On Saturday one of my friends had a bachelorette party, and for dinner we tried an Asian cuisine restaurant called Fuji Yama. The restaurant had Thai food, Vietnamese food, and of course, Japanese food! I was really excited.
I ordered a beer right away, hoping Asahi was on draft, but settling for Sapporo instead. Then I had the hard choice between eating Thai Prawn Green Curry or Tempura, ultimately going with the tempura.
Some things I was surprised about:
1.) The waiter brought out the miso soup that came with my meal about 5-10 minutes before bringing out the rest of the meal. In Japan, the miso soup is enjoyed at the same time, creating a nice balance of alternating bites of the dish, rice, and a slurp of soup. I waited for the rest of my meal and felt a little sad as my soup got cold.
2.) The serving size was huge! I think there was probably three times as much tempura as you would get in a typical tempura set in Japan (not that I’m complaining). I couldn’t finish it, though it was delicious.
3.) There were some interesting veggie tempura choices that I never had in Japan–namely broccoli and carrot. I did like them, however, and was happy to try them! Does anyone know if that’s an Americanized version of the veggie tempura, or if you can have that in Japan, too?
After dinner, we headed back to my friends house for some of the typical bachelorette party games. One of them required each of the ladies to buy the bride-to-be a pair of panties so that she could guess who they were from. Earlier in the day, I went to a department store to pick some up, and was surprised that there wasn’t any tissue paper at the register to wrap panties! (The cashier was clever enough to go pull some tissue out of a nearby folded shirt.) In Japan, pretty much no matter where you go, there is an option to have things gift wrapped. You can generally choose between a couple types of wrapping paper or bags, ribbons and/or seals. Everything is wrapped very precisely and beautifully, as presentation is very important in Japan.
I found this lovely tutorial (pictured below) on wrapping in the style of Japanese department stores, and am looking forward to trying it next time I need to wrap something!
I have enjoyed looking through the blog that posted the tutorial with the picture above—the blogger lived in Japan for a while, too!
Do you have any interesting or fun ideas for wrapping gifts? I also really like this idea for using confetti, and this one for using newspaper!
Little Snail 
the differences between american and japanese cultures just keeps on surprising you, doesn’t it? you’re probably not expecting it quite so much now that you’ve been back for a few months either. it’s a lot to get used to after being gone for so long. i like the furoshiki (did i spell that right?) technique for wrapping gifts. i’ve used fabric a few times to wrap gifts but i haven’t done anything like that in a while. i might have to check out that blogger for ideas on wrapping gifts in the future.
I do still get surprised a lot! But for as many of the things I miss about Japan, there are a lot of things about America I really missed when I was there 🙂 I have tried the furoshiki wrapping style for bento boxes in the past 😉
I loved how they wrapped everything there! One time I went to the stationery part of a big depato because I wanted to get a rubber stamp with my last name in Kanki (a chop?) I ahd a Japanese friend write my name for them, and I left it off to be made wihile I was there for three weeks. I sure got a strange look when I tried to tell them what I wanted! When I came to pick it up, it was beautifully wrapped. I still use it today to stamp in copies of my books I wrote:)
Wow, that’s really cool! My husband got one of the stamps, too. They’re called hanko, and are necessary for signing pretty much every document (from banking forms to contracts). Since my husband was “head of the household” (Japanese tradition!), I didn’t need one haha
oops it should say Kanji bad typing today!
I like how you post often. I must get better at that!
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Thank you! I try my best, though I can’t be sure how many people are out there reading! I am really happy to see all of your wonderful comments, and check your blog from time to time, too 🙂
Thanks for telling me the correct name -hanko! I think they called chops in Chinese:) No wonder they gave me a weird look when I wanted one since my husband wasn’t with me when I ordered it! I’m thinking maybe not too many Americans get them while on vacation there! haha!