Answering questions

Our idea is to create a interactive display to help students learn about Japanese culture through food and table etiquette.

Why?

A lot of traditional Japanese is embedded in its etiquette. For example in Japanese budhhist funerals when a relative dies,  their close families pass their bones chopstick to chopstick into an urn. So when you pass food choptick to chopstick it implies the same meaning.

The display also teaches about Japanese values and mannerism that is important for students to understand if they want to travel to Japan in the future.

The idea behind our table set up is to reveal the hidden etiquette. Etiquette of another culture is usually not seen or known at first, it’s only after you participate/engage with the culture that you really learn about their culture.

Why not certain parts of the days?

Japanese people do not always eat Japanese cuisine for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sometimes they incorporate western food in their diet. However our project focuses on Japanese culture through food and etiquette so we decided to choose seasonal food that more Japanese people is more likely to eat.

Formalities:
Usually their formalities only fall into two categories which are formal and informal. However these etiquette does not change w

We chose etiquette that are often used in everyday life which would be appropriate for our target audience which is a student homestay.
Validated through personal connections with Japanese friends and my Japanese host family.