Hi, there. I am a Japanese. I am very glad to know that there seems to be a lot of people here in Boston who are fond of Sushi. So, I would like to introduce some Sushi manners. Actually, I am not prepared to do so right now and need consideration. I will write down some comments that would help you to see Sushi in different way. 1. Do not choose a table if possible. Choose the counter. The closer to a cook is the better. It is not customers who choose Sushi bars, but cooks who choose customers in Japan. Sushi bar is the most mysterious restrant in Japan. There are many kinds of Sushi bar in Japan. I mean "ranks". Most of the Sushi cooks has a strong pride in their skills and such skills are inherited from person to person basically. There is no Sushi school. I you would like to learn the high level skill, you have to serve an expert for a long time, maybe more than 10 years. As you can easily imagine, a lot of pupils drop out during the first five years when they have to learn how to cook only rice. After the long long traing years, a master sets his pupil up in his own buisiness, and there is a Japanese idiom to describe this, "NOREN WO WAKERU". You cannot open your own Sushi bar without the permission from your master. You can see this kind of strong vertical relationships in any other traditional Japanese field, "Sumo Wrestling", "Kabuki", "Nou", and even "Yakuza". So, Please take a seat close to a cook and see his skill. Such a seat is often reserved for peoriodical customers without any sign in Japan and sometimes we are refused entrance if we are not peoridical customers. Some of the highest level Sushi bar do not set the price in advance. A cook sets the price according to the ingredients, "NETA", that he purchaced at a fish market that morning and the "atomosphere" between a customer and him. In case of "TORO", the price sometimes even goes up to 50 US dollars for only two pieces. There is a Japanese word "MA" to describe that "silent atomosphere caused by the short distance between two people". Please enjoy "MA" and see a cook moving his hands carefully next time you go to Sushi bar. 2. Put a Sushi into your mouth upside down. If you order a Sushi that has a slice of raw fish on rice, such as "TORO", put it into your mouth upside down. This means your tongue will touch the ingredient at first. If you do so in front of a cook, he will regard you as a Sushi expert and give you a better service. If you would like to apply soy source, "MURASAKI (Sushi Jargon, means purple), on a piece of Sushi, make sure to put a Sushi onto soy source upside down. Do not touch rice side onto soy source. It's a manner to keep soy source from being dirty. Now, you finished tasting a piece of Sushi. Please don't forget to renew your mouth with pickles (probably colored pink) and green tea , "AGARI (Sushi jargon)", before putting another piece of Sushi into your mouth. Pickles and green tea are served for this purpose. It is never bad manner to eat Sushi with your hands. Hold a piece of Sushi, "throw(^^)" it into your mouth and wipe rice off your hands with a wet tiny towel, "OSHIBORI". Do you understand the purpose of that towel? If you follow all these instructions, a cook will probably think you are stylish, "IKI". Takahiro Kawamura(25, but a half year old here)
Sushi