I recently went home to Scotland for the first time in seven years. My Japanese wife and my three year-old son came along too. We stayed for Christmas and New Year in Glasgow. As a guide, I have made three lists – the top five foods we ate, the top five Christmas presents we got, and the top five differences I noticed between Scotland and Japan.
Top Five Foods:
5 - Scotch broth
This is a traditional Scottish soup, made with mutton, oatmeal and vegetables. It is thick and filling, and has a strong, meaty smell. Eat it for lunch with some bread.
4 – Christmas lunch
We cooked a turkey in the oven, wrapped in salami to keep the meat moist. We also had Brussel sprouts, which are bitter vegetables, a little like miniature cabbages. And my mother made ‘pigs in blankets’ – pork sausages wrapped in bacon. Serve with roast potatoes and gravy.
3 - Scotch pie and peas
A Scotch pie is a kind of meat pastry. But the sides of the pastry are higher than the middle of the pie. This makes the top of the pie into a little bowl. Put some mushy peas on top of the pie and eat them together.
2 - Haggis pakora
Haggis is a kind of black sausage, made by chopping up sheep’s organs and oatmeal and herbs, and putting them inside a sheep’s stomach. It has a very strong smell and flavour. Someone had the brilliant idea of cutting up this haggis into small pieces, and putting them inside Indian spicy pakora. The outside is crunchy and spicy, and then the inside is soft and meaty. Yum!
1 - Apple crumble with custard
There are many different kinds of apple available for sale in the UK, such as Golden Delicious, or Granny Smith’s. Some are sweet, some sour. Use sour apple, bake it inside a crumbly pie. Then add custard, which is a kind of sweet, creamy dessert covering.
Top Five Christmas Presents:
5 - Dinosaur slippers
It’s cold in Scotland. So a three year-old needs slippers to enjoy running around a big house. He really likes them if they look like dinosaurs.
4 - Alexa
My sister got this smart-speaker for me. It was more impressive than I had imagined. You can talk to it, ask it questions, and ask it to play music or the radio, using only your voice. My mum wanted to listen to the most recent album by a band called “Elbow”. So I asked Alexa, “Alexa, what is the most recent album by Elbow?” Alexa answered. Then I asked her to play that album and it started. Simple, and a little scary.
3 – My son’s computer
I often work using my computer at home. I say to my son, “Don’t bother Daddy now – he’s working,” or, “Don’t touch Daddy’s computer!” My son got a little pretend computer, which made noises when you pressed the buttons. He sat happily in the living room, telling people, “Don’t bother me, I’m working!” and, “Don’t touch my computer!”
2 – An Irish coffee set
Irish coffee is coffee and cream and whiskey. This kit had all the ingredients for a perfect Irish coffee. Because of the coffee, you are allowed to drink this in the morning, even though it is alcoholic. Lovely!
1 - My son’s doctor’s kit
My wife and I both got a terrible cold on the flight over to Scotland. We got fevers, chills, headaches and blocked noses. Luckily, my son got a little kit with stethoscope and syringe, and he spent much of the holiday pretending to be a doctor and giving us injections.
Top Five Differences Between Scotland and Japan:
5 - Play areas for kids
We don’t really go out to restaurants in Japan, because it is so difficult with small children. Parents are expected to be able to control their children, to avoid annoying the other customers. It is okay for children to be noisy in family restaurants or McDonald’s, but the food there is not nice.
In Scotland, many restaurants had special play areas for the children. So they could climb up and down ropes and ladders, and jump in “swamps” of plastic balls. The adults ate in a separate section, a little away from the kids. Sometimes the kids were fighting each other, and biting in order to play on something first. But the parents didn’t seem to mind.
4 - House guests
My parents’ house was like a hotel at times with all the guests who came round to have Christmas lunch, or to say “Happy New Year!” or to see me. It saves a lot of money if you can meet visitors at home instead of taking them to a café or izakaya. But it is hard to keep the house clean. So don’t mind a little dirt and mess. It shows that you are welcome in the house, and that children are present!
3 - touching
I was kissed and hugged more times by relatives, friends and children in the two weeks I spent in Scotland than in the last seven years in Japan. I am going to start hugging people in Japan. I think it’s nice.
2 - discipline
Nobody seemed to shout at children, or get angry with them. When my son had a toilet accident and then refused to let us clean him in the shower, my wife and I shouted at him to try to fix the problem before he made a bigger mess. Everyone in the house came to the bathroom to see what the problem was. They looked at us like we were weird, shouty alien parents. Perhaps we were.
1 – space
My father’s house has four bedrooms, three living rooms, and a large garden with shed and drive-way. Almost all of our Tokyo apartment could fit into just one of his living rooms.
On our second day as guests, I sat in the kitchen with my wife and son. “I’m going to Grandpa’s house,” said my son, and stood up. “I wonder what he means?” I thought, since he was already in his grandfather’s house. Then my son walked to the main living room. He thought that the living room was Grandpa’s house. Our little Tokyo apartment feels very small now.
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