「culture」タグアーカイブ

Food on the… floor?

I mentioned before that living in a guest house with many people is like sharing your days and night with your second family.  However, like any family we don’t always see eye to eye on all topics.  One of these occasions is the amount of time allotted to dropped food before it is rendered inedible.  If you were to ask me what the rule is and I were to answer you without really thinking about it I would say, “Ten seconds!”… is that too long?

I decided to do a bit of research on good ol’ Wikipedia, it seems as though 5 seconds is the more common rule with Americans.  Also on Wikipedia, it says that in Russia a similar rule of thumb is:  “Promptly picked up is not considered fallen”.

So, while eating with some house mates I decided to do a little research of my own.  Here are some of the other time limits I found out from different people around the house:

Japan and Taiwan = 3 seconds
Sweden = 5 seconds
French = never heard about such a rule
Denmark = 3 seconds but wanted to make sure I knew it also depended on how clean the floor was (well, duh!)
New Zealand = any amount is okay

But there was one general consensus in the house:

Oak House = 0 seconds.

What can I say, we may be family but we aren’t the best cleaners!  Bon Appetite!

Look at me!

In America, we drive on the right side of the street which results in us walking on the right side of the sidewalk as well.  In Japan, it’s the opposite.  They drive on the left side of the street and walk on the left side of the sidewalk…

… generally.

I threw that little side note on the end because in many places you will find yourself, there are going to be a million other people and bicycles there too.  Therefore, to enforce the walking on the left side of the sidewalk would be next to impossible.  More often than not, people are swerving in and out of this human maze with no visible order yet it all seems to run so smoothly.

Or does it?

I’d say that 80% of the time it does, but the other 20%, when it doesn’t run so smoothly, it  involves me.  On a near daily basis, I have that awkward interaction with Japanese people where you are coming towards each other and neither person can decide which direction to go, which almost inevitably results in a spontaneous do-si-do.  In America, sure this happens but I find that it happens much more in Japan.  I blame this on the lack of eye contact.  No one “speaks” with their eyes.  If they would only look up, they would see me screaming with mine saying, “Go left! Go left!”