Gift Giving

So one part of Japanese culture that is a little different than mine is that there is a lot of gift giving. Not like birthday gifts and such but little gifts when people invite you over or when you travel somewhere. I'm definitely no expert in this and am not an expert in how it works in my home country of America either, but the general thing you need to know is gift giving is common. This concept is really cool to me and something I want to learn more about in this process of going to Japan. Some suggestions for small gifts, which I believe is おみやげ in Japanese, are small food items or other small gifts. Particularly interesting ones are gifts that represent your own country. There is literally a store in a local mall dedicated to local items so I definitely plan to go there before I fly to Japan. I think handmade gifts might be of interest too, but I'm not entirely sure. I love to make things so this is something I would like to look into more.

For me personally I like to knit small things for people. By small I don't mean hats or scarves, I mean things like small toys. The idea originally came from the knitwear designer Anna Hrachovec's tiny mochimochi patterns (which are inspired by the cutesy designs seen in Japan). My sister and I picked up her book years ago and ever since then have been giving each other things made from the patterns in her books or inspired by her designs. It is quite common for me to get little toys from my sister every Christmas so I have quite a collection now. Two of my favorites are a small unicorn and dragon that are my driving buddies and live in my purse (that I knitted, by the way). My sister is much better at making them than I am but I can still pull it off.

In Japanese this term I sat at a different table and while that shouldn't be a big deal, most tables have established groups from first term, two of the tables being strictly guys. When I decided to sit at a new table, I didn't know who else was sitting there and apparently I had inadvertently joined one of the established "dude tables" as I call them. Wasn't too sure what they would think of me but everyone is super nice and while it is a little harder to get them to talk much it's definitely a lot of fun. They talk about Pokemon a fair amount, which I know next to nothing about, but I can knit Pokemon! Knowing very little about Pokemon I just looked up the originals and knitted up Squirtle, Charmander, and Bulbasaur. I crocheted a Pikachu for my teacher last term, so I guess now I have made the original four. They were in my backpack during class but I was too shy to give my little creations to my classmates the first day but I got up the courage the next class and they were a hit. I do have pictures of the three Pokemon I knitted but I have to figure out where they are...

Edit: found the pictures!

Anyway, just me thinking a bit and talking about knitting! I doubt I will be able to bring much knitting with me to Japan but maybe I can knit a couple little things before I go.