Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with gift and japanese

Gifts for Japanese Families?

bassooner — Sun, 03 May 2009 21:03:46 -0800

What are some good gifts for Japanese families? Also, are there any cultural taboos that I should be particularly sure to avoid breaking while staying in Japan? I'm a twenty-year old male American college student. This summer, my college's band will be doing a tour of Japan and China. The Japan section of the tour involves a number of homestays with Japanese families (either three or four stays). The stays are being arranged through local schools in the cities we're performing in, so our only information about the families are that they'll have at least one child between the ages of 6 and 18. What kinds of gifts should I be bringing to give to the families?

I've done a couple of similar tours in Western Europe, as well as spent a semester studying in Ghana while living with a host family, so I'm fairly comfortable with the guest/host intercultural dynamic. However, I'm not all that familiar with Japanese culture/language. Is there anything I should be especially careful to avoid doing or saying? (e.g., while in Ghana, coming out of the bathroom and then diving into the communal dinner bowl with my left hand).

Is this right? How to write it most simply?

pax digita — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 13:02:17 -0800

For engraving purposes: Tell me (a) if this is right (b) what it looks like in one of the Japanese alphabets. Got a really good friend who has a birthday coming and who, I fervently hope, does not read AskMeFi. He's seriously into bears and is somewhat ursine in appearance himself, and he's living in Japan these days, so in a fit of guesswork, I nicknamed him Kuma-chan for pet bear.

Is that the right way to express that?

I don't know much about Japanese writing systems other than that there's more than one -- I think some symbols are phonic alphabet like Latin and Cyrillic while others are basically a Chinese set of ideograms -- haven't Wikipedia'd to see if that's right. There's...two...?...or five...?...different writing systems?

Anyhow: If Kuma-chan is correct, what's the most engraving-friendly way to represent that in writing? Or if there's a better way to say it, what is it, and how should that look?

Arigato in advance, y'all.

Irish Gift for Japanese Wedding

Wilder — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 07:13:25 -0800

I need an Irish gift (or alternative) for a Japanese wedding, next Saturday. Must be able to arrange in time. Help, there's more inside...... Two Japanese friends are getting married in Tokyo next Saturday. They met while they lived in Ireland, and while both were doing a Master's in modern Irish History. They love everything Irish. My first thought was to see if I could arrange for an Irish musician in Tokyo to go along to the restaurant and play a song for them (She moves through the Fair?) but don't have the first clue how to start. While I'm busy googling, can any Mefites point me in the right direction?

Gift for Japanese guide

cyrreb — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 19:11:06 -0800

What are good gifts for our Japanese (male) guide on two-week hiking trip on Hokkaido? Are there certain American products/brands that an outdoorsy Japanese guy would love?

Japanese stuff that American kids like

QueSeraSera — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 22:27:12 -0800

Calling all kids and kids at heart... what kind of souvenir would you want from Japan? I'm a long term resident of Tokyo and will be going home to attend a family reunion (in California). I will be meeting a few of my young cousins/neices/nephews for the first time and I'd like to get them each a little something that will open their world to something new, plus win them over as the kewlest grownup.

If you were a kid between 10-16, what kind of Japanese stuff would you like?

Here's what I have in mind so far: weird snack items, plastic build-it-yourself model robot kits... (Fireworks are great and I have brought them pre-9/11, but doubt I could get away with hiding them in my luggage now.)

And as for the adults, what Japanese foods and items would non-Japanophiles would enjoy? Sweet beans are deelicious but tend to gross out conservative Americans. Same with anything fishy. What do you like?

PS. "Asian-themed" trinkets, cheesy calligraphy, etc... I refuse to go there!

How can I wrap gifts in a

cogat — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 05:08:16 -0800

When I was in Japan, I bought something which was cuboid shaped which I asked to be gift wrapped. The shop assistant wrapped it in such a manner that only one piece of sellotape was required. The paper was also arranged pleasingly diagonally across the gift, and seemed to be evenly spread around its surface, rather than having densely-folded sides like more common (western) wrapping. How can I learn that technique? Does it have a name? I seem to remember that the technique involved placing the box diagonally and carefully on a standard size sheet of paper, and then 'rolling' the box around the paper to make the folds. Having sent the gift to its intended, I couldn't reverse-engineer it. The appropriate google query eludes me, and there is nothing on this thread about that specific technique.