After the first online interviews with students from Seikei University, we had the opportunity to conduct an interview about Berlin’s Japanese foodscapes offline. Due to the relaxed Covid-19 regulations we met outside for a picnic with Akiko. Because only members from a limited number of households were allowed to meet, I divided the class into two groups. Akiko brought vegan obentō, so students could enjoy food while interviewing her.

Akiko runs a catering business that is specialized in vegetarian and vegan food. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, her business was disrupted and she now receives support from the German employment agency to make a living. She offers lunchboxes, cookies and preservable food like miso and kimchi, for example and keeps in touch with her customers via a mailing list and social media. Students were eager to hear why she came to Berlin, how her business went before the pandemic and how she copes with the Covid-19 induced changes. We had interviewed Akiko a year ago and in June 2020 she was grateful for the German Soforthilfe (financial support) and rather optimistic. But the catering business has not recovered yet, since joint business lunches, private parties and gallery openings are impossible.

Students had prepared questions for the interview with Akiko by checking her website and took turns in asking questions. Outdoor interviewing posed some challenges for interview recording and eating, talking and taking notes at the same time was quite difficult. However, doing interviews face to face and eating the food the research participant had prepared offered more opportunities to ask questions students had not thought about before. While online interviews are a great option to overcome the limitations caused by the pandemic, by meeting in real life all participants created a much more relaxed atmosphere without technical problems. Our picnic also provided the first chance to meet for the students who have so far only met in online classes.

by Terumi*

I enjoyed the interview session very much. Even though all of us felt nervous for the first few minutes, I could regain my composure during the icebreaking. We chatted about places in Japan we know well (e.g, Kyoto, Itabashi, etc.).

After the icebreaking, we talked about my own experiences of Japan under the pandemic. The interviewers asked me how the state of emergency has affected my life. We discussed many topics: the coronavirus and various changes it has brought to us, the slow return to normality, and our perceptions of these changes. Throughout the interview, special focus was placed upon our eating habits during this period, I was able to elaborate my own experiences, and felt extremely lively being able to talk so openly and naturally with someone I met for the first time.

It was nice to exchange our thoughts on, and to share our hardships under, this pandemic-related situation across the countries via Zoom. I hope that the interviewers will be able to make use of my comments for their research project.

* Terumi is a student at Seikei University

Students from Seikei University in their hybrid classroom
(Copyright © Yoko Kawamura 2021)

By Antonia Vesting and Tony Pravemann*

Three weeks ago, our course had the opportunity to conduct online interviews with students from Seikei University. When it comes to social science research, interviews are often seen as a central method for conducting qualitative research. However, especially as an undergraduate, very few students are able to gain hands-on interview experience.

With our respective groups, we first spent some time drafting initial interview questions and thinking about general ideas for our conversations with the Japanese students. We also emailed our respective interviewee and made an appointment for the online interview. Professor Reiher had assigned three general topics for the interviews: 1) changes to our interview partner’s daily life due to the Covid-19 pandemic, 2) changes with regard to their food practices and 3) the situation of restaurants in Japan during the pandemic. Aside from that, all groups were given complete freedom when it comes to the questions and conducting the interviews. Therefore, every group approached the topic from a slightly different angle. A common problem for us that came up during preparation was estimating how many questions we could ask during one interview of approximately 30-60 minutes.

What did we learn from this experience? Every interview is unique. We realized that one can hardly ask every question in the order one has prepared beforehand. That is because it would disturb the flow of the interviews. The interviewer must take into consideration that questions might become irrelevant, or he/she has to adjust them according to the context. It might also be necessary to develop new questions on the spot to keep up the flow, to react to the interviewees answers or to further elaborate on a certain topic. It is therefore very important to stay flexible and listen closely to what the interviewee has to say. It is better to go with the flow, because most of the time it is not possible to foresee the whole interview situation and tailor specific questions beforehand. We found writing down major questions that guide one through the interview very helpful, but everything else depended on chance, good luck and skills.

This year’s participants in the method course at Freie Universität Berlin

We also realized that it is not easy to conduct an interview and to simultaneously jot down notes. This is a skill that needs further practice. Fortunately, we will have the chance to interview more people during the next weeks. Furthermore, the special situation of conducting interviews online should be mentioned. It is a great opportunity to be able to conduct interviews online with people living 9000 kilometers away. But bad sound quality, unreliable WiFi and confusing appointments because of time differences are some of the problems we had to face.

Finally, we would like to extend a warm thank you to all the participating Seikei University students and to Professor Yoko Kawamura for giving us the opportunity to have interesting conversations and to learn about conducting interviews as part of social science research.

*Tony Pravemann and Antonia Vesting are students at Freie Universität Berlin’s Japanese Studies MA Program.

by Furkan Kemik*

It has been more than a year since the beginning of the pandemic and almost a year since we conducted our first online interviews with various Japanese restaurateurs in Berlin for this project on research methods and Berlin’s Japanese foodscapes. Despite the unusual circumstances during the Covid-19 pandemic, in 2020, Japanese food entrepreneurs were highly interested in talking to our students online. The online interviews provided us with many valuable insights into Japanese gastronomy in Berlin during the pandemic.

This year, however, it was not as easy to find interview partners for the method course. I think this is due to the current situation and several changes since the beginning of the pandemic and the first lockdown in March 2020. At a first glance, the latest developments sound promising. Outdoor dining has been possible again for a few weeks now and due to the decreasing cases of Covid-19 infections and the increasing number of vaccinated people, further relaxing Covid-19 measures is planned for the coming weeks. Is “normality” returning?

Outside the Japanese bakery Kame (Copyright © Maritchu Durand June 2021)

Of course, it is not that easy. Our everyday lives have been affected so greatly in many ways, that we can hardly go back to what was “normal” before the pandemic. This is true for Japanese restaurateurs in Berlin as well and this is the main reason why the search for interview partners has been so challenging this year. The fact that restaurateurs have suffered many setbacks the past year and had to adapt to two lockdowns has already been examined in more detail in previous blog entries. Adapting, however, has not been easy for everyone, if anyone at all. Not only did temporary closures for weeks and sometimes months in some places become the norm, some restaurants and companies even had to cease operations completely. The existence of many restaurants has been hanging by a thread and without financial aid and the so-called Kurzarbeitergeld, our culinary landscape would look even more depressing today.

Interior of the Japanese restaurant 893 Ryōtei (Copyright © Maritchu Durand 2020)

Considering the situation of the gastronomy during the pandemic, it is quite easy to understand that the ongoing existential pressure worried almost everyone. This was especially clear after email exchanges and a quick glance at the restaurants’ websites on social media platforms. While some restaurateurs wouldn’t agree to interviews, because they were too busy keeping the restaurant up and running operations with way less employees while also managing their pick-up and delivery service, others were too frustrated with the overall situation. However, these difficulties to find interview partners during the pandemic and the many phone calls, emails and social media accounts also provided us with a rather personal insight on what it means to be a restaurateur during the pandemic.

* Furkan Kemik is student assistant at FUB and supports the method course, the research project on Berlin’s Japanese Foodscapes and this blog. I cannot thank him enough for his great work during the past year.

Die Forschungswerkstatt „Japanische Küche in Berlin“ ist in der Winterpause. Während viele japanische Restaurants im zweiten Corona-Lockdown auf Abhol- und Lieferservice ausweichen oder schließen, sind viele Studierende im Online-Semester gar nicht in Berlin und haben nur wenig Möglichkeiten, Japanisch zu essen. Daher haben wir für das laufende Seminar „Essen in Japan in politischen und gesellschaftlichen Kontexten“ Food Journalist und Kochbuchautorin Debra Samuels aus Boston eingeladen, um mit ihr ein obentō zuzubereiten.

Debra schickte vorab eine Zutatenliste und schaltete sich am 21. Januar aus den USA zu, um mit den Studierenden über Ernährungsbildung (shokuiku), bentō (lunchbox) und japanische Küche zu sprechen und gemeinsam zu kochen. Die Videokonferenz machte es möglich. Nach einem spannenden Vortrag bereiteten wir nach Anleitung ein obentō mit tamagoyaki, Süßkartoffel chakin, Gurken shiozuke, Würstchen in Krakenform und onigiri zu. Die unterschiedlichen Voraussetzungen in den Küchen der Teilnehmer*innen brachten so manchen zum Schwitzen, aber die Ergebnisse können sich sehen lassen. Im anschließenden Seminar fand aufbauend auf dieser Erfahrung eine rege Diskussion über die Rolle von Frauen und Müttern in japanischen Familien, in der Kampagne zur Ernährungsbildung der japanischen Regierung und bei der Zubereitung von Essen statt.