Bring your own spoon and fork

Japanese are known for their cleanliness. As early as 8th century AD, Japanese population was divided into two groups according to Shinto concepts of purity. Shintoism was basically a primitive folk religion and Shinto concepts equated goodness and godliness with purity and cleanliness. Shinto held that impurities could cling to people, making them evil or sinful.

When I first met my Japanese sister-in-law almost 10 years ago, I was so delighted to get to know her even though I don't have a Japanese-English dictionary in my bag. Until now I still don't know how I could speak with her when my brother is not around, the least I can do is make her feel that she's welcome to our family and I am happy that they gave us our sweet little monster nephew.

One time, we go out to shop and after the exhausting walk she told us that we should rest and have something to fill us up. We are in a fine dine resto when she took out a pair of clean funky utensils. I was so curious but I didn't asked her. Then I noticed after eating, she took a wipes in her bag, wiped her spoon and fork, put it in a Ziploc and in to her bag.

One of the thousands of things I learned from her is to bring clean spoon and fork every time I go out. She told me that we are not sure that public spoons and forks (plastic or stainless) are clean, we can get sick because of that. Even though restaurants and fastfood chains sterilized it, it is not 100% guaranteed clean because handling and placing it on the table can get it contaminated.

So invest a cute or unique pair of utensils and save Earth in style. You'll be amazed of how much plastic you can save from hitting the dumpsters.

I have my pair of Studio 2000 I bought in Australia, so restos won't mistake that I'm taking home their utensils. LOL!