Leanne Ogasawara in Gulf Coast:
“How did you reach adulthood without learning how to cook?”
According to him, all women in Japan learn to cook before they get married. On our first date, I had made the mistake of serving him an apple. Not that he expected me to slice them with cute bunny ears like the girls he knew back in his hometown near the foot of Mt. Fuji. But at the very least, I could have cut them in slices of roughly the same size.
He had found himself fascinated by this aberration in female decorum.
And not surprisingly, he wanted to marry me.
Before our son was born a few years later, he got it in his head that even if I couldn’t cut apples properly, I might be able to master oranges.
In Japan, oranges are sometimes served in place of dessert. The fruit is sliced away from the peel, cut into wedges, all pithy bits removed. Without the work of peeling and cutting, the sticky juice running down your arms, an ordinary experience is elevated into a delicacy, even a luxury. It can become an expression of love.
More here.