| In 1 st of October 2006, Amacho health and welfare fair was held in health care center in Ama The theme of the fair was food education, which has been taken as a serious problem even by the Japanese nation. The intention was to educate the local people about this issue. The counselor from physical education and health insurance division was the chief speaker of the event. In his speech he first explained what food education is. Then talked about how Japanese food culture changed with the social circumstance.
In my perspective, the most important characteristic of Japanese food culture is, they have this two miracle words “Itadakimasu” and“Gochisosama”. It's hard to translate in to English, but having the meaning of thanking for serving this food for me. But I was surprised to hear that, Japanese children are hesitated to say these words because, they are paying for the school lunch. This example shows the deterioration of Japanese food culture. He further explained the affect of convenience store towards the food culture.
Comparing with the food culture in urban cities, I think the food culture here in Ama is much better. It was convinced by the lunch which was prepared by the local grand mothers. The typical foods which you can only find in the island were served in lunch time. There are three main dishes and one vegetable soup, the food made using only very few oil and also using different kinds of vegetables. So the nutrition balance of the meal was so perfect.
So I got the rare opportunity to help those grandmas to prepare food. I was surprised by their abilities to cook food for mass crowd with out loosing the taste. This experience reminds me the importance of eating without left.
After having the lunch, I got chance to participate in decorate Sushi making class. It was the first time for me to see sushi making. We also got chance to make our own Sushi. Having participated for the event, it's left me to think again about my own eating habits. |
