taboo!

It happened at a yakiniku restaurant (Korean-style BBQ). One of my friends was trying to separate a piece of meat with her chopsticks before putting it on the grill. I reached out with my chopsticks to grab the other end and help her pull it apart (shaking it around was getting her nowhere). She immediately started saying, "taboo! taboo! taboo!" but the pronunciation was a little off, so I kept saying, "what?" until I finally got it and dropped it. Apparently, two people using chopsticks to pick something up at the same time is a part of a ritual performed at the death of a family member. How come Lonely Planet left that one out??! Here's a website with some more info.

seaweed for easter dinner?

We went to a Japanese Easter church service today and afterwards attended the lunch that had been prepared (where the men and women sat separately). At each place setting was a small bento (boxed lunch) which included an egg salad sandwich, ham sandwich, cold chicken nugget-like balls, a couple cold potato wedges, and yes, seaweed wrapped around rice. We also found wasabi in the sandwiches. It was...interesting. Definitely not my first Easter away from home, and not even my first Easter in another country, but I would have to say that it was the first Easter that I really longed for a "real" Easter dinner.

omoshiroi

Omoshiroi means funny and/or interesting in Japanese. A lot of things here seem to be one of those two things to me. Here's hoping they are to someone else as well!