My novel thread - questions regarding Japanese culture

Sorry, I guess.

The Japanese notions I pick up are grabbed from the net.
I have virtually always stated that I need "traditional" notions. I imagined some of them would be getting in disuse, but apparently all those I asked about, mean little to nothing in todays Japanese society. I cannot generalise this, as honestly, I don't know to what extent this is going to be true for my next questions.

As for the shichirin, notice how no one gave me a traditional alternative. If I'm going for an "electric hot plate", I might as well strangle the traditional Japanese flavour myself. If this means it is no longer valid for today's Japan, I guess so be it.
I'll leave to you Japanese, whether or not this evolution is a good thing.

I'm American.

You can still buy shichirin in Japan....in the Outdoor Goods department, together with the barbecue grills and other picnic and camping supplies.

In the home a ガスコンロ is used on those rare occasions when it is desirable to cook or warm a dish of food at the table. Very few Japanese dishes are done in this fashion.

Shichirin is a grill, not a "food warmer".
Shichirin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hibachi in N. America (as the link shows) is the same thing. Compare to the Japanese name for this:
Hibachi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I think you need to explain to us what you mean by "food warmer", otherwise as Mike said, this is impossible to help. You wrote " I am looking for a portable heating device that can be placed on a table to keep a meal hot, or to heat it up. " I'd say neither fits your description (very well, anyway). Why not just go with microwave oven (not on the table, of course) or make up your own device?

What dish are they eating?

Also, if you want to "keep a meal hot", for how long are you imagining? In a land of unpredictable calamities such as earthquakes, people don't leave on gas heaters and stuff when they are not at home. Far too dangerous.

Have you tried searching for pages which are written for prospective homestay students? Those are likely to cover a lot of the cultural differences/potential pitfalls/manners/etc.

At this point, a ceremonial bowl of spicy soup needs to be heated to be drinkable, not hot. I based the object in my story on the cubic shichirin in the given wiki link, since it seemed excellent in shape and size, and looks very traditional. I did modify it a bit, since it also needs to be very modern (the hydrogen thing) in how it works. The combination of advanced, postmodern technology and tradition is very important to my story. My alternative timeline made the influence of western and eastern culture on each other far less than in reality.

I've been through a large number of sources, including such student advisories. Unfortunately, as usual in scouring the internet for info, there are lots of conflicting sources.


Please don't feel you're being deficient in answers. It's especially me, who's fickle and demanding in my writing process. You've all been very helpful, and I hope I can continue my questioning the way it is going.

At this point, I am considering to translate what I have in English, but I don't expect to produce any timeless Shakespearian literature

So a big thanks to all of you ,regardless

Soup is always served in individual bowls, we do not use shichirin or konro to keep food hot on the table, we use such devices to 'cook' something at the table, like sukiyaki, shabu-shabu, or other nabe (pot) dishes, as Glenski and Mike mentioned repeatedly.
The only place I see the food heaters to prevent the food get cold is banquet rooms in hotels, western style, where people help themselves or buffet style breakfast also at hotels.

Spicy soup is not traditional Japanese either, it sounds like Chinese or Korean - Japanese soup are usually seasoned either salt, soy sauce or miso.

Soup is always cooked in the kitchen, served into bowls (lacquered wooden bowl called o-wan) and brought to the table while it is hot.
Freshness is important in Japanese cuisine, soup that is kept heated loses the flavour and is not good to eat.
In a very formal place, this bowl has a lid, to keep the soup hot.

*images of 'o-wan'

You didn't answer my question. Very annoying.

Crock pots are not in use here. People don't maintain food warm while someone is away just so they can eat it upon arriving at home. You are once again not giving enough information here!

Want soup heated? Use a microwave or the stove. We do it either way in my home. Want to KEEP IT WARM? Answer the question I posed -- for how long?

Is there a plot to this novel? Or is it just a vehicle for showcasing aspects of Japanese culture which ultimately are irrelevant to advancing a plot?

A conundrum arises when you try to write convincingly about aspects of a culture and lifestyle you know nothing about. And that is that your audience will consist of some people who are more knowledgeable and will find the attempts at authenticity forced and often inaccurate and of other people who won't have a clue and who will willingly swallow whatever you put before them. In other words, you can't fool the informed no matter how hard you try and the uninformed won't know the difference anyway. Which raises the question: What is the point of focusing on getting irrelevant minutiae right? Especially when you can just wave your magic wand and make everything right by saying "it's an alternate reality".

So if you want a traditional tabletop device for keeping spicy soup warm for a traditional ceremony, despite the fact there is no tradition of heating soup on a tabletop or of spicy soup or even any traditional soup ceremony.....then call it whatever you want to call it. "Authenticity" is no longer even a remote possibility at this point, so it makes little sense to get hung up over what to call the heater.

The other danger you run into when you try to force too much Japanese vocabulary into a story is that you either have to use footnotes, include a glossary at the end, or constantly annoy your readers with extraneous explanations of what the words mean. After a certain point it begins to look like the author is just trying to show off knowledge of Japanese vocabulary. There's nothing wrong with just calling the thing a "heater" or whatever that is in Dutch. A heater doesn't become cool or exotic by being called a shichirin or a hibachi or anything else; it's just a damned heater.

I am reminded of starry-eyed Japanese teenaged girls from the days when I used to pretend to teach English to people who pretended to learn it. Some mentioned they'd like to have a foreign husband. When I asked why I often got an answer about how cool it would be to discuss things in English. I pointed out that, "Honey, do I have any clean socks?" isn't particularly cool no matter what language you say it in. Point is, use Japanese vocabulary where there is no good equivalent in Dutch. Don't force Japanese words in just to add flavor. If the characters and the plot can't carry the story, then spicing it up with foreign vocabulary isn't going to save it. Like spice and cosmetics, sometimes less is more.

Mike Cash said:

Is there a plot to this novel?

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I suspect that this is still a faint work in progress.

Or is it just a vehicle for showcasing aspects of Japanese culture which ultimately are irrelevant to advancing a plot?

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If so, heed all of Mike's words immediately above this post. I agree with them 100%.

The other danger you run into when you try to force too much Japanese vocabulary into a story is that you either have to use footnotes, include a glossary at the end, or constantly annoy your readers with extraneous explanations of what the words mean. After a certain point it begins to look like the author is just trying to show off knowledge of Japanese vocabulary.

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This is precisely what happened in that 007 book I helped with.

On the other hand, I helped another author (pretty famous now) with some Japanese language used in a book on witches, werewolves, etc. and which included a Japanese goblin. The author knew exactly how much to even attempt getting away with, and how much (how little, actually) to bother explaining (and let the readers just accept the words and do what they should -- read the story).

Glenski said:

You didn't answer my question. Very annoying.
Crock pots are not in use here. People don't maintain food warm while someone is away just so they can eat it upon arriving at home. You are once again not giving enough information here!
Want soup heated? Use a microwave or the stove. We do it either way in my home. Want to KEEP IT WARM? Answer the question I posed -- for how long?

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Well, now. I thought I was rather clear. I "needed something to heat up a bowl of soup to a drinkable temperature". I understood your point very well about unpredictability, which is why I thought my answer to your question was obviously: heat up for immediate consumption. I'm sorry this wasn't apparent enough, but the first paragraph of my previous post was in fact specifically an answer to your question.

Mike Cash said:

Is there a plot to this novel? Or is it just a vehicle for showcasing aspects of Japanese culture which ultimately are irrelevant to advancing a plot?

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No, I always write plotless fiction. I also like to kid myself my readers appreciate that.

I'll probably explain my plot further when I have more to tell about it. At this point, you could consider me drawing the plot for you, as in answering the question "which way to Moskou?" with pointing in the right direction.

Mike Cash said:

A conundrum arises when you try to write convincingly about aspects of a culture and lifestyle you know nothing about. And that is that your audience will consist of some people who are more knowledgeable and will find the attempts at authenticity forced and often inaccurate and of other people who won't have a clue and who will willingly swallow whatever you put before them. In other words, you can't fool the informed no matter how hard you try and the uninformed won't know the difference anyway. Which raises the question: What is the point of focusing on getting irrelevant minutiae right? Especially when you can just wave your magic wand and make everything right by saying "it's an alternate reality".

So if you want a traditional tabletop device for keeping spicy soup warm for a traditional ceremony, despite the fact there is no tradition of heating soup on a tabletop or of spicy soup or even any traditional soup ceremony.....then call it whatever you want to call it. "Authenticity" is no longer even a remote possibility at this point, so it makes little sense to get hung up over what to call the heater.

The other danger you run into when you try to force too much Japanese vocabulary into a story is that you either have to use footnotes, include a glossary at the end, or constantly annoy your readers with extraneous explanations of what the words mean. After a certain point it begins to look like the author is just trying to show off knowledge of Japanese vocabulary.

Click to expand...

Glenski said:

This is precisely what happened in that 007 book I helped with.

On the other hand, I helped another author (pretty famous now) with some Japanese language used in a book on witches, werewolves, etc. and which included a Japanese goblin. The author knew exactly how much to even attempt getting away with, and how much (how little, actually) to bother explaining (and let the readers just accept the words and do what they should -- read the story).

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My story isn't purely Japanese, you know. Far from it; mainly European, but with Chinese and Japanese influences. The spicy soup thing is actually borrowed from initiation practices during my time in scouting.

The informed often appreciate little hints toward a subject very close to them. If I write about quantum mechanics, I also cannot fool the informed, or I would have to copy a healthy university syllabus in my explanation. That doesn't mean I can't use the subject at all. In fact, if you press your logic further, there's isn't much left I can write about.

My first novel was very appreciated among pretty much all of my readers. It is the reason I decided to attempt to write a second one. It featured a manned mission to Mars. Yet I'm no rocket engineer, I'm a lesser chemistry lab tech. The way I made my crew travel, is most probably impossible and a real rocket engineer would see that immediately. But I'm sure he'd like the story, and appreciate the attempt made in his favourite subject.

I chose to base my fictional world on the real one, and then wave my magic in it. This is a blessing for creating parallells and differences, placing messages about politics and society, human nature and reality's nature. And at the same time explain why the plot advances the way it does. Waving my magic isn't just part of the sport, it is the sport.

Mike Cash said:

There's nothing wrong with just calling the thing a "heater" or whatever that is in Dutch. A heater doesn't become cool or exotic by being called a shichirin or a hibachi or anything else; it's just a damned heater.

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True, but don't tell my readers that. Being specific and unconventional does help to create a certain atmosphere. As long as there is a purpose behind it.
There is no point in creating a fictional world that is unconvincing. Usually I add my descriptions through, e.g., the protagonist using it or talking about it in a relevant context. A "heater" can also use a bit of further explanation, you know. I consider being specific as very important, and in fact the only way of creating the atmosphere. Naming something a shichirin during that explanation causes the story to be just 8 characters (and 2 spaces) longer.

Mike Cash said:

I am reminded of starry-eyed Japanese teenaged girls from the days when I used to pretend to teach English to people who pretended to learn it. Some mentioned they'd like to have a foreign husband. When I asked why I often got an answer about how cool it would be to discuss things in English. I pointed out that, "Honey, do I have any clean socks?" isn't particularly cool no matter what language you say it in. Point is, use Japanese vocabulary where there is no good equivalent in Dutch. Don't force Japanese words in just to add flavor. If the characters and the plot can't carry the story, then spicing it up with foreign vocabulary isn't going to save it. Like spice and cosmetics, sometimes less is more.

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This isn't about vocabulary at all. It's about creating the context in which the plot advances. I can imagine a lot of things I can do in a story about socks being clean or not. E.g. it could help in describing the nature of a relationship between lovers, like the way they differ from each other. Creating lively characters isn't all about heroics and excitement. The little things in life usually aren't particularly cool, and that can be just the point of mentioning them.

I use Japanese vocabulary where I think the story can benefit from it. If it involves a Japanese character in a setting that has its Japanese influences, are there any alternatives to borrowing a few things from Japan?


That all being said, I'd like to point out I'm no established writer. I don't even perform very well in a quiz about literature. I wrote a book because I had a dream in my life, and my readers happened to like it a lot. I taught myself how to do it, with a certain "feeling" I have on how readers would react on the way I write things down.
I will probably never become famous. But writing my first book felt good. Getting positive feedback and recognition afterwards felt even better. So at least to some extent I know what I'm doing. I only ask for honest answers to my questions and a fair bit of patience with me.

Wardibald said:

Well, now. I thought I was rather clear. I "needed something to heat up a bowl of soup to a drinkable temperature". I understood your point very well about unpredictability, which is why I thought my answer to your question was obviously: heat up for immediate consumption. I'm sorry this wasn't apparent enough, but the first paragraph of my previous post was in fact specifically an answer to your question.

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This is your initial question (emphasis is mine). Can you see the difference from what you just wrote?

I am looking for a portable heating device that can be placed on a table to keep a meal hot, or to heat it up.

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Maybe we have a language problem here.

No, I always write plotless fiction. I also like to kid myself my readers appreciate that.

I'll probably explain my plot further when I have more to tell about it.

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I think he first 2 sentences above were a sarcastic response, not a serious one, so I'll skip over that with the impression that you are getting frustrated here, too. As for the second point, we don't need the full plot, but you seem to be missing the whole point of what Mike and I are saying. We've lived and worked in Japan for about 50 years combined, so you have to trust what we say about the wording you are choosing, but also about some of the details that we are picking at, ok?

I chose to base my fictional world on the real one, and then wave my magic in it. This is a blessing for creating parallells and differences, placing messages about politics and society, human nature and reality's nature. And at the same time explain why the plot advances the way it does. Waving my magic isn't just part of the sport, it is the sport.

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We're not telling you how to write. We're telling you about one specific point you asked about. You don't seem to get the advice and direction we're giving. The story, its plot, theme, and flow are entirely yours, but you're just not seeing one tree for the forest.

True, but don't tell my readers that. Being specific and unconventional does help to create a certain atmosphere. As long as there is a purpose behind it.

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Does that mean there is a purpose you aren't explaining to us about this heater thing? The way you write here, it seems to be some major sort of significance, but I really don't see it that way.

This isn't about vocabulary at all. It's about creating the context in which the plot advances.

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What context? We have almost none to go on. Call this thing what you want, or give us a reason to need to know more.

I use Japanese vocabulary where I think the story can benefit from it. If it involves a Japanese character in a setting that has its Japanese influences, are there any alternatives to borrowing a few things from Japan?

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I think we've given you plenty of advice on this. A heater is a heater (and feel free to use the katakana names I gave you at no charge), but you're thinking of using a Japanese word incorrectly here. Why can't you see that?

I only ask for honest answers to my questions and a fair bit of patience with me.

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I think we've demonstrated quite a bit of patience, otherwise we wouldn't still be here offering advice without cursing up a storm. You just aren't taking the advice!

After reading your reply this morning, I turned on my iPod and The Cars started singing: "I don't mind you coming here, and wasting all my time. 'Cause when you're standing oh-so-near, I kinda lose my mind."

I appreciate what you're trying to do, but I want you to try to understand it from our viewpoint as well. We're all Alice up here in the real world and we're trying to have a conversation with a guy who is down the rabbit hole. Poor Undrentide goes out of her way to explain about soup in Japan....and we discover that the soup is from your boy scout days in Belgium. What the hell are we supposed to do with that? We're all trying to help you with accurate and authentic information regarding real-world Japan....meanwhile you're off in your own self-created lala-land by yourself having Belgian boy scout rituals on Japanese tabletops with science fiction fueled heaters. I'm afraid there is really nothing we can do to help you. At least not without driving ourselves nuts in the process.

Let's make some things clear here.

Glenski said:

Maybe we have a language problem here.

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Your question -> post #30
My answer -> post #32

Next.

Glenski said:

I think he first 2 sentences above were a sarcastic response, not a serious one, so I'll skip over that with the impression that you are getting frustrated here, too. As for the second point, we don't need the full plot, but you seem to be missing the whole point of what Mike and I are saying. We've lived and worked in Japan for about 50 years combined, so you have to trust what we say about the wording you are choosing, but also about some of the details that we are picking at, ok?

We're not telling you how to write. We're telling you about one specific point you asked about. You don't seem to get the advice and direction we're giving. The story, its plot, theme, and flow are entirely yours, but you're just not seeing one tree for the forest.

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I think we've given you plenty of advice on this. A heater is a heater (and feel free to use the katakana names I gave you at no charge), but you're thinking of using a Japanese word incorrectly here. Why can't you see that?

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What am I doing wrong here? I chose an object named a shichirin from the wiki link you provided. (As I also stated in post #32) The cubic one, as it looks perfect for what I intend to do with it. It's got a round indentation and three points for suspending my bowl off the surface. It's perfect.

Glenski said:

Does that mean there is a purpose you aren't explaining to us about this heater thing? The way you write here, it seems to be some major sort of significance, but I really don't see it that way.

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It is just part of an initiation ritual the protagonist undergoes. What gives the best impression: heating the bowl in a microwave oven until it does its "ping" or heating the bowl with said cubic object?
Now, is that thing a shichirin or not? Because I do mind.

Mike Cash said:

After reading your reply this morning, I turned on my iPod and The Cars started singing: "I don't mind you coming here, and wasting all my time. 'Cause when you're standing oh-so-near, I kinda lose my mind."

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Is there a point to this, apart from trying to insult me?

Mike Cash said:

I appreciate what you're trying to do, but I want you to try to understand it from our viewpoint as well. We're all Alice up here in the real world and we're trying to have a conversation with a guy who is down the rabbit hole. Poor Undrentide goes out of her way to explain about soup in Japan....and we discover that the soup is from your boy scout days in Belgium. What the hell are we supposed to do with that? We're all trying to help you with accurate and authentic information regarding real-world Japan....meanwhile you're off in your own self-created lala-land by yourself having Belgian boy scout rituals on Japanese tabletops with science fiction fueled heaters. I'm afraid there is really nothing we can do to help you. At least not without driving ourselves nuts in the process.

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The fact that we're talking about soup here is because you asked what I was cooking. I never asked about any soup being Japanese, because I knew it was not, before you asked me about it. That being said, Undrentide's information might help me in a different scene, visiting a Japanese family. I'm not there yet, though.

You know, I'm pretty sure Japanese meals are sometimes prepared here in Belgium without actual Japanese cooking customs or equipment. And the other way around. Does that make my country also a lala-land?

I really appreciate the authentic and accurate information all of you are providing, but now you're just making this harder than it needs to be.

Actually, that would be you making things hard. We're the ones who provide answers and then get the rug pulled out from under us.

I'm done.

Give us a heads up when it makes it to English, always loved a good read whether its lala-land Japan or the real deal its success will be largely determined by how you write and who you pitch it at.

As mentioned above if you make it inconsistent and pitched it at Japanese people it would come across ( I imagine anyway) in a similar way to stereotypes made about Australians that are formed entirely on Crocodile Dundee movies and Steve Irwin footage.

But if its lala-land Japan and its pitched at people with very little experience with Japan or people who understand it to be a fictional portrayal then it may go across really well.

Wardibald said:

Let's make some things clear here.



Your question -> post #30
My answer -> post #32

Next.

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My question in the post was not answered. You only said, "needs to be heated", but earlier you wrote a choice of that or kept hot, hence the language problem I mentioned.

What am I doing wrong here?

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You're not giving enough information.

I chose an object named a shichirin from the wiki link you provided. (As I also stated in post #32) The cubic one, as it looks perfect for what I intend to do with it. It's got a round indentation and three points for suspending my bowl off the surface. It's perfect.

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We've told you it's not and explained why, yet you keep ignoring us.

Now we get the following new information:

It is just part of an initiation ritual the protagonist undergoes.

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and

I never asked about any soup being Japanese, because I knew it was not, before you asked me about it.

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This latter point makes a difference, but I don't think you see that.

What gives the best impression: heating the bowl in a microwave oven until it does its "ping" or heating the bowl with said cubic object?

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Since your story's reality is imagined, it doesn't make a bit of difference if you use a bonfire or a nuclear reactor to heat it. If you want to go ahead and call it a shichirin, the only suggestion I'd make is to consider whether your readers will look it up on Wikipedia and feel cheated/confused. Your call.

I really appreciate the authentic and accurate information all of you are providing, but now you're just making this harder than it needs to be.

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I gotta side again with Mike on this one. At least you are appreciative of some of what we're doing. There have been other cases of people coming here and getting so riled up that they left in a huff and were being totally unreasonable in their demands. Mind you, your posts are bordering on that, and the fact that you don't get it is the infuriating point to Mike and me.

I think we're over this heater thing. Thank goodness.

There will probably be new information that I could be posting all the time. Some might probably be relevant, some might not. I can immediately see two problems about that:

1. I may not have thought up the new information yet, making it a bit tricky to post it here. Everything I have written so far is subject to change at this point. And will be for some time.
2. I cannot know whether or not any extra information will be relevant. This means, if I want to be clear, the only thing I can do is post the whole story here, translated. Even then, point one still matters.

The shichirin debacle is an example of both of them. When I first asked the question about the shichirin, I had just begun writing the initiation scene (1).
Indeed I fail to see how the type of soup is relevant to the device needed to heat it, which is why I didn't mention it (2). I didn't/don't think a Russian, Vietnamese or Nigerian soup will make that much of a difference in temperature-change requirements. I simply wanted to do it with something that hinted towards a traditional Japanese device. I chose it, and wrote the scene based on your information, Glenski: being the wiki link and the fact that keeping a heating device on for an extended period is risky.

So why would anyone feel cheated if they look up a shichirin wiki and encounter the very device I described? I just modified it fitting the story. Meaning: old traditions have a larger degree of preservation in a modern, advanced society.

I am, and have always stated to be appreciative of every bit of information you and anyone else has given me, as long it is accurate, and I do not doubt that.
So please understand:
*I feel I have the right to that subject-to-change rule
*The difficulty I have in predicting what it is in my story that could be considered relevant to my questions.

If this results in getting blamed for "pulling rugs from underneath", then so be it. I will not beg or demand from anyone to come to this thread and answer my questions. I also will not, and have never blamed anyone for less-than-relevant but accurate answers, if that would even be possible. Consider everything that's accurate, relevant. Write about keeping dogs in Japan if I ask about drinking beer. I just might use it

To Speedy Japanese, and others with an interest:
Thanks for being interested
But at this point I am not translating anything, because, as I mentioned above, it could all still change drastically. Keeping track of the consequences of changing previously written parts is difficult enough in one language.

Cheers and thanks to all of you

A question about gift giving: when a foreigner visits a Japanese family with children under drinking age; is it appropriate to gift, for example, some premium Belgian beer? Would it be important that this isn't really a seasonal gift?

Also, I've read there is a special way of wrapping bottles together, but I couldn't find any conclusive information about that. How is this done?

I normally wouldn't gift a family Belgian beer when only a limited number of the family are likely to be able to enjoy it.

Excuse me. While I surely know less about Japanese culture than your main critics here, I perhaps do know something about writing and selling fiction, since I've done so under my real name. (Member of Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America and Mystery Writers of America. . . until I neglected to pay my annual dues and rejoin. lol)

The type of novel you're talking about is usually known in the US as an alternate universe story. Perhaps THE classic in the alternate universe sub-genre is "The Man in the High Castle," by Philip K. Dick, which takes place in a Japanese-occupied US after Japan and Germany win WW II. In such a story you may change certain events or historical characters, but they should be carefully thought out so that you don't confuse research sloppiness with an arbitrary right to wave your magic wand.

For instance, you said above, "The way I made my crew travel, is most probably impossible and a real rocket engineer would see that immediately." You'd never sell such a science fiction story in the US because too many fans and other writers are real-life rocket scientists. I suspect it may be the same in your country, but perhaps not.

Suppose for instance you start with the postulate, "What if John F. Kennedy was not assassinated"? Historical events afterwards would have certainly proceeded differently, but American culture probably wouldn't be much different.

Or suppose your postulate is, what if Japan didn't open its doors to the outside world until the mid-20th Century (instead of the mid-19th Century)? Then Japanese culture surely would be different in modern times. It would be more traditional. Perhaps there would still be samurai in traditional kimonos, but they would be using computers to make dates with geishas on the internet and receiving their lord's orders by text-message on cellphones.

Listen to some of the above advice about avoiding unnecessary description and definition. The artful way to show authentic cultural setting would be to weave it into the story so that the reader may understand it from the context. Example: "Musashi drew his katana and severed his opponent's right arm at the shoulder." You don't really need to set aside the story to explain what "katana" means, do you?

I just finished a pretty interesting novel set in mid-19th Century Japan, "The Scent of Sake," by Joyce Lebra, that is weighted-down by excessive narrative and cultural explanations.

I can see two ways to proceed with your novel. First, do a whole lot of research, while realizing you may only use one percent of it in your novel. Or second, write the story you want to write, and get criticism from someone knowledgeable in Japanese culture afterwards. Stories always need a lot of re-writes, or at least mine do, so the first draft doesn't have to be an instant classic. In fact, I write with the idea that the first draft will be a pile of crap.

I think it's usually a mistake to seek criticism of a work until you finish at least a first draft. If others don't talk you out of writing the story, you yourself probably will.

And please keep in mind the primary rule of seeking writing critiques: Accept only that criticism with which you agree, and disregard the rest.

Really good points from Roland, also Roland curious as to what you have written I love a good read.

For the wrapping, you're probably thinking of 'furoshiki' wraps. You can do single and double bottle wraps. They're not that difficult (I've done them for Xmas presents for people), but just like you can get fancy giftwrap done at a department store, you can get really impressive furoshiki wrap done professionally.

Because the furoshiki are reusable, there's quite a bit of interest in them as an environmentally friendly alternative to paper wrap, and there's loads of information in English.

Furoshiki is perfect! Thanks a lot!
In my novel, renewable resources are essential, so this fits really well. I'm notoriously bad in gift-wrapping and the like, but the basics look simple enough for even me to try it in RL

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I guess this is a good time to expand a bit on what I actually intend with this story.

The world I'm using for this story is the same one that I created for my first novel, but I focused on Europe, America and the Middle East for that one.
I did use a "one-event history change": the mixed Roman Catholic - Islamic marriage between general Saladin's brother with Richard Lionheart's sister, endorsed by the Pope, as a part of the heavily negotiated "Religious Peace of Jerusalem in 1193 AD". (negotiations for this did take place in history, but failed) This created a precedent for such mixed marriages and an end to hostilities between the European powers and the Arabic empire. This in turn allowed the Arabic empire to expand even further to include most of North and Middle Africa, Byzantium and more. The European powers' reaction to this incredible empire was to unite as well, in effect creating two empires with strong trade relations and combined scientific and cultural progress.

To keep this relatively short; my modern world, around 2000 AD, is advanced quite a bit further (say a century) than the real one, but is also extremely polarised in world politics. Especially the relations between Europe and America (N & S as one nation) on one hand, and Russia and China (Japan, Korea and Indochina included - sorry guys on the other, are on the brink of war and have been for some time. Think cold war, but with more superpowers actively involved.
This created the more traditional China, with large Japanese influences, I'd like to focus more on in this new story.

An important question I threw around (implicitly) in the first novel, and I'm planning to pick up again, is this:
Has the nuking of Hiroshima & Nagasaki in RL been a lesson for avoiding an all out nuclear war?

As WW II didn't happen in my story, a nuclear attack on another nation has also never occurred at the beginning of it. The story focused on a crew (mixed Arabian, American & European) on its way for the first manned mission to Mars, while on earth tensions rise and culminate in a triggered nuclear mass extinction event. I wasn't very specific on the actual trigger, since the crew had no way of knowing what happened except radio contact was lost indefinitely.

In this new story, I'd like to keep my feet on the ground, but focus some more on the actual trigger event, something in the likes of the Cuban missile crisis. I'd like to do this on the Island of Okinawa, supposedly sold to Europe in some deal hundreds of years earlier. Part of the deal would be: a largely independent administration on the island, and importantly: no military presence posing a threat to the mainland.
I'd like to wave my magic and secretly put a base of nuclear missiles there, that gets discovered, creating said crisis.

So the island needs to be a hugely unique mix between cultures, but especially between (traditional) Japanese and European. As it originated from a European colony, I'm keeping the strongest influence to be European. This also handily allows me to write the story without having to rely too much on Japanese culture, of which I am lacking in knowledge.

Of course, I am planning to learn a lot about Japan. In fact, this goes beyond the writing itself. I may or may not complete this story (circumstances in my life are very different from when I wrote the first story), but this knowledge, I'll carry around for the rest of my life.

So, in a (xl-)nutshell, that's why I'm here.