Will Miss #458 - quieter eating

This was a Chinese meal in Japan. My husband forgot to take a picture until he'd consumed most of it. Usually, we get a shot before we start eating.

There are some things about life in America which I never realized were the case until I was removed from the environment long enough to forget that they were natural. My husband and I ate at a Chinese restaurant in America for the first time since returning and I was taken aback by how noisy his eating seemed to be in terms of clanking his fork and spoon on the porcelain plates. I asked him to try not to do that, then I listened and figured out that everyone in the restaurant was doing the same thing. In fact, it was difficult not to scoop kung pao chicken from the serving dish to the dinner plate without scraping the dish with the spoon (and they didn't offer chopsticks). Eating in America due to the types of utensils and dishes is a much more cacophonous affair.

I never realized how much quieter it is eating in Japan with chopsticks and/or lacquerware bowls and plates and I miss it. 

Won't Miss #118 - "can you use chopsticks?"

When Japanese people don't know I've been here for a long time, they tend to ask, "can you use chopsticks?" I'm pretty sure that they don't know how condescending this question comes across as, but their lack of awareness doesn't make this question any less irritating. It is essentially like me asking a Japanese person if they can use a knife and fork properly. While it can be marginally tricky at first to eat with chopsticks, it's hardly an amazing feat of dexterity.

I won't miss being asked if I am capable of using two sticks to shovel food into my mouth.