About Me: Why Japan and Food?

“Traveling is an easy way of surrounding ourselves, as in childhood, with what we cannot understand “

Iyer, Pico (2000). ‘Why We Travel’

Travelling has always been a way for me to escape the monotonousness of daily routines; to find something that isn’t just the ‘same’. It is analogous to the feeling that I got as a child when you try food for the first time and don’t know what to expect. For me, travelling means to go on a journey that doesn’t begin until there is no way back. I believe that having no way back is the way to bring yourself into the unknown, to push yourself out of your comfort zone to internalize the experience of being somewhere you have never been.

Pico’s shares similar sentiments to myself, but I also feel that by travelling, you begin to appreciate things that you missed in your home country, that maybe you don’t truly understand your home. It allows me to rediscover places that I have already been and gain a greater understanding of ‘humanity’.

Japan has always been a place I wanted to go. To me, it is one of the most unique countries in the world as despite being a highly developed country, it has a completely different culture to what we have in Australia. This fascination has given me the privilege to meet Japanese people and read about Japan . One thing they always talk about is how the food is very different in Japan and the implications that it has on their way of life. I have realized that Japanese food has crucial connections to how Japanese live their lives and represents their culture in a subtle manner. In this blog I would like to delve deeper into this facet of Japan, the connection of gorgeous food to serene Japanese culture.