Authentic Voices:
Conversations on Food and Agriculture

In the early 1970s, Hiroko Kajimura and Yasuko Munekata relocated with their scientist husbands and families to Tsukuba Science City, located approximately 30 miles northeast of Tokyo. Before moving to Tsukuba, they both experienced living overseas with their families—Mrs. Kajimura in Westchester County, New York, and Mrs. Munekata in Heidelberg, Germany. Mrs. Kajimura is the mother of two grown children and a longtime volunteer teaching Japanese to foreign researchers and their families at Tsukuba University. Mrs. Munekata is the mother of three grown children, a grandmother, and leader of various Catholic church volunteer groups in Tsukuba.

1. Thoughts on Natural Foods, Beef, and Food Safety

2. More on Beef

3. Importance of Rice in Everyday Life

Larzalere: We've talked about rice. In the same way, how do you view bread? Is bread a Japanese food?

Mrs. K: Yes, I think so. I especially like bread in the morning for breakfast. So did my children. So bread was a regular part of our daily diet. But when my children grew up and went off to Tokyo to study and talked with their friends, they realized that it wasn't so commonplace to eat bread for breakfast. Although, I heard from someone that in the Osaka and Kobe area bread is very popular. But not so much in the Tokyo area.

Mrs. M: Kobe is very famous for their bakeries. Very good German bakeries--people come from all over just to buy the baked goods there.

L: What do you think of places like McDonald's?

Mrs. K: It's for young people. I've been to McDonald's but not recently.

Mrs. M: When our children were young, we used to go to places like McDonald's.

L: What did you think of McDonald's?

Mrs. M: For the children, it was the thing to do. It was fashionable to go to McDonald's for American food.

L: Have such fast food places changed table manners in Japan?

Mrs. K: Since we sip the drinks through a straw and eat the food with our hands, it doesn't feel like we are eating a meal. It's like between eating a meal and a dessert--a snack.

L: How do your children feel about places like McDonald's now? Since they are now parents themselves?

Mrs. M: My daughter mentioned that places like "Mos Burger"[Japanese fast food chain], compared to McDonald's, is safer--although it's more expensive to eat there. The beef and vegetables are better at this Japanese fast food restaurant.

L: What do you think is Japanese food?

Mrs. K: We have classic Japanese food. Perhaps, people nowadays don't cook in such a regimented way. We gather from all over the world--different ways to cook and use various ingredients--cuisine from China, Europe, from the U.S., and from Thailand and India too. So--to answer your question--I can't say what is purely Japanese cuisine. It's all mixed up.

Mrs. M: Well, I guess sushi can be seen as a Japanese food.

Mrs. K: Or sukiyaki [thinly striped slices of beef and other ingredients cooked in a soy sauce broth] is a Japanese food. But we don't eat it that much--around once or twice a month.

L: When you lived abroad, did you go to Japanese restaurants?

Mrs. M: I ate a lot of Chinese food.

Mrs. K: Japanese restaurants were very expensive. Chinese restaurants were not so expensive. And we could find Chinese restaurants anywhere. So it was comforting to us. I don't remember going to any Japanese restaurants when I lived in the U.S.

Mrs. M: I thought that the Japanese food tasted a little different.

L: How was it different?

Mrs. M: The cut of the meat was different. For example—gyûdon--the meat in this dish was not sliced as thinly, and different vegetables were used. When I was in Minnesota, just last year, I was surprised at the number of Asian restaurants there and that such foods as sushi were considered an everyday American kind of food.

L: Sushi is available, even at the University of Kansas.

Mrs. K: You mean with nori [seaweed] and everything? That's interesting. I'm surprised that such foods as sushi are so common on college campuses in the United States.

L: It was enlightening to talk with you today about food in Japan. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your thoughts with us.