Giving gifts to say thank you is a seasonal thing in Japan, new year season and summer being the two periods where most of the gift-giving occur. Companies can send customers gifts, patients can send a gift to for example a doctor or dentist who has been particularly helpful to them, friends and relatives can send each other gifts as a thank you for your support these past six months. And so on and so on.
That gift giving is an organized event is clearly visible when you come to a shopping center where, when summer is approaching, there are areas of the the store that are converted into gift centers, with sample products and ordering sheets, and counters where you can order what you want to send and arrange with delivery. I am still a bit surprised every time I pass one of those areas and see a batch of laundry detergent or fabric softener as a recommended gift, but that aside, most of the gifts focus on food and beverages – beer, sweets, fruits, sausages, tea, biscuits, just to name some. This year I got a summer gift, gummy candy, from our son’s kindergarten as a thank you to me for sometimes coming and reading books for the children. Getting that appreciation made me so happy, even more so since I feel like it is my privilege and such a happy thing to be able to come and meet all the children, getting to experience their curiosity in form of questions, seeing their happy faces when I show them a Swedish book.
Our family got one more gift this year – my mother-in-law gave us honey. Two beautiful jars of Japanese honey, and I have been looking at the sparkling golden amber color through the glass, wondering what the taste is. To be truthful, I have never been a big honey gourmet, but seeing this particular honey made me very determined to do a mental reset and try honey again from a non-judgmental point of taste. As it happens, I just recently got gifted a cold and cough from our son, and was told that honey is a great natural medicine and that I should try a spoonful a couple of times and see. I have memories of drinking hot tea or water with honey and lemon when being sick as a kid, and so I thought that why not try some of the summer honey and put it to good use.
The spoonful of honey in my mouth the other evening – it was so delicious that I cannot find words for it other than out-of-this-world-tasty, and I could really understand the image of honey being the nectar of the Gods. Unfortunately, my euphoria only lasted an hour or two, before I started to get an itch, first on my legs and later all over my body. When I looked at what I at the first itch thought must have been bites from some nasty small flies that had entered our house, I got a big shock. I had red rashes everywhere. Fortunately it was all gone by the morning, but what a disappointment I woke up with, having discovered that I am allergic to the most delicious sweetness I had ever tasted. I will work on my courage to try a little honey again, but maybe next time I will put it in hot water and hope that I avoid any complications. And that the taste is still there.
