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Guess and check dining in Japan
My eyes carefully scanned the row of triangular sushi snacks arranged on the refrigerated shelf of the Japanese 7-11. Two days before, I had tried the one whose wrapping sported a red border and a Chinese character that looked like a radiator. It had turned out to be stuffed with some sort of small, orange fish roe. I've never been a fan of roe, and that day, I learned to stop buying sushi with red-bordered packaging. The day before, I had tried the one whose wrapping had a green border and a vertical row of three pointy Chinese characters. After biting through the outer layer of rice, I had discovered that it was stuffed with some sort of green vegetable. This time, I opted for one with a thin blue border and a long set of Japanese characters across the front. I carried it to the cashier and silently shelled out 105 yen, bowing ever-so-slightly so the cashier didn't confuse me with one of the many clueless foreigners populating the city of Tokyo. The 7-11 cashier probably thought I was either crazy or had what may be the world's most boring hobby - sampling the culinary wares of local convenience stores, one-by-one. I stepped out onto the street, and peeled the wrapping from the triangular ball of sushi. I prepared to take my first bite. What was it? Octopus? Eggs? Fermented soybeans? After a few weeks of living in Japan, nothing came as a surprise anymore. Before I left America, I taught myself one of the three Japanese scripts that make up the written language: the cursive script known as hiragana. I reasoned that, by knowing one-third of the Japanese scripts, I would be able to read about one-third of everything I saw. Unbeknownst to me, many Japanese words contain one or more kanji. Kanji are basically characters of Chinese origin that are used in written Japanese (it's one of the other scripts in the Japanese writing system; the last one being katakana, although Japanese writing may also include Roman letters and other symbols). Of the many thousands of kanji that exist, you need to know about 2,000 before you can begin to comfortably read a newspaper or magazine. Hence most foreigners in Japan, even those proficient in the spoken language, are at a loss when it comes to written Japanese. Also, it turns out that hiragana is mostly used for writing particles and suffixes, so when I look at printed Japanese, all I see is "the something is something from something to something," or "because of something, something is something." Which leads me back to my purchase: I bit into the mystery sushi, and was surprised to find it was stuffed with what tasted like tuna salad - tuna and mayonnaise. It was tangy, flavorful, and surprisingly delicious. I polished off the entire thing within a few bites and made a mental note - blue borders are good. On this day, the law of averages had worked in my favor. Eat enough random foods and logic demands that you will, at some point, find one that you like. I guess that until I learn kanji, the war may still be lost. I may someday buy what looks like a sports drink but, upon chugging, turns out to be bleach - but, today, guess and check dining prevailed. - Dan V. (New York, NY) Tags: hiragana, Japan, Japanese writing, kanji, newsletter, story, sushi
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