Posts Tagged one liner

You know you are Japanese American when

  1. You know that Camp doesn’t mean a cabin in the woods.
  2. The men in your family were gardeners, farmers or produce workers.
  3. The women in your family were seamstresses, domestic workers or farm laborers.
  4. Your Issei grandparents had an arranged marriage.
  5. One of your relatives was a “picture bride.”
  6. You have Nisei relatives named Tak, Tad, George, Harry or Shig.
  7. You have Nisei relatives named Keiko, Aiko, Sumi or Mary.
  8. You’re Sansei and your name is Janice, Glen, Brian, Bill or Kenji.
  9. You’re thinking of naming your Yonsei child, Brittany, Jenny, Lauren,Garett or Brett, with a Japanese middle name.
  10. All of your cousins are having hapa kids.
  11. You have relatives who live in Hawaii.
  12. You belong to a Japanese credit union
  13. Wherever you live now, you always come home to the Obon festival.
  14. The bushes in your front yard are trimmed into balls.
  15. You have a kaki tree in the backyard.
  16. You have at least one bag of sembei in the house at all times.
  17. You have a Japanese doll in a glass case in your living room.
  18. You have a nekko cat in your house for good luck.
  19. You have large Japanese platters in your china cabinet.
  20. You have the family mon and Japanese needlepoint on the wall.
  21. You own a multicolored lime green polyester patchwork quilt.
  22. Your grandma used to crochet all your blankets, potholders and dishtowels.
  23. You check to see if you need to take off your shoes at your JA friends’ houses.
  24. When you visit other JAs, you give or receive a bag of fruits or vegetables.
  25. When you visit other JAs, you know that you should bring omiage.
  26. When you leave a JA house, you take leftover food home on a paper plate or a Styrofoam meat tray.
  27. You keep a supply of rubber bands, twist ties, butter and tofu containers in the kitchen.
  28. You have an air pump thermos covered with lilacs.
  29. You know that Pat Morita doesn’t really speak like Mr. Miyagi.
  30. You’re mad because Kristi Yamaguchi should have gotten more commercial endorsements than Nancy Kerrigan.
  31. You know someone who has run for the Nisei Queen Pageant.
  32. When your back is sore, you use Tiger Balm or that flexi-stick with the rubber ball on the end that goes, “katonk,” “katonk.”
  33. After funerals, you go for Chinameshi.
  34. After giving koden, you get stamps in the mail.
  35. You fight fiercely for the check after dinner.
  36. You’ve hidden money in the pocket of the person who paid for dinner.
  37. You don’t need to read the instructions on the proper use of hashi.
  38. You know that Benihana’s isn’t real Japanese food.
  39. You eat soba on New Year’s Eve.
  40. You start off the new year with a bowl of ozoni for good luck and the mochi sticks to the roof of your mouth.
  41. You know not to eat the tangerine on the top of the mochi at New Year’s.
  42. You have a 12-pack of mochi in your freezer—that you still refuse to throw away in July.
  43. You pack bento for road trips.
  44. Your grandma made the best sushi in town.
  45. You cut all your carrots and hot dogs at an angle.
  46. You know the virtues of SPAM.
  47. You were eating Chinese chicken salad, years before everyone else.
  48. You know what it means to eat “footballs.”
  49. You grew up eating ambrosia, wontons and finger Jell-O at family potlucks.
  50. You always use Best Foods mayonnaise and like to mix it with shoyu to dip broccoli.
  51. You use the “finger method” to measure the water for your rice cooker.
  52. You grew up on rice: bacon fried rice, chili rice, curry rice or red rice.
  53. You like to eat rice with your spaghetti.
  54. You can’t start eating until you have a bowl of rice.
  55. You use plastic Cool Whip containers to hold day-old rice.
  56. You like to eat your rice in a chawan, not on a plate.
  57. Along with salt and pepper, you have a shoyu dispenser at your table.
  58. You have a jar of takuan in your fridge.
  59. You buy rice 25 pounds at a time and shoyu a gallon at a time.
  60. Natto: you either love it or hate it.
  61. As a kid, you used to eat Botan rice candy.
  62. You know the story of Momotaro.
  63. You have a pet named Chibi or Shiro.
  64. Someone you know, owns an Akita or Shiba dog.
  65. You went to J-school and your best subject was recess.
  66. At school, you had those Hello Kitty pencil boxes and sweet smelling erasers.
  67. When you’re sick, you eat okayu.
  68. Milk makes you queasy and alcohol turns your face red.
  69. Your dad owns a Member’s Only jacket.
  70. Someone you know drives an Acura Integra, Honda Accord or Toyota Camry.
  71. You used to own one of those miniature zori keychains
  72. You have a kaeru frog or good luck charm hanging in your car.
  73. Your parents compare you to their friends’ kids.
  74. You hang on to the illusion that you are superior to other Asians.
  75. Your dentist, doctor and optometrist is Japanese American.
  76. You socialize with groups of eight or more people.
  77. Whenever you’re with more than three people, it takes an hour to decide where to eat.
  78. You and your friends call yourselves “Buddaheads,” but don’t like it when white people do.
  79. You’ve heard your name pronounced a half-dozen different ways.
  80. You know that E.O. 9066 isn’t a zip code.
  81. You’re not superstitious but you believe in bachi.
  82. You never take the last piece of food on a plate—but will cut it into smaller pieces.
  83. As much as you want it, never ever take the last—anything. Enryo, enryo, enryo.

 

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You know you are Asian if

You know you’re Asian if…

  1. Your mother has a short-haired, curly perm
  2. Your dad is some sort of engineer
  3. Your parents still tried to get you into places half-price saying you were 12 when you were really 15
  4. You ask your parents help on one math problem and 2 hours later they’re still lecturing
  5. You have a 40 lb. bag of rice in your pantry
  6. You shop 99 ranch
  7. Everyone thinks you’re “Chinese” no matter what part of Asia your ancestors were from
  8. You’ve had a bowl haircut at one point in your life
  9. Your parents enjoy comparing you to their friends’ kids
  10. You’ve had to sit through karaoke videos with scantily clad, ugly Asian women attempting to dance and walk around a temple, forest, or library
  11. Your parents say, “Don’t forget your heritage”
  12. You drive mostly Japanese cars.
  13. You’ve learned to keep bargaining even if the prices are rock bottom
  14. You’ve had to eat parts of animals they don’t even put in hot dogs
  15. At least once, you’ve started a joke with “Confucius say….”
  16. You know what bok choy is
  17. You’ve gotten little red envelopes around February
  18. Piles of shoes tend to make it hard to open the front, back, and closet doors
  19. You hear (your name + eee (optional) + yah!) every time someone calls you (e.g. Jean – ee – yah! or Mary – yah!)
  20. You have no eyelashes
  21. Idiot people try to impress you with pathetic imitation Asian languages, like the ever-so-popular: ching chong woo bok chi, etc..
  22. Your parents say leaving rice in your bowl is a sin
  23. The Bio lectures on marine life (seaweed, sea cucumbers, octopii) was last night’s dinner
  24. Your ancestors 1000 generations back invented the back scratcher
  25. At least one family member wears black wire/plastic frame glasses
  26. Your parents hover over your tired, caffeine-drugged body at 12 midnight to say, “In Korea (or other native country), we studied even more.”
  27. Your parents expect you’ll be best friends with any one off the street in any given area as long as they are Asian
  28. An Asian woman comes on campus and people ask: “Is that your mother?” Well then, “Is it your sister?”
  29. Your relatives’ houses smell like incense, mothballs or both
  30. Your parents say, “Calculus? I took Calculus in 8th grade!”
  31. Everyone thinks you’re good at math
  32. Your parents’ vocabulary is filled with “ai-yahs, and Wah’s”
  33. You like $1.75 movies
  34. You like $1.50 movies even more
  35. Your aunts and uncles bring you back adorable clothing from Asia with fuzzy bunnies, vinyl ducks, and English words that make no sense, in great colors like yellow, pink, magenta, orange, and the ever popular lime green
  36. Your parents insist you marry within your race
  37. You never order chop suey, sweet and sour pork, or any other imitation of oriental food
  38. You either really, really want to go to UCI or really, really want to stay away from it
  39. Your parents have never kissed you
  40. Your parents have never kissed each other
  41. You learned about the birds and the bees from someone other than your parents
  42. “You want a stereo?! When I was your age, I didn’t even have shoes!!”
  43. People see a bunch of scribbles on a chopstick and ask you to translate
  44. You have to call just about all your parent’s friends “Auntie and Uncle”
  45. You have 12+ aunts and uncles
  46. At expensive restaurants, you order a delicious glass of water for your beverage and NEVER order dessert
  47. Your parents simply cut the green/black part off the bread and say “Eat anyway. It’s still good.”
  48. The vast majority of the people related to you wear glasses. Thick glasses.
  49. You will most likely be taller than your parents
  50. Your parents have either make you play the piano, the violin, or both
  51. You get nothing if you do well in school, but crapped on if you don’t
  52. When going to other people’s houses, you always have to bring a gift
  53. Your dad still pulls his socks up to his knees, you know, the ones with the blue and pink stripes at the top
  54. Your family owns a tennis racquet, golf clubs, or both
  55. Your family always cheers for the Asian athlete on TV (i.e. Michael Chan)
  56. The furniture in your house never matches the wallpaper, the carpet, the decorations, or any of the rest of the furniture
  57. You have rocks, sticks, leaves, and strange-smelling, unknown substances in your pantry for use as medicine
  58. You own a rice cooker or two
  59. You buy soy sauce by the gallon
  60. Your family owns butcher knives bigger than your head
  61. Your parents tell you about how long it took for them to get to school, how horrible the weather was in their native country, and how much they still appreciated going
  62. Your parents buy you clothes and shoes many sizes too big so you can “grow into it” and wear it for years to come.

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