I
may not have always respected other peoples culture as much as I should
have in the past but as one gets older and grows to appreciate the
depth life has to offer you find that there is a lot of wonderful things
out there in this big, wide, wonderful world.
I was traveling through Japan a few years ago; it was my first trip to Tokyo so everything was new and exciting. Tokyo, for those of you who have not been is one of the most vibrant cities I have ever seen. It is truly Asian but so simple and easy to get around with a lot of signage in English and people who are friendly and only too willing to give you advice or help if you look lost. As there is so much to see and do in Tokyo I set out with a friend from the hotel early. Our first stop was the Tokyo fish markets, one of the largest fish markets in the world. It was everything I had been told and more. A huge sprawling complex of open sheds filled with fish of every shape, size and kind. It is a buzz of activity with people, buying, selling or just haggling, it is a feast for the eyes, the ears and the nose. We move in and around the different stalls among fish mongers and buyers and eventually exit the sheds to the side of the markets. As we come out of the relative darkness of the sheds and into the light we walk into what looked to me like a 1940s movie set. The area was made up of old ramshackle wooden 2 story buildings with open fronted shops and small sushi bars is rows. All the little bars looked quite intimidating in a strange way packed with people who seemed to know what they were doing and while an avid sushi lover here in Australia ordering sushi in Tokyo can be a different prospect all together, as it was early and we had not had breakfast we decide to take the plunge.
We eventually decide on a sushi bar that looked “right” for us but on entering realise that the shop is barely 3 meters wide and full of people, divided down the center by a counter doubling as work area for the sushi chef on one side and customer seating on the other it was a tight fit, cramped and well…..”very intimate”. We manage to squeeze past customers with our backs against the wall and find 2 stools right at the back. After taking our seats we look for a menu and realise that there is no menu and had to order from the glass cases filled with a wide and strange selection of exotic sea food. We had no idea what to order so we decide to put off the actual fish ordering and order Miso soup, every sushi bar has Miso soup, right? The small middle aged waitress shuffled over and bowed politely and we say in our best Japanese “Miso thank you”. As she stood there just looking at us with a blank expression on her face we repeated our request assuming that she had not understood. At this point she turns to the sushi chef and says something and looks at us with a very puzzled look and we say again “Miso please” only this time we also use our best miming skills to indicate the drinking of soup from a bowl. At this she looks back at the sushi chef smiles and hurries off. After about 10 minutes we are beginning to wonder why it would take so long to get Miso soup and it is only then that we realise that no one is drinking Miso but they are drinking beer. Note for later reference: Beer with sushi in the morning!
Eventually our soup arrives and we show our appreciation by drinking it down greedily and smiling and nodding our heads approvingly but the fish will not wait. As we peer into the glass case I see things that I could not even describe let alone had I seen before. We eventually take a deep breath and begin to order. To this day I am not one hundred percent sure what we ordered or what we ate but I can tell you it was a memorable experience and while we did not speak Japanese and our hosts could not speak English we both knew one thing; beer and sushi in the morning – you have got to love a country that has beer for breakfast.
I was traveling through Japan a few years ago; it was my first trip to Tokyo so everything was new and exciting. Tokyo, for those of you who have not been is one of the most vibrant cities I have ever seen. It is truly Asian but so simple and easy to get around with a lot of signage in English and people who are friendly and only too willing to give you advice or help if you look lost. As there is so much to see and do in Tokyo I set out with a friend from the hotel early. Our first stop was the Tokyo fish markets, one of the largest fish markets in the world. It was everything I had been told and more. A huge sprawling complex of open sheds filled with fish of every shape, size and kind. It is a buzz of activity with people, buying, selling or just haggling, it is a feast for the eyes, the ears and the nose. We move in and around the different stalls among fish mongers and buyers and eventually exit the sheds to the side of the markets. As we come out of the relative darkness of the sheds and into the light we walk into what looked to me like a 1940s movie set. The area was made up of old ramshackle wooden 2 story buildings with open fronted shops and small sushi bars is rows. All the little bars looked quite intimidating in a strange way packed with people who seemed to know what they were doing and while an avid sushi lover here in Australia ordering sushi in Tokyo can be a different prospect all together, as it was early and we had not had breakfast we decide to take the plunge.
We eventually decide on a sushi bar that looked “right” for us but on entering realise that the shop is barely 3 meters wide and full of people, divided down the center by a counter doubling as work area for the sushi chef on one side and customer seating on the other it was a tight fit, cramped and well…..”very intimate”. We manage to squeeze past customers with our backs against the wall and find 2 stools right at the back. After taking our seats we look for a menu and realise that there is no menu and had to order from the glass cases filled with a wide and strange selection of exotic sea food. We had no idea what to order so we decide to put off the actual fish ordering and order Miso soup, every sushi bar has Miso soup, right? The small middle aged waitress shuffled over and bowed politely and we say in our best Japanese “Miso thank you”. As she stood there just looking at us with a blank expression on her face we repeated our request assuming that she had not understood. At this point she turns to the sushi chef and says something and looks at us with a very puzzled look and we say again “Miso please” only this time we also use our best miming skills to indicate the drinking of soup from a bowl. At this she looks back at the sushi chef smiles and hurries off. After about 10 minutes we are beginning to wonder why it would take so long to get Miso soup and it is only then that we realise that no one is drinking Miso but they are drinking beer. Note for later reference: Beer with sushi in the morning!
Eventually our soup arrives and we show our appreciation by drinking it down greedily and smiling and nodding our heads approvingly but the fish will not wait. As we peer into the glass case I see things that I could not even describe let alone had I seen before. We eventually take a deep breath and begin to order. To this day I am not one hundred percent sure what we ordered or what we ate but I can tell you it was a memorable experience and while we did not speak Japanese and our hosts could not speak English we both knew one thing; beer and sushi in the morning – you have got to love a country that has beer for breakfast.
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