This dissertation examines interactions between sushi chefs and customers at sushi bar counters, using both ethnography and conversation analysis methods, with a particular focus on the communicative practices and embodied actions participants deploy both to make requests for food, and to receive and register these requests. It is argued that…

The Big Mac can be effective tool in helping students achieve a better understanding of Japan. It can defeat Orientalist stereotypes about the Japanese--and also challenge young people who might have oversimplified notions of what exactly occurs when U.S. fast food chains take root in another culture. Many deride McDonald's as a villain…