JapanUp! magazine

The Ultimate Table Manner Taboo If you are eating at a nice restaurant in Los Angeles, there is one universal rule of table manners: do not make noises with your mouth. Slurping your soup or loudly sucking up spaghetti is considered incredibly rude, childish, and unappetizing to everyone around you. But if you step into a traditional Soba (buckwheat noodle) or Ramen shop in Tokyo, you will be hit with a massive culture shock. The restaurant will be filled with a loud, aggressive symphony of people slurping their noodles as loudly as humanly possible. In Japan, slurping isn’t just acceptable;…

The American Bakery vs. Japanor If you walk into a traditional American bakery, you generally expect to find sweet treats: frosted donuts, chocolate croissants, muffins, and cookies. Bread is mostly treated as a side dish, a plain vessel for a sandwich, or toast for breakfast. But if you step into a neighborhood bakery in Japan, you will discover a completely different culinary universe. While they do have sweet pastries, the absolute stars of the shelves are “Sozai Pan” (Savory Bread). These are hearty, baked buns stuffed to the absolute limit with full-sized, savory hot meals. They are essentially portable lunchboxes…