so that's how they make sashimi!

Wow! we just went for sushi at our local sushiya. We had a wonderful meal and mentioned to eachother how fresh the fish tasted, which brought about the conversation of how one would cut a fish, say, camping, as to enjoy its full raw freshness. (it makes me feel a bit like gollum from lord of the rings... "don't cook it, you're wrecking it!!") (also, one should not eat freshwater fish raw, only seawater fish is ok) As we were paying, a guy comes out with a net to the large fish tank in the entrance. He picked out one of the smaller (10 inches) fish, and took it behind the counter. Anticipating a lesson in sashimi, we quickly shifted over to the window in the wall, firmly blocking the doorway for the cashier who was stuck on the wrong side of the counter because of us. The sushi chef firmly held down the flapping fish, and within 3 cuts had one side of the fish's flesh off. three more and the fish was nothing but head, bones, and tail. Weirldy though, the mouth was still opening and closing (trying to 'breathe') and the tail would flap now and then. I stood there watching, mouth hanging open at the swiftness of his deft strokes. And the kitchen staff stood there chuckling at me gawking at the process! I'm sure they enjoyed the show of my expressions as much as I enjoyed seeing how they cut up the fish!

In response to our last post, the video, Ben showed it to one of his Japanese co-workers, who confirmed our suspitions that the subtitles is in fact what the people are saying, and no, it was not funny to her. "Probably funny to a foreigner though" she said.