A sushi story

Tonight, after work, I stopped by the little revolving sushi place near my school to get a quick bite to eat and in turn had the coolest "sushi experience" of my life. It all happened as a result of the fact that I am the most clueless of all the clueless Americans in Japan. It seemed perfectly normal to me to reach out and take a plate of tempura off the revolving tray, what did not seem normal was how the man I was sitting next to kept glancing back and forth at me and my plate. Never the less, I finished the sushi I had ordered and was about to move on to the tempura when the man said something to me in Japanese. I obviously had no idea what he was saying, but he was gesturing toward my food and that didn't seem like a good thing. Thirty seconds later four people where all speaking to me in Japanese and vigorously shaking their heads at my tempura. What I soon came to realize was that the tempura had been going around in circles for a very long time and all these lovely people had just stopped me from eating some extremely cold food. The chef cooked me up a new batch and while I waited the man sitting next to me and his wife/girlfriend started talking to me. It was quickly established that I had no idea what they were saying, so they started talking to me in a mix of Japanese and very broken English. I could make out maybe 25% of what they said, but I made out enough to realize that they wanted to share their sake with me. For those of you who don't know, sake is a kind of warm Japanese wine. I'd never had it before, but oh my goodness, it's freakin' strong! Even on a full stomach and just 3 or 4 cups (the cups are tiny, smaller than shot glasses) I could definitely feel it. I was shocked to see that the man had already finished about 4 bottles before sharing with me... actually, I imagine the 4 bottles had something to do with his extremely social and friendly disposition. The couple weren't the only ones talking to me though, periodically a man on the other side of the sushi bar would shout something over. Apparently he was 44 years old and lived in Portland, Oregon for a year.

What I thought was going to be a quick snack turned into a very cool and culturally educational experience. I not only learned to beware of late night revolving food, but I was also taught the correct time and way to get more green tea, and not to drink municha, Japanese cold tea, because it's gross. I also discovered that Japanese people like John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe, but figuring out that they actually said Marilyn Monroe can be a bit of a challenge. At some point the man next to me said "the chef says you're ... insert Japanese word here..." as his wife said "beautiful, beautiful"... I'm not sure why the sushi chef would be saying I'm beautiful, or if that's even what he actually said, but hey, I'll take a little self-esteem booster along with my healthy dose of culture! As I finally got up to go, my new sushi friends bid me farewell and called out "See you next week"... you can bet that I will totally be there.