World map in people's head - case of the Japanese - "What is Central Eurasia?"

World map in people's heads

Case of the Japanese:

- What is Central Eurasia? -

We have memory of the world map in our head to some extent.

In the memory, the Eurasian continent is next to Japan, so it may be more familiar to us.

Starting from Japan, entering the Eurasian continent and heading west, we first find the Korean Peninsula.

Then see China on the north, after gliding down Southeast Asia to see countries such as Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar. Wegradually entered the Indian cultural sphere, then pass through the Middle East and the Arab countries to Turkey.

...And finally, we arrive in Europe.

Yes, the travel is done...Oh, was there Russia and Mongolia on the north route, maybe?

Isn't this what most of the people think?

This is what likely we learn at schools in Japan. When we take astroll in towns of Japan, we can find restaurants from many different countries. It is easy to find Chinese, Korean restaurantseverywhere. Also we can enjoy Thai and Vietnamese, Indian, French and Italian restaurants, sometimes Spanish and Turkishones.

There may be found unusual Arab dishes too, if you want.

You may not feel unusual because the food lineup is almost same as the breakdown of the Eurasian continent we already know.

But that's actually only the southern route.

So what do you think, how about the northern route?

Which countries will you find in Central Eurasia?

When I ask people, they would answer like

"Well, they're all China and Russia, right? "

Someone who knows a little more can remember that Mongolia is inland of China, but usually there will not be more countries unless you're very interested.

That is why Central Eurasia is mostly an unknown area for us.

If you take a closer look at the  "All China and Russia?" you'll notice that there are many countries in the interior of Eurasia,various ethnic groups live in it. And there is a spectacle that can be called "A gradation of culture and ethnicity".

But many of them did not seem to exist, like, 30 years ago, because the Soviet Union was the owner of an enormously vast nation, themap today did not show according to the rules of "Nation" in international law.

Perhaps that image is still continuing, and it seems that Central Eurasia is still an unknown region for many people.

At our Central Eurasian Food Research Group, we focus on this area and look mainly at what kind of ethnic groups live, what kind of food they eat, and what kind of daily life they have.

But more importantly, when you take a bird's-eye view of the area, the gradients of the culture mentioned above emerge clearly and capture your gaze.

In the middle part of the vast Eurasian continent, over a long period of time, you can see the vestiges that each of ethnic groups interacted each other, mixed, flowed and gradually making regional differences and own cultures.

The surprise and excitement of finding them are so fascinating, weoften lose ourselves and forget where we are now, it takes us to the world of adventure beyond time and space.

What you can see through the food culture has something more than our imagination.

This is because food expresses the ethnicity of the people along with the language, food is indispensable for the people to connect their continuation and history, and it is passed down from generation to generation.

In a way, food can be a map and a footprint of ethnic migration.

Japanese people can find similar food cultures and common things in Central Eurasian regions, but also there are many things which surprises them.

While traveling on the food culture from Central Eurasia, we will be introducing food not known at all and will be thinking "Why did that happen?" with you. We hope that your spirits would be unleashed in tremendously magnificent continent stretching out so far.