FISH SO FRESH …

A Japanese friend from church, a good classical pianist who earns a living from playing for weddings (assembly line), took me to a sushi restaurant in Kobe’s Sannomiya downtown area a few weeks back.

Two new experiences:

ONE: it was the last evening of the “Coming of Age Day” weekend, when young people celebrate becoming officially “adult” (and drinking age) at 20. Our basement story restaurant was full of already inebriated 20-year-olds singing, joking and talking way too loudly. Girls often wear traditional kimonos, and some in the restaurant were – although later some Japanese women I spoke to were horrified that they would risk soiling their expensive kimonos in a restaurant. “They should change clothes before going out!” they insisted.

TWO: My friend ordered a house specialty – sashimi from a freshly sliced and diced fish from a restaurant tank. Note, I didn’t say freshly *killed* fish. It was delivered to the table exquisitely presented, live, gills still thrusting in and out, with a little wooden harpoon stuck through it from tail to neck with one side already sliced off into raw sashimi slices and some clear curly decorative radish covering where the meat on one side had been removed. We dined on its fresh pink flesh as it slowly died. Um … I’m not a PETA supporter, but you gotta draw the line somewhere!