Quote:
Originally Posted by YuriTokoro
Hi, Columbine.
It’s not compulsory. I see.
When I invited for a sit-down dinner, I bring a bottle of wine or Sake.
So you can visit without bring anything. I can’t! This must be Japanese nature.
When it’s a birthday party, I bring a gift, too.
On the other hand, we don’t have as many parties as you do.
When a guest is male, I would offer tea and manjyuu(Japanese sweets).
When a guest is female, tea and a cake.
Come to think of it, I’ve never eaten biscuits for many years!
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It's not compulsory, but it's considered very thoughtful and cultured if you do bring something.
I'm not sure about the parties. In Japan it's very difficult to just casually invite someone to visit. If I say to a couple of my English friends "Hey, I haven't seen you in a while, why don't you pop over this evening and we'll hang out and I'll cook dinner," it's really not a big deal, but when I've offered the same thing to some of my Japanese friends, they get very concerned that they won't be able to "pay me back in kind" or that I'm going to too much trouble. So maybe those kinds of casual gatherings are what might be considered a 'party' in Japan, but it's really not thought of like that here.
Hmm, I've never thought about offering men and women different refreshments. What happens when both a man and a woman come to visit?
