What is the differences between Japan and my host country??
I talked with my friend who worked in Senegal last week.
Although we have been surprised at the difference from Japan, we gradually began to with to living in Japan.
Food, water, air ,,,,,Tonga and Senegal are similar, though they are different from Japan.
It was funny and interesting , so I will introduce it.

“Hey!! My skin has been uncontrollable since I came back to Japan.”
“Definitely, the same !!　Why?? Why we cannot ?? ”
It started from such an exchange.

Food topics were very lively.
We could get supernatural food in Tonga and also in Senegal.
People over there eat freshly slaughtered chicken or pork.
（Tonga has imported frozen meet daily ,so they only slaughter livestock and prepare for special days. )

That’s really delicious !!
Being tender and free of extra fat.
Pork skin is crispy ,and chicken spinal fluid is full of umami. Have you ??
When slaughtering, they normally cook whole chicken or pork.
Looking at the super beautifully sliced meat in packs in Japan now, we cannot believe they are the same.

When my friend lived in Senegal talked it to her Japanese colleagues to tell her Senegal life as she eat such a flesh meat daily , almost all of them seemed to say to her
“Incredible! Why you can ??” “ Barbaric.”

We got hyped up due to their reaction for us.
Certainly, we lived in each places thinking that it is ‘normal’ . Those kinds of reaction was truly Japanese feeling.

Also question about the facts sprung up one after another.
Why Japanese meat are so stinky ,,,,, because it’s been many days old ?
Why is the flavour so different ??
What kind of process does Japanese meat get in a super-market??

The reason why I had been a vegetarian was their smell and the opaque of the raising method. That smell deprived me of my appetite. Moreover, when I asked by myself whether I want to slaughter animals that I raised myself like Tongan ,,,, I didn’t want to eat that much. I didn’t want anyone to treat.

I know I’m a totally selfish because I can’t slaughter but I must enjoy the fresh meat if I will be treated.
That is why I think the people in Tonga or Senegal are right as people.

Vegetables and fruits are the same .
The shrivelled vegetables for some aunt’s home gardens, and the unsorted fruits that are roadsides and fields. All are fresh and none are “beautiful”.
Vegetables and fruits in Japanese markets, even its organic, they are almost the same food shape and rapped in a plastic bag. It must be so tiring work.

In Tonga, many people raise in almost free range with coconut, rice or leftover of staple food like taro, cassava, yam or banana. About vegetables, I had been told that we don’t want to grow vegetables using pesticide or chemical fertiliser. Those veggies will have our body unhealthy. It’s better not to eat it ,right ??”
In Senegal, too!! Vegetables are organic and meat are freshly grated .
( Sorry, I don’t know the detail of Senegal.)

The criteria for what we call “food” and the standard sense of “beauty” are slightly different.

Of course, how to cook and eat it is different.
Although the Japanese often cook with water by twisting the faucet, it is just miracle that we can use clean water whenever we want!!

In Tonga, stew with coconut milk or grille on open flame are major ways. When we use water, we use the stored rainwater.

I heard that Senegal often cook with a lot of oil .They fry some meat and vegetables, after that, they cook rice with a lot of oil leaving in the pot and a block of salt. Not a lot of water.

Yeah!! Clean water
It seems that safe water that can be taken by mouth and water that is good for skin are different !! ( Please tell me the truth !! )

Water of Tonga or Senegal is always on a little trouble like mosquito larva or muddy water due to not disinfect, not purify like Japan.
Even so, my face skin was much smoother in Tonga than now in Japan !! That is the same impression with not only friend having talked with but also other friends !! I’m a little concern …

Food or water, maybe air pollution are totally different, and I have lived so long time without those knowledge .

Peaceful Japan allows us to live closing eyes .
No bombs , No guns, No need to boil doubting the mosquito larva spring up, no need to make sure to eat food what we don’t know what we are eating.

Will it be less conversational because it’s easier to live ??
I wonder if it become the reason that we can go to a convenience store without talked from someone, without eye-catching or without hearing someone’s laughter in Japan ??

Even though My friend and I returned on different days ,we have been surprised at same thing that “ Walking around the city is nothing will be happening in Japan.”

If you walk outside in Tonga or Senegal,
I was speaker out loudly “ Where are you going ??” “What will you buy ??” “ Have you ate tonight ??” from a distance every day. Always, someone’s big laughter attracted me. I guess that the frequency is the same as the ambulance sounds in Tokyo.

The reason why Japanese people are less likely to feel happiness might be because of this I hope that a burst of laughter could be heard all over the town, enough to drown out any sad sound.

Author ; Miki Kato