I think it means “I gratefully receive”. Some Japanese people say this before eating (or when receiving a gift). Eric says it as a celebration of good food.
We went to a “Yakiniku” restaurant where you bar-b-que your food on a little grill right at your table. There’s an exhaust fan over the grill to suck up the smoke. You order from the menu and they bring out very thin slices of meat or veggies for you to put on the grill for about 1 minute and then dip in sauce and eat.
I did not recognize most of the stuff on the grill. You would probably call it “weird” meat. When sharing food with people from a different culture than your own it’s tempting to refuse stuff you’re not used to. Of course if you are allergic, or have decided not to eat certain foods for health, religious or moral reasons you should follow your dietary guidelines and conscience. But if you can eat what’s set before you it makes the other folks very happy.
Sometimes, though, the people your visiting at testing you to see if you are brave enough to eat their national food. I have to admit there are times with somebody’s national food is just too far off my list and I have to politely decline. But I didn’t go to Japan to eat pizza or steak. I went to eat fish heads and beef guts. (Did I just gross you out? Ha ha!)
I can’t say I loved everything at the yakiniku restaurant. One chewy little number looked like grilled dinosaur skin. I ate it but would not have had seconds. Other stuff was…well…actually quite tasty. Even the mushrooms looked strange, but they grilled up nicely. Our hosts were thrilled that I could hang with them and eat un-American stuff.
Itadakimasu! (Ee-tah-dack-ee-mahs)
