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Hold the Shoyu! by Reverend Mark Masaru Nakagawa It began, I think, with the invention of the "beef bowl." A quick way to have your teriyaki and rice all in one bite. The next thing I knew, it happened again. Something called "spam-musubi" started to become ubiquitous on the Japanese American scene. Now, you could have your daily recommended intake of sodium and saturated fat, along with your rice, all in one gulp! Not only were people making and eating this delicacy in the privacy of their own kitchens. Worse was when recipes began to make their way into that most sacred of all publications: church cookbooks! It is happening everywhere. What is "it" I'm talking about? What is "it" that has been subtly changing the way Japanese Americans relate with each other and with different ethnic folks? What is "it" that has been brewing underneath almost everyone's breath and causing concern and consternation at dinner tables, funerals, veteran's gatherings, and other sacred spaces of the Japanese American psyche? "It" is breaking tradition. Doing something out of the ordinary. Being different. You know, sticking up like the lone nail. Now, generally speaking, I like change. I like different. Being a sansei baby-boomer who was reared by traditional nisei parents I can appreciate people who dare to do things differently. Like many of my contemporaries, I experienced first hand a decade of rebellion and protest during the '60's, so change is not something that is totally foreign to me. That's why I like these younger generation folks, the so-called "baby busters" and "millennials" who are rapidly changing the styles of society at large. Unlike their tradition-bound Nisei grandparents, or their straight laced baby-boomer parents, vastly different from their right -wing gen-x aunts and uncles, these newer generations among us have the courage to offer a radically refreshing view of what the Japanese American community will look like in the years…no, weeks, to come. Such as wearing nose/ear/tongue/belly button rings. Fashioning their hair in strange-angled cuts and multicolored combinations. Wearing oversized clothing that hangs from their limbs like the gunny sacks I used for deep sea fishing. Heck, this generation wants to learn foreign languages (including English) so that they can understand their classmates easier. Forget about majoring in medicine, engineering, education, or any of the traditional professions I was told to do. This group of kids is smart! Now, I can go along with this change business. Beef bowls, spam-whatever, a little tint on the bangs, baggy clothes. But there is one thing that simply grates me. Shoyu over rice. I have to admit that this one is a bit too much. That's right, this is the big one to blow it all up. This crosses the line. The mother of all tradition-busters……. Shoyu over rice. As in, gohan. Go ahead and break tradition, if you will. Like the popular billboard says, feel free to "think different." But, please. At least show a little respect. Look, I understand that food is a very personal thing. And I certainly don't expect everyone to have the same tastes as me. A little spam wrapped in rice is fine. A little teriyaki in the same bowl with rice is okay. But before you ruin the very last traditional symbol of Japanese Americana, before you go the last step and tilt that little bottle over a bowl of pure, unadulterated white steaming rice, consider what you are about to do! Thousands of years of tradition, all going down in brown (liquid) smoke. Centuries of sacred rituals to the rice gods now being thrown out! Stop! Hold it! Go ahead with the teriyaki and rice. Eat Spam to your heart's content (or until it goes out). But, please, don't pour your shoyu over rice. Don't cross the line, at least yet. Have a little respect. For the old fogies like me, okay?

Reverend Mark Masaru Nakagawa is Senior Minister of Centenary United Methodist Church. He is a Los Angeles area native who has pastored Japanese American congregations in Sacramento and West Los Angeles before returning home to pastor the congregation in which he was raised during his childhood and youth.

Reflections on Rice, Sameness, and Change Response to Mark Nakagawa by Amy Phillips Rice makes a great metaphor for Asian/Asian Americans. Rice is the staple food of most of Asia. Other people who don't know better assume that rice is just rice and it's all the same, kind of like those Asians who eat the stuff. But in fact, there are over 8,000 named varieties of rice. There's more diversity in rice than anyone ever imagined. Rice isn't all the same, and neither are the Asians who eat it. When it comes to Japan and rice, I was taught that there are certain things that I (a person of Japanese ancestry) should and shouldn't do. The Japanese prefer sticky white shiro gohan, usually eaten with salty or savory things. You are also never, ever, supposed to stick your hashi upright in your rice. My mom used to reach across the table to knock my chopsticks out of my bowl of rice if I put them in my rice that way. Most of the things I learned about proper rice etiquette were taught in less direct ways. I don't recall my mother telling me not to put shoyu on my rice, but the thought of it makes me cringe. My non-Japanese grandfather used to pour shoyu on his rice when he ate Japanese food, and he probably still would except that he has to watch his sodium intake these days. People seem to assume that because sticky, white rice is Japanese and shoyu is Japanese, putting them together is Japanese. Not so! Which makes me think about what exactly is Japanese? Some of the things we associate with Japan barely register to young Japanese people. We might be thinking of zori and geta when trendy Japanese are wearing Nikes and platform shoes; or Kabuki and Noh, while they're watching "Titanic" and reading manga. That, of course, does not make zori and geta or Kabuki and Noh less Japanese. It just means that there are some things we might consider non-Japanese that many Japanese consider part of their regular lives. Conversely, even things we associate with Japan, such as tea ceremony and tempura, were first introduced by outsiders from China and Europe respectively. Of course, the art of drinking tea and the recipe for tempura have developed into uniquely Japanese forms. They have changed. Maybe change isn't all bad. These days the Japanese regularly buy sticky rice from outside of Japan and are now embracing the long-grain Basmati rice. However, they don't eat Basmati rice in the way they eat sticky shiro gohan. The Indian rice and Japanese rice just aren't the same and aren't treated the same. But you probably won't see Japanese people pouring shoyu on Basmati rice either. As for me, the only rice I'll eat with shoyu is sushi, but that's another story!