Writing POC 101

Japanese Characters - @rodens

Hey everyone, it's Norika here ( @rodens ), and although there are already two chapters on Japanese characters, I thought maybe I could contribute by talking about the basic aspects of everyday life as a person living in Japan. Of course, this might not apply to every single person in Japan, but I'll try to include a variety of options under each subject. I'll be covering detailed topics on food, social media, hangout places, and pop culture!

1. F O O D

Japanese people have the highest life expectancies, and one of the reasons behind that is probably because they properly eat their three meals, and in quite a filling portion as well. I'll provide a couple of examples for each meal.

Breakfast

The most traditional Japanese breakfast would be white rice in a "chawan", or tea bowl, miso soup in an "owan", or bowl, and "tsukemono", which is just preserved vegetables ("takuan" and pickled cucumbers are my favourite). Grilled fish like salmon, and egg rolls called "tamagoyaki" can also be served in a traditional Japanese breakfast. "Natto" (fermented beans) is also pretty common to have for breakfast (you put the beans on rice).

Another example would be toast. The toppings would be the same as a typical American toast, usually with margarine, jam, or whatever else there is to put on a slice of toast. Be careful, though, if you're character is making toast, don't say they pop the bread in the toaster! A lot of Japanese households have toaster ovens instead of a regular toaster.

The last time I was in Japan, I was on a diet half the time there, so I usually ate yogurt for breakfast. What's different about some Japanese yogurts is that usually you can buy them in little cups and they're very dense!!

Cereal isn't commonly eaten for breakfast, but I've seen like little cups of instant cereal in Japanese grocery stores, but not the big box cereals you can get in bulk. Fruit is very rarely eaten for breakfast, since a piece of fruit like an apple can cost more than a couple of dollars.

My grandfather likes to drink "ao-jiru" (kale juice) after his meals, and although it tastes sort of nasty, a lot of people drink it for their health. People also drink milk during their meals. A lot of kids and adults drink "yakult", which is sort of like a yogurt drink which is beneficial for your digestive system.

Lunch

I guess it depends who your character is (a high school student? a parent?), but most people aren't home for lunch. A lot of people pack "bento"s, which are lunchboxes. A bento can have a lot of different things, but rice is the main carb, and there's "okazu" (little side dishes) in the box like tamagoyaki, steamed vegetables, sausages, meatballs, spaghetti, potato salad, etc. (My mom used to make a bento for me to take to school everyday, even though I live in Canada.)

If your character is at home, it's usually some sort of side dish served with rice. Or, it could be some sort of noodle dish instead, like ramen, soba, or somen. I won't be able to go in depth with all these different types of noodles but they're all commonly eaten! Look them up if you want to know the differentiation.

If your character is planning to buy a lunch, the cheapest option would be to go to a convenience store and buy a savoury bread (such as "yakisoba-pan", curry bread, etc.), "onigiri" (rice balls), instant ramen (the employees can serve you hot water), something from their hot display case (fried chicken, corn dogs, "oden", etc.), or something from their refrigerated section (noodles, sushi, etc.).

If you're character is going out to eat with friends, I'm going to cover a list of common places to dine later.

Snacks

At home, snacks vary from household to household. There's a saying in Japan called the "three o'clock snack", so I guess it wouldn't be strange if I said snacks are typically eaten at three o'clock.