Being a Good Sport by Molly Hakes
Traveling is exciting, but can also be exhausting. There are times when you may feel that you need a break from sitting on the floor or just want to be left alone to enjoy the view. Your patience is likely to run thin when it comes to food, especially meals prepared in festival times.
Festivals are a great way to get a glimpse of Japanese traditions. Traditional clothing, food, hairstyles, and customs all reveal themselves during festivals. Attend enough festivals in Japan and you will start to see patterns in these customs, especially where food is concerned.
Boiled vegetables, kelp, and toofu, arranged artfully on large platters can be found sitting next to equally attractive trays of futomaki (fat sushi rolls) with iridescent ingredients. Hot or cold soba noodles (depending on the season), only-for-special-occasions-sekihan (mochi rice cooked with adzuki beans, topped with black sesame seeds and salt), sashimi (sliced raw fish), and local delicacies like igoneri (a kind of seaweed gelatin) may also adorn the tables.
For guests with a sweet tooth there are milk kanten (another gelatin-type dish), kurumi yookan (sweet walnut candy), and, of course, daifuku (sticky rice cakes with sweet bean jam inside). Your host may fill a plate for you, or simply hand you a pair of chopsticks and let you fend for yourself:
Doozo, o-agari kudasai.
Please, help yourself.
Aside from being used for entering a home and getting out of the bath, the verb agaru is also a polite way to invite someone to eat or drink. The example above uses the honorific version in its root form, but you can also say:
Doozo, tekitoo ni meshi agatte kudasai.
Please take it easy and join us for a meal.
Meshi can mean “cooked rice” or “a meal,” depending on the circumstances. The same goes for the word gohan. It can refer to rice or the whole meal itself. O-kome is the term used for rice before it has been cooked and when it is still in the paddy.
