The Dangerous World of "I'll have that!"

I'd like to start out this little adventure by relating my inspiration for this blog.

Food.

The food is amazing, and the beer (while OVERLY FOAMY - two inches is standard) is pretty tasty too.

Unfortunately, as a westerner, my knowledge of kanji (one of the three Japanese alphabets) is limited. And by limited, I mean that I can’t write my own name, and I need to dance like a monkey to order up a pint of beer.

Thus, my usual plot when in a restaurant is to find a tasty picture and point to it. I’ve upgraded to adding in an are-oh-kudesai (~Please give me that) or Kore oh onigaishimas (~I’ll have this, please) while pointing at said picture.

I ran into trouble when I went into a little sushi shop before work one day. I start work at noon, really, so I think very little of eating lunch-type food as my first meal of the day. See, I went into this little sushi shop near my office for lunch. All went according to plan until I realized that they didn’t have any pictures. Still, I figured I’d be adventurous and just order something at random. I picked something in the mid to high range for the place (1200 yen, or $12 Canadian) thinking that I couldn’t go wrong by upgrading. So I pointed, and used about 15% of my Japanese vocabulary to say that yes, I did want the thing that I was pointing to, and we were off on another culinary adventure.

I was pretty excited as I watched some nice bowls of sashimi (Yes, Grandma, that's raw fish, which I dearly love.) and some tempura lunches come out. I was in good spirits until the chef emerged--grinning ear to ear--and plopped in front of me…

A huge bowl of fish eggs. I mean huge. Like a half pound. Salmon Roe, Lobster Roe, and four or five other kinds of fish embryos tossed in on a bed of rice. Pickled vegetables and some miso completed the party.

Now, I am an adventurous man, I like these on sushi rolls, and most of all, I try to sleep in the beds I happen to make. With fierce determination, I dove in.

Thirty minutes later, I tapped out, unable to squish down a single more little ball of almost-fish. Still, in this case, I firmly and positively maintain that glass was half empty.


Today’s Score:

Brent 1, Culture Shock 0. (OT)

Bring it on, Baby.