ODORS OF OUR HERITAGE??
Jun
14
The Aroma of Tacoma
She had Applets and Colette’s from Washington State and decided as a fifth generation of Japanese heritage teenager, to also bring something Japanese. She chose the popular with kids Pocky Sticks (flavored dough on a stick) and Arare (rice crackers coated with soy sauce). I was surprised that Arare was considered, “so very Japanese”.
Later, in a discussion with my daughter, she explained that although the girls loved Arare, she was hesitant to put Arare into their school lunch boxes and warned the girls, “You are going to have stinky breath, so be aware.”
That also reminds me, when Sam and I built our new house on Mercer Island 50 years ago, one of our discussions was to not cook any mackerel fish in our new house because, “We don’t want to have that stinky Japanese smell when we have guests.” One of our first guests was Sam’s Medical Dental Building office neighbor, Dr. Wiesel. I think we even considered not cooking too many things with soy sauce the week before he was coming to dinner.
When I was growing up, I heard a lot of conversations between my parents and with grandpa, when we lived in the farming area in Idaho, about the, “stinky, white people’s houses.” I still remember my best friend Shirley Talkington’s dairy farmer’s house, when I stayed over night. The odor was strong, but it was more important to me to be friends.
Before we moved to Mercer Island we lived on Capitol Hill in Seattle. Our neighbors across the street were Shelly and Paul Pierce. The musical group called the Pierymplezaks was formed in their basement. They became famous in the 1960s for a song about digging for clams called: GOOEY DUCK SONG. They also sang the song about THE AROMA OF TACOMA. Tacoma was the first residence of the Japanese Consul General before 1900 when the office was moved to Seattle. My Dad and his family lived near Tacoma. Early immigrants had a lot of jokes, among themselves, about the odor in Tacoma and joked about other ethnicities and their odor when they felt discriminated.
Doing research, I am finding, the Japanese are considered some of the most diligent in daily baths and having homes that are easily aired out and in communication with nature. As those of us with Japanese heritage continue to integrate and we are about to host guests, I hear a lot of, “It’s really low class to have a smelly house. Air out the house!!”
