I had occasional sleepovers with my Spanish elementary school friends. Sometimes I would invite them over to my house, and sometimes they would stay over. I don't remember what we played at all when I went to stay there, but what I do remember is the scene of grace before the meal.

Not all Spanish friend's homes did this, but if it was a devout Christian home, they said a grace before the meal. The grace usually goes something like this;

"Father. In gratitude for your charity, we will take this meal. Bless what we have prepared here, and let it be food for our minds and bodies. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen"

I'm not a Christian, but because When in Rome, do as the Romans do is my policy, I prayed with my friend's family.

In Japan, Japanese do not grace before meal, but say Itadakimasu before eat. Itadakimasu, the directly translation is I eat it, and what means deeply is grateful to recieve life. But these days, I often see people putting their palms together when saying Itadakimasu. You can see it for example, when eating with colleagues in the company cafeteria or at school. In my family do not put our palms together and only said Itadakimasu, so I was a little confused when I first saw it. When I changed jobs and ate at the company cafeteria with colleagues from another company, many of them put their palms together in the same way, or some put their palms with chopsticks, and I wondered if I was actually in the minority.

I got worried, so I did some research on the internet, and the results of the survey are as follows.

- Put the palms together and say Itadakimasu: 64%

- Say Itadakimasu but do not put the palms together: 28.8%

- Put the palms together but do not say Itadakimasu: 1.0%

- Do not put the palms together and do not say Itadakimasu: 6.3%

(Percentage of all Japan)

(Reference Site: いただきますの「合掌」、全国共通のマナーじゃなかった！ 東北人は…？)

I see that someone like me wondered. Looking at the details, most of the regions where people say Itadakimasu with their palms together are in western Japan. The region where most people say Itadakimasu but do not put the palms together is the Tohoku Region. And the larger metropolitan areas tend to do neither. According to researchers, the greeting Itadakimasu is not old, and spread nationwide from the Taisho era (1912-1926) to early Showa era (1926-1989). Some say that it became common only after the World War 2, when people were trained in eating manners. In Japan, where prewar Shinto education was denied by GHQ after the defeat in World War 2, did this mean that school education took place of religious norms as in Europe? Upon further investigation, some say that is this is an effect of televison, or some say that foreigners think that since Japan is a Buddhist country, they are supposed to put the palms together at all times, and imitate the "Japanese" putting their palms together, and the modest Japanese do not opposite it and imitate the imitated Japanese together. Althogh misunderstood around the world, but in Japan we do not put the palms together every time. I think many people watch on TV the Tibetan Monks putting their palms together and mistakenly thought the Japanese were the same.

The conversation about the grace before meals in Spain evolved into a coversation about the Japanese custom of saying Itadakimasu before meal. It's quite interesting to take one Spanish custom and compare it to Japan.