For Japanese people, Bulgaria is a slightly unusual country.
Not that many people know the country itself in great detail, yet the name “Bulgaria” feels surprisingly familiar.
And the main reason is overwhelmingly yogurt.
When Japanese people hear “Bulgaria,” many probably think of Meiji Bulgaria Yogurt before they think of the capital or the national flag.
Meiji Bulgaria Yogurt was first sold in 1973.
That means people in Japan have been seeing the word “Bulgaria” on supermarket refrigerator shelves for more than 50 years.
It is quite unusual for the name of a foreign country to become so deeply embedded in everyday life through an ordinary food product.
What is interesting, though, is that while many Japanese people know Bulgaria as “the country of yogurt,” far fewer know how Bulgarians actually eat yogurt.
In Japan, yogurt is often eaten plain or with sugar or fruit.
But what about in Bulgaria?
Is it used in cooking? Is it drunk? Is it eaten every day?
Many Japanese people probably do not know.
We know “Bulgarian yogurt,” but we do not really know “Bulgarians and yogurt.”
That gap is interesting.
People who exercise may encounter the name Bulgaria somewhere completely different.
The Bulgarian split squat.
It is a common exercise in Japan too, with one foot placed behind the body on a bench or other raised surface.
So some people encounter the word Bulgaria in the supermarket, while others encounter it at the gym.
That still does not mean they know much about Bulgarian cities or history.
Yogurt and squats. Two completely different places, yet the country’s name somehow feels familiar in both.
For a certain generation of Japanese people, there is also one important person connected with Bulgaria.
Kotooshu.
He was a Bulgarian sumo wrestler who rose to the rank of ozeki and also won a top-division championship.
With his large frame and approachable personality, he became a popular wrestler.
For me too, Kotooshu may be the first face that comes to mind when I think of a Bulgarian person.
Until then, Bulgaria had mostly been the name on a yogurt container. Kotooshu gave the country a real human face.
Among younger generations, though, this association is probably much weaker.
Some Japanese people also know Bulgaria as a country of roses.
The Valley of Roses, rose festivals and Bulgarian rose products are familiar to people with an interest in fragrance or cosmetics.
It creates a completely different image from the white yogurt Bulgaria: a country of roses and fragrance.
Then there is one oddly specific piece of trivia that some Japanese people remember.
“People in Bulgaria move their heads the opposite way for yes and no.”
The reality is more complicated than that simple explanation, but this is how the idea is often remembered in Japan.
It is interesting that someone may know almost nothing about everyday life in Bulgaria and still remember this one fact.
When it comes to the language, however, Bulgaria suddenly feels much farther away.
Ask a Japanese person how to say “hello” in Bulgarian, and very few could answer immediately.
The country name may have been familiar since childhood, yet the language remains almost completely unfamiliar.
Food is similar.
Ask, “What food comes from Bulgaria?” and many Japanese people can immediately answer, “Yogurt.”
But after that, the list becomes much harder.
Bulgaria has dishes such as Shopska salad, banitsa and tarator, of course, but these names are not widely known in Japan.
When you think about it, that is a rather unusual situation.
Japanese people know the name Bulgaria very well.
They eat yogurt, do Bulgarian split squats, and some generations remember Kotooshu. Others know about roses or the head-nodding trivia.
And yet when it comes to the country’s cities, language, everyday dishes or ordinary life, the picture suddenly becomes much less clear.
For Japanese people, Bulgaria may be a country whose name feels very close, even though the country itself still feels far away.
