144 votes
Accepted

How would Japanese people react to someone refusing to say “itadakimasu” for religious reasons?

Outside of a temple, or perhaps dinner with the Emperor, "itadakimasu" has zero religious connotations. A reasonable translation would be "thanks for the food" said to no one in particular. The after-...
peter's user avatar
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91 votes

How would Japanese people react to someone refusing to say “itadakimasu” for religious reasons?

Itadakimasu means, literally, "[I humbly] receive". Yes, the origins of the phrase may be about giving thanks to the gods, but at this point it's about as divorced from that as telling someone "bless ...
lambshaanxy's user avatar
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63 votes
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What does "Shin" in a Japanese train station name mean?

What usually happens is that originally, there is a station named X (which may or may not be named after the city where it is located). At some point it is decided that the area needs a new station, ...
fkraiem's user avatar
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31 votes

How would Japanese people react to someone refusing to say “itadakimasu” for religious reasons?

Other answers have pointed out that simply not saying it, as an obvious foreigner, will probably go unremarked, as they wouldn't necessarily expect you to have memorized all the customs. (Nor will ...
SirTechSpec's user avatar
19 votes

What does "Shin" in a Japanese train station name mean?

If you read the Wikipedia articles on the stations and the Shinkansen, you will learn that "shin" means new. Stations with "shin" in their names may be Shinkansen stations, as with Shin-Osaka, or not, ...
phoog's user avatar
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18 votes

How would Japanese people react to someone refusing to say “itadakimasu” for religious reasons?

I'm trying to understand the context where you would ever have an opportunity to explain you weren't saying it for religious reasons. Do you really expect them to say "pardon, why did you not say ...
Harper - Reinstate Monica's user avatar
13 votes

How would Japanese people react to someone refusing to say “itadakimasu” for religious reasons?

I had a Japanese exchange student stay with me last summer. We say grace at our dinner table where she joins us for the meal. At first she seemed uncomfortable with our prayer format, besides not ...
quigath's user avatar
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10 votes

How can I help Japanese speakers using my hard-to-pronounce name?

Let's be honest here, due to a limited number of sounds, Japanese can't replicate many foreign language sounds. This is common with many languages, by the way. English speakers have a lot of trouble ...
Armstrongest's user avatar
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8 votes

How would Japanese people react to someone refusing to say “itadakimasu” for religious reasons?

The literal translation is something along the lines of "I humbly partake", or "I humbly receive". I was a Christian missionary in Japan and always thought of it as a good way to express gratitude.
Sparsile's user avatar
7 votes

How would Japanese people react to someone refusing to say “itadakimasu” for religious reasons?

Japanese are very tolerant in that respect and have low expectations to foreigners regarding their etiquette. Also they do not consider this phrase to be religious or anyhow important. At worst they ...
Sascha's user avatar
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6 votes

How to read Donan bus schedule (Hokkaido)

The table is indeed puzzling. From the annotation 行先 (destination) on the top left corner, it seems to me that the buses don't all go to the same destination. For example, the 6:25 bus from the Tōyako-...
xuq01's user avatar
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5 votes

How do you know if a Japanese person means no when they say yes?

There are other good answers already but I just want to focus on an error in the way the question is asked. A Japanese person doesn't (generally) mean "no" when they say "yes", which is the premise ...
GreenAsJade's user avatar
5 votes
Accepted

How can I help Japanese speakers using my hard-to-pronounce name?

Would it be considered inappropriate in Japan to suggest to a staff member / relative stranger to use my first name if they struggle with my surname? No, this will not cause any offence. Foreigners ...
fkraiem's user avatar
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5 votes

Any Non-seafood Japanese food options?

A few things you can try: Chicken katsu curry (deep fried panko-crusted chicken served on rice, with a sweet curry sauce) Yakitori (chicken skewers grilled over embers, there are lots of different ...
4 votes

Any Non-seafood Japanese food options?

Seafood is in many Japanese foods, even if it is just in a stock for flavoring. For example a beef rice bowl, gyudon, will have dashi (fish and seaweed stock) as part of the flavoring. By the name, ...
Ranjin's user avatar
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2 votes

Any Non-seafood Japanese food options?

Surprised no one has mentioned ramen yet. There are countless versions based on region. They use a wide array of soup stock from pork to tomato. Beyond food, please look into wagashi or Japanese ...
findwindow's user avatar
1 vote

How would Japanese people react to someone refusing to say “itadakimasu” for religious reasons?

As Peter said, nobody thinks of itadakimasu as having anything to do with religion. To answer the original question, if explaining that you for religious reasons don't want to say itadakimasu, people ...
Tuomo's user avatar
  • 11
1 vote

How can I help Japanese speakers using my hard-to-pronounce name?

While it would be unusual and often too informal for Japanese themselves to do it, most Japanese recognize that Westerners often prefer to just go by their first names (sometimes erroneously, to the ...
Gene's user avatar
  • 393
1 vote

Does knowing Japanese help in neighbouring countries?

If you know a bit of Japanese all the while you don't understand English as well as its local language, it is definitely helpful as there are some signs on the street, metro, airports, or shops ...
Blaszard's user avatar
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