lesson that can bring us into understanding about harmony and balance in diversity. There is a deep meaning behind a food that worth understanding.