I used to hang with normal Japanese people a lot...like I hung out in tons of very average places, rural danchis, volunteered in rojin homes, etc. Have seen th

I used to hang with normal Japanese people a lot...like I hung out in tons of very average places, rural danchis, volunteered in rojin homes, etc. Have seen them doing shockingly un-Japanese things with food. Every "Japanese food" rule that I was taught by Japanese people was broken, again and again. After a while I realized, America, Japan, the cultural strengths of these nations can be defined as personality types... So you can personally have that rules-on match with your culture, but also totally not, or different depending on who you're hanging with... And I ran into lots of Japanese people in Japan who were not very Japanese at all. Traditional Japanese people didn't like them (or their food) either. So every time I hear about "this is so American" about some Japanese food thing, I have to wonder what that means in various contexts. Especially teriyaki which is not exactly a long shot for Japanese cooking.