On sushi

The first thing people ask me whenever I mention that I have been/am going to Japan is whether I speak Japanese. To this I answer truthfully that no, I don't, even if I once could understand a bit (and hope to do so again with more time spent there). The second question that nine out of ten people ask (or so my unofficial research indicates), is whether I am very fond of sushi.

The answer to that question is also no, sadly.

The first time I ate sushi was in the Japanese embassy in Norway, and while every other part of the meal was delicious (it was a buffet with several Japanese specialties), the raw fish with seasoned rice didn't strike my fancy. I ate it, of course, politely pretending it was oishi (ironically, one of the few Japanese words I remember is the one expressing delight over yummy food). But I didn't intend to ever eat it again.

Two visits to Japan later, I know that this was a silly intention. You cannot escape sushi entirely if you have a connection to Japan, even if Japanese food culture is a lot richer than many Westerners seem to think (as suggested by my "research" above, many people assume that in Japan people eat sushi all the time, while my experience indicates that this isn't actually the case). Because this particular dish is such a big part of what we think of when we think about Japan, however, sushi tends to come up as a topic and as a dining alternative surprisingly often. I've dodged many sushi invites by admitting that it's not exactly my favourite, but then again, I really hate being picky. Generally I eat, and like, most of what I'm served, so it feels frustrating and stupid to not like a dish so often served in connection with a country I've come to form quite close ties with.

Thus I have a plan for the upcoming stay. I want to learn to like sushi. I don't just mean tolerate it - I already do that. As long as I avoid the squid and go easy on the soy sauce, I will eat everything. But I don't enjoy it.

At least it looks oishi... 

I want to enjoy it. Sushi is very chic. It's healthy, and yet a common take-away. If I feel like eating out, the atmosphere in many sushi places appeals to me. I love eating with chopsticks. Besides, I have a somewhat romanticized idea of how wonderful it'd be to sit in a sushi bar somewhere, elegantly balancing the small bites, chatting about art or music or fashion.

If I can't learn to like sushi in Japan, I probably can't learn to like it. I have six months to try. Hopefully this time next year, I'll be able to answer "some" to the first question people ask me when I say I've lived in Japan, and "absolutely" to the second...



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By the way, with the packing and the jitters keeping me occupied there is probably no reason to expect any new posts from me before I arrive safely (hopefully) in Tokyo. Which is sooner than I'd like to think about (and yet not soon enough. Funny that).