Quote Originally Posted by pbjsandwich View Post
I'm not sure if anyone explained this yet. *Is too lazy to read through all the posts* But my parents told me that the Japanese slurp their soup/noodles to show that they like the food. It's to show respect to the chefs and it's actually considered rude if you don't do it....
That is not true. They do it at home too (I have lived with my in-laws in a while), even when they cook it themselves. So it's definitely not to show appreciation. They slurp any liquid that it hot because it is hot. I noticed that the Japanese have an amazing ability to eat or drink anything at a much hotter temperature than I could ever do. For them I am "nekojita" (lit. "cat's tongue", which means having a tongue sensitive to heat).

I noticed that quite a few other Europeans I know were also said to be "nekojita" in Japan. I guess that is because the Japanese have developed a skill to absorb air while drinking their hot tea or ramen soup, so that the coolig process takes place inside the mouth. I prefer to hold my noodles above the bowl for a few seconds and even blow some air on it until it has cooled down a bit. Japanese people rarely do that.

I am not sure they should be proud of this ability to eat/drink too hot; after all the Japanese have a much higher rate of oesophagus and stomach cancer than Westerners, and this is probably the main cause.