{"id":3698,"date":"2016-06-25T00:36:17","date_gmt":"2016-06-25T04:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/najc.ca\/?p=3698"},"modified":"2016-06-25T00:36:17","modified_gmt":"2016-06-25T04:36:17","slug":"you-are-a-japanese-canadian-if","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/najc.ca\/you-are-a-japanese-canadian-if\/","title":{"rendered":"You are a Japanese Canadian If"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Terry Watada<\/p>\n

editor\u2019s note: Terry Watada is on summer break and will return in October. In the interim, we thought we\u2019d publish some \u201cclassic\u201d columns by Terry.<\/em><\/p>\n

More than a little while ago I received a letter from a friend who has moved to the hinterland of the suburbs. She had been checking out her e-mail when a forwarded message caught her eye. What she found was a list entitled \u201c101 Ways to Tell if You\u2019re Japanese American\u201d. She sent it to me via snail-mail thinking I might get some use out of it. And indeed I have. The list is LA centred but with a little modification, I have come up with a list that defines us, the nikkei<\/em> of the Great White North. I hope you get a kick out of this!<\/p>\n

You know you\u2019re a Japanese Canadian when:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. You know that Camp doesn\u2019t mean a cabin on Vancouver Island or the cottage at Wasaga Beach (I\u2019m sure you can think of one in your part of Canada).<\/li>\n
  2. The men in your family were gardeners, farmers or produce workers.<\/li>\n
  3. The women in your family were seamstresses, domestic workers or farm labourers.<\/li>\n
  4. Your issei<\/em> grandparents had an arranged marriage.<\/li>\n
  5. One of your relatives was a \u201cpicture bride\u201d (ask someone in your family about this).<\/li>\n
  6. You have nisei<\/em> relatives named Keiko, Aiko, Sumi or Mary.<\/li>\n
  7. You have nisei<\/em> relatives named Tak, Tad, George, Roy, Harry or Shig.<\/li>\n
  8. You\u2019re a sansei<\/em> and your name is Gayle, Gail, Cathy, April, May, June (but not July), Rick (Richard), Glen, Brian, Bill, Alan, Allan, Gary, Garry or Kenji.<\/li>\n
  9. You\u2019re thinking of naming your yonsei<\/em> child Brittany, Jenny, Lauren, Justin, Michael, Matthew or Brett with a Japanese middle name.<\/li>\n
  10. All of your cousins are outmarried and are having kids.<\/li>\n
  11. You want to visit Hawaii.<\/li>\n
  12. You have relatives in Hawaii or you know someone who does or you know someone from Hawaii.<\/li>\n
  13. You belong to a Japanese Credit Union.<\/li>\n
  14. Your parents or your grandparents bought their first house through a tanomoshi<\/em>.<\/li>\n
  15. Your suburban lawns and bushes are always, always manicured. Some of the bushes may even be shaped into balls.<\/li>\n
  16. There is a Japanese stone lantern in the front of or behind your parents\u2019 house.<\/li>\n
  17. You have a Japanese doll in a glass case in your living room.<\/li>\n
  18. You have a nekko<\/em> (cat) for good luck.<\/li>\n
  19. You have large Japanese platters in your china cabinet.<\/li>\n
  20. You have a family mon<\/em> and proudly display it somewhere in the house.<\/li>\n
  21. You think but are not quite sure you are of samurai<\/em><\/li>\n
  22. Your grandmother used to crochet your blankets, potholders and dishtowels. If you are female, you owned a crochet dress at one time.<\/li>\n
  23. You take off your shoes when entering a JC house.<\/li>\n
  24. You take off your shoes when entering any house.<\/li>\n
  25. You\u2019ve heard Art Miki or David Suzuki speak at least once, somewhere.<\/li>\n
  26. You\u2019ve danced the Tanko Bushi. In Toronto, you have danced the Tanko Bushi if you\u2019re female or when you were very young.<\/li>\n
  27. You always think about going to the Obon festival.<\/li>\n
  28. You know Pat Morita doesn\u2019t speak like Mr. Miyagi.<\/li>\n
  29. You\u2019re angry because Kristi Yamaguchi should have more commercial endorsements.<\/li>\n
  30. The NAJC, JCCA, JCCC, and\/or Nikkei Place has asked you for a donation.<\/li>\n
  31. You were in a sansei<\/em> \u201cyouth group\u201d at the church or community centre.<\/li>\n
  32. You don\u2019t subscribe to the Nikkei Voice, The New Canadian or the Geppo but you read every issue when you\u2019re at your parents\u2019 house.<\/li>\n
  33. You like massage devices like the Panasonic Deluxe back vibrator.<\/li>\n
  34. You like \u201cmeat and potatoes\u201d but you need that Japanese food fix once in a while.<\/li>\n
  35. After funerals, you go for Chinese food at Sea Hi\u2019s, China House, Sai Woo, Bill Wong\u2019s or the Ho Inn (you know in what city these restaurants are located).<\/li>\n
  36. You keep a record of koden<\/em> given to you.<\/li>\n
  37. You give the same amount of koden<\/em> recorded in your book at funerals (allowing for inflation of course).<\/li>\n
  38. You fight over the check at dinner.<\/li>\n
  39. You hide money in the pocket of the person who paid for dinner.<\/li>\n
  40. You don\u2019t need to read the instructions on the proper use of hashi<\/em> (unless you\u2019re a sansei<\/em> from the prairies).<\/li>\n
  41. You eat soba<\/em> on New Year\u2019s Eve.<\/li>\n
  42. You start the New Year with a bowl of ozoni<\/em> soup for good luck.<\/li>\n
  43. You know not to eat the tangerine on top of the mochi<\/em> at New Year\u2019s.<\/li>\n
  44. You have twelve mochi<\/em> in a bag in the freezer which you refuse to throw away in July.<\/li>\n
  45. You pack bento<\/em> for a road trip.<\/li>\n
  46. Your grandma made the best sushi<\/em> in town.<\/li>\n
  47. You never, but never pour shoyu<\/em> on your rice. Everything else but not gohan<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    As much fun as this is, my space is limited. I may continue this next month (the original does have 101 characteristics), depending on the critical issues of the day. So until then advise your hakujin<\/em> friends to pour as much soy sauce on their rice as they like!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    by Terry Watada editor\u2019s note: Terry Watada is on summer break and will return in October. In the interim, we thought we\u2019d publish some \u201cclassic\u201d columns by Terry. More than a little while ago I received a letter from a friend who has moved to the hinterland of the suburbs. She had been checking out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/najc.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3698"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/najc.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/najc.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/najc.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/najc.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/najc.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/najc.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/najc.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/najc.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/najc.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}