In May of this year, we – that is, students of East Asian Studies at Freie Universität Berlin – had the pleasure of conducting online interviews with students from Seikei University in Tokyo. For most of us, this was our first opportunity to gain firsthand experience interviewing someone while struggling with a language barrier. Some of us knew no Japanese, while others knew some. Surprisingly, we were able to conduct some interviews completely in Japanese.
So, what exactly did we do? Let’s start with the topic: Food.
We were tasked with picking interview partners from another part of the world and interviewing them about their experiences with Japanese food culture and trends. After deciding in the seminar who would interview whom, we reached out to our future interview partners via email. We quickly arranged online meetings and prepared interview questions in advance.
The difficult part came afterwards: the interviews. Since not all of us spoke Japanese, we had a wide range of experiences. Some mixed English with a desperate attempt at sign language, some stuck to English, and a few just talked in Japanese. This hands-on method of collecting qualitative data was helpful in various ways since interviewing peers of a similar age is much more enjoyable and casual than a strict or serious first interview. After the interviews, we followed Japanese tradition and thanked our interview partners for their time via email.
Some time later, we received feedback on the interviews from the students in Japan. Surprisingly, they were also very happy with how we used their time. They added that the interviews were valuable to them on a human and cultural level, pointing out that the questions we asked about food sparked their curiosity about why things are the way they are in Japanese food culture.
Ultimately, we had the opportunity to conduct our interviews. More importantly, we were able to participate in a successful method of establishing intercultural connections and interactions from which both parties derived satisfaction.
Ahmad Kasbah is a student in the MA program Japanese Studies at Freie Universität Berlin
Spring has arrived in Berlin, the cherry trees are in bloom, and the summer term has just begun. This means that it is time for the next season of the methods course, „Berlin’s East Asian Foodscape,“ formerly known as „Berlin’s Japanese Foodscape.“ As always, I will teach social science research methods to students in the Master’s Programs in Japanese Studies and Global East Asia through hands-on learning. I will continue to do so by studying East Asian cuisine in Berlin, which will enable encounters with people who make, sell, and consume food from East Asia. Together with an international group of students with expertise in various East Asian countries and languages, we will explore new trends, interview participants in Berlin’s East Asian food scene, and attend food-related events to observe the global dynamics of Berlin’s culinary landscape. Since everyone loves to eat and talk about it, students can contribute their expertise, develop their own research projects, and, hopefully, create exciting videos or other formats by the end of the term. Stay tuned to see the results in October! In the meantime, we will share our experiences on this blog from interviews with Seikei University students in Japan, field trips, interviews with food producers, as well as the annual Ethnographic Schnitzeljagd (ethnographic scavenger hunt). I am looking forward to an exciting course with great projects, great encounters and great food!
Cultural eating and cooking habits are an important part of my life. Even though food itself is simply necessary to survive, I personally experience food to impact me beyond a basic need. First of all, cooking and eating is a habitual, or even ritualistic practice that I exercise every day. Usually, depending on in which city or country I am residing in, these meals are rotations of the staple dishes made by ingredients that are available to me. As someone who has only been living in Berlin for a few months, I am still trying to navigate through the Japanese foodscape in this city. Because of my Japanese cultural background, eating Japanese food regularly is quite important to me. Not only do I enjoy going to Japanese restaurants but also cooking Japanese meals myself.
In my hometown Bonn, there is a tightknit but small Japanese community. The Japanese restaurant scene has changed and developed over the years, but consistently stayed small, especially when it comes to culinary businesses owned by Japanese people. There are many more authentic restaurant options in the surrounding areas such as Cologne and Düsseldorf, which obviously have much larger Japanese communities. The proximity to these cities (approximately thirty minutes and one hour by train) might also be an explanation for the lack of authentic Japanese restaurant options in Bonn. Düsseldorf, which has the third largest Japanese community in Europe (Düsseldorf Tourismus GmbH 2025), offers a diversity of Japanese foods, such as rāmen, tonkatsu, sushi, teishoku, soba, mochi and many more. There is also a variety of Asian supermarkets that sell Japanese products and ingredients for cooking.
Although the selection in Bonn is not as extensive as in Düsseldorf, there are enough stores to purchase the primary ingredients of Japanese cuisine. The emergence of Asian supermarket chains such as GO Asia and Tains-Pandamarkt has made Japanese food products more accessible. The fundamental ingredients are mostly available there. These include miso, shōyu, mirin, ryōrishu, rice vinegar, dashi, and Japanese rice. Besides these basics, I enjoy being able to purchase other products, such as ponzu, rāyu, sesame dressing, wasabi, tonkatsu sauce, and even Kewpie mayonnaise, a classic Japanese household staple. You can also purchase all kinds of noodles and instant meals, including soba and udon noodles, instant rāmen and miso soup, and Japanese curry and yakisoba. I also frequently take advantage of the selection in the refrigerated sections of chain stores, which usually offer quality Japanese culinary ingredients, such as enoki mushrooms, silken tofu, konnyaku, and takuan. Other personal favorites from the freezer section include frozen aburaage for soba or udon dishes, frozen gyōza, and premade gyōza dough for making them at home. This variety of Japanese foods allows me to cook many of my favorite meals at home, such as nabe, yasai itame, and miso soup.
In Berlin, there are multiple Go Asia stores. Because one of them is in my neighborhood, it has been my go-to destination to shop Japanese groceries. Another Japanese store I have visited is Smartdeli Sushi & More in Mitte. It is mainly a restaurant with multiple sushi, sashimi and teishoku options, but they also have a space where they sell Japanese products. The options are limited and in average a little bit more expensive than the products at Go Asia. Nevertheless, it is a good option when shopping exclusively for Japanese groceries. My personal highlight were the Japanese rice options, such as the yumenishiki rice. Furthermore, there is a store called Japan Plaza in Mitte, which is the second location of the Shochiku Supermarket, one of the most popular Japanese stores in Düsseldorf (Japan Food Express GmbH 2025). The Japanese product options in Berlin are therefore similar to Düsseldorf, in the sense that there are a lot of Asian supermarkets with Japanese products and additionally shops that are specialized in Japanese products, compared to Bonn, which lacks the variation of specialized shops. When it comes to Japanese restaurants in Berlin, I still have a lot to explore. Besides the restaurants in Kantstraße, there are several restaurants run by Japanese people spread out in the city.
The comfort of the availability and easy access to these Japanese culinary products improve my quality of life enormously. But this is also true for German food and includes my favorite kind of bread. When I was living in Tokyo for seven months, I did not have access to German-style bread. The bread in Japanese bakeries is much sweeter and softer. The change of product availability forced me to adapt and to cook more Japanese dishes. But after a few months, I, a creature of habit, started missing my old habitual foods. I can still vividly remember the feeling of comfort when I finally ate a piece of sourdough bread and experienced that familiar taste again. The familiar taste had an emotional impact on me.
In summary, since food is cultural and cooking and eating are cultural practice, whenever I lived abroad, these cultural practices gained importance in my life. Through food, I can still feel close to where I come from, even if those habits shift a bit outside that context. I felt this just as strongly in Japan, where I suddenly missed German bread and familiar dishes. The same goes for Japanese cuisine: being able to find Japanese ingredients in Germany lets me keep that part of my everyday life and feel more connected to it. Having access to Japanese foods in Germany allows me to practice the Japanese culinary culture and therefore strengthen my cultural identity. This is the reason why the availability of Japanese foods is so important to me.
References:
Japan Food Express GmbH (2025), Japan Plaza Berlin, https://japanplaza-shop.de/japanplaza
Düsseldorf Tourismus GmbH (2025), Little Tokyo in Düsseldorf – Japanische Kultur erleben, https://www.visitduesseldorf.de/erleben/sehenswertes/little-tokyo-duesseldorf
Maiko Luisa Zisgen is a student assistant at the Institute of Japanese Studies at Freie Universität Berlin and helps with managing and updating this blog.
