Friday, November 2, 2012

Don't do this in Japan ~ 4 ~ te miyage

  On this column, I will tell you about something when you are invited by
someone. In Japanese culture, it is important to give a ''temiyage'' when you
visit in the home.
 te = hand
 miyage = souvenir
 It means, when you visit in the home of someone, you should give a gift to
the host. People give a present to show the gratitude toward the host.
In Japanese culture, we sometimes see people exchange the gifts in our daily life.
So you had better learn what kind of situation you should exchange the gift.

  If you don't give a temiyage, the host would be unsatisfied about it.
The host would take it impolite.
(Of course, the host would not show about that to the guest.)
 But if you don't give a temiyage, Japanese people would just think
that foreign people don't know our culture. And they don't care so much.

  The gift should not be too expensive althogh. Because the host would be
annoyed to get it.
But why do they get annoyed?
 The host would be feel uneasy because he or she thinks they
are unworthy of getting such expensive gift.
 And the host  would think he or she has to exchange the gift
some day in some case. And in this situation, he or she must give the
same valuable gift. (The host just wants to save money)
The guest would avoid the situation because the guest take care the host.
 So, when Japanese people visit to the house,
we discuss the price of the temiyage.

Nomally, Japanese people buy a box of cake.
The price is from 1000yen ~2000yen. (10 euro~20 euro, 389.93 RUB~779.85)


Thanks for reading!

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2 comments:

Delilah said...

With friends, we ask if we can bring a part of the meal, for exemple the aperitive or the dessert. With family, we generally bring flowers and/or a bottle of wine. If we have time and like cooking, we like to bring home made things, like cakes, biscuits, marmelade and so on.
But we never discuss the price :)

marimari said...

Yeah,Japanese people are nervous about the price of gifts.
I am interested in the difference between your culture.