julsnavarrete-blog

[julsnavarrete-blog]

Hi my name is Juls and I’m from the Philippines! Welcome to my Blog! :)

One day...

I’ve always wanted to go to Japan ever since I was little. My dad would introduce me to a lot of anime and we would watch them during the weekends. Some of them included Yu Yu Hakusho, Naruto, Initial D, Inuyasha, and many more that I’m unable to name now because I’ve forgotten their names. (Although if I saw them again on TV, I’m sure I’d be able to recognize them!) This all began when I was still in grade school and till this day, we still take the time to bond over watching anime and other shows when we’re both not busy with work. Watching anime growing up, it always fascinated me how drawings could relay such meaningful and complex stories and another thing I’ve noticed is that there’s no other medium that can portray such complexity like anime can. The story lines, characters, and places that I would see in anime would always amaze me and I would immediately associate it with Japan. When I was younger, I thought Japan was a place where Pokemon and actual ninjas existed but as I grew older, i realized that unfortunately that wasn’t really the case. Despite that, my fascination with Japan never really ceased or lessened but rather it didn’t even stop from there. I continued to be curious about the culture and the way the Japanese lived. I remember going to this Japanese restaurant with my family wherein I was bursting with excitement because we were seated at this table wherein we were told to dine in a sort of kneeling position. It was so new and unfamiliar to me that I was so excited to follow what the waiters said and eat dinner that way. Unfortunately, I’ve never really had the opportunity to go but, if given the chance, Japan would definitely be the first in my list of countries i want to visit!

Japanese Food

Despite not being able to go to Japan, one thing about Japan that has reached me tremendously would be there cuisine. There are no words that can describe how delicious yet complex Japanese food is. We have the very popular sushi, ramen, tonkatsu, sashimi, tempura dishes that most Filipinos crave ever so often. Having said this, I attended this talk on food tourism during the 16th Annual International Conference on Japanese Studies in Ateneo (My university here in the Philippines) that somehow gave me a glimpse on what it would be like to eat in Japan, specifically in Tokyo. A talk entitled “Mapping a Tokyo culinary neighborhood:  artisanal work and the creation of a culinary community” conducted by James Ferrer allowed me to realize how diverse the food scene is in Tokyo. According to him, Tokyo has a lot of small eateries that are usually very tiny, some serving only up to 12 customers at most. As Field Work for his research, he went to investigate these eateries and the employees who work in them. He looked into their working habits, their lives, dreams and their overall experience working in these food ways. Aside from this, he also takes into account the feedback of the customers and the overall customer experience in these areas. In a nutshell, James observed the community that persists in these narrow, but lively food ways. He described how a variety of cuisines have sprung up in these areas. I remember he showed us a video he took as he walking through one of the food ways he visited and he was able to show the audience small eateries that serve a variety of cuisines such as Indian, Italian, and many others. James emphasized that such closed space has broken many social barriers for those who dine in these places. It amazes me how despite the location being in Japan, it was still able to open itself to other cuisines and at the same time bring justice to them. Hopefully one day, I’ll be able to experience the diversity of these areas when I get to visit Japan in the future.