日本語二百二　　　　　　　　　　　　　　文化

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Practices:

During lab this quarter Takumi Yuasa (our TA) taught us about Japanese new year. In Japan the new years festival, お正月, is celebrated in many different ways.

お正月時に色々な食べ物を食べます。としこしそばを食べます。としこしそばは長いのそばです。としこしそばはれんぞくせいとちょうじゅをあらわします。お正月時によく日本人が着物を着ます。お正月時に多いな人が神社へ行くのためにいのります。元日になる時に人々が神社の門をつうかします。元日の朝におせち料理を作ります。おせち料理はとくべつの新年の食べ物。

Another thing that I think that is done on new years is dipping fish eggs in egg and eating them for health, I am not too sure on this one however. I had some trouble with this because I wasn't paying complete attention while Takumi was presenting. Takumi did a very good job, drawing pictures and repeating things multiple times, so I did get some things from the presentation. Overall I am displeased with my listening skills. I often feel like I am listening too slowly and I fall behind in what is being said, but if I don't listen intently enough I only get the general idea of what is being said. I feel like some of the things I stated here may be wrong or misinterpreted because of this gap. In terms of a learning experience, if nothing else i learned about お正月. I learned also that religion, in this case Shinto, still factors into Japanese culture despite the fact that most japanese are ambiguous about most religious matters.

Products:

Under products I have decided to write about my favorite food, that is すし. Sushi making in Japan is very traditional and to be considered an official sushi chef requires years of training. However this does not mean that one cannot make sushi themselves. All that is really needed is some kind of seafood and rice. personally I find sushi to be quite delicious (especially the wasabi), but some people are grossed out by the fact that it is raw. I'm not exactly sure of the risk invovled in eating self-prepared sushi, but I know if it is prepared correctly sushi is actually quite healthy.

すしでなま魚とごはん。色々しゅるいのすしがあります。まきずしとにぎりずしとてまきずしがあります。まきずしを作ることにまきすを作ります。まきすを使うことにたけを作ります。まきすをつくるためにまきずしをまきます。にぎりずしを作ることにごはんのかたまりの上になま魚にあつりょをかけります。てまきずしがおもしろいです。てまきずしは looks like an ice cream cone です。

Sushi is indeed my favorite food, and now I know more about the different types of sushi, so I will know, not only what to expect when I go to Japan, but I will know more when ordering (or making even) sushi in America. I found this assignment irritating becuase of my lack of knowlege of grammatical structures. Of course this is to be expected becuase I can articulate myself in english so I would want to do the same in Japanese.