The answer is a rice scoop.

Japanese staple diet is rice. When we dish out rice from a special rice cooker to a rice bowl which is dish for rice, we use it to scoop rice. It is easy for everyone to use it. I will tell about what it looks like. One end is a handle which we grip. The other side is flat and wide. And its surface is gritty in order for grains of rice not to stick to it.

During Yayoi period(B.C. 1～A.D.4) , a rice scoop was introduced from China and made of wood then. A wooden a rice scoop didn’t wash easily because boiled Japanese rice which are very tender and sticky stuck on it. Now a rice scoop is made from plastic. As I mentioned earlier on, its surface is gritty. That’s why gains of rice hardly stick on a modern rice scoop.

I researched why it called a rice scoop. First it was called “meshi-shakuji”. Meshi mean rice. Shakuji means scoop which scoops food. In the old days, people call it “meshi-shakuji”. The pronunciation has changed with the time passing. And now it is called a rice scoop.

　I have to talk about a rice cooker, too. A rice scoop is generally attacked to a rice cooker so that we can scoop rice to a rice bowl quickly. When you are very hungry, this system is a little convenient.

　　 If you have a chance to use it, you needn’t be afraid of it.