Thursday March 28, 1991
Nana pokes the fish, hoping for a sign of life, as Mrs. Yamanaka looks on.
MJN and I walk up to Mrs. Yamanaka's house. On meeting her, MJN immediately wins her over by complimenting her garden in his phrasebook Japanese. She and Nana are going to take us out to lunch at an expensive restaurant where live fish sashimi is the speciality. The weather is clear and the azalea bushes lining the streets are in full bloom. "Good travel season." says Mrs. Yamanaka and we all agree that this is the best time of year to visit Beppu.
The main open area of the restaurant has a huge pool stocked with fish. As it turns out, it isn't decorative. That's our lunch swimming around. We are shown to a small private room off the main room. We steel ourself with sake and soon the whole fish is brought in on a large platter. The fish has been fileted live, and the slices laid back in the fish. The fish isn't moving, so Nana pokes it with her chopsticks. It flaps its tail weakly, and she and Mrs. Yamanaka squeal. Now Nana and Mrs. Yamanaka have paid top dollar for this meal, and Nana wants to ensure it's memorable. This fish isn't moving to her satisfaction, so she pours a little sake down it's throat. That gets it going. Nana and Mrs. Yamanaka are the best part of the show, though. Like small girls they get closer and closer to the fish, poking it with chopsticks, and when it finally moves, they jump back and scream.
The sashimi is delicious and I'm sorry when they take it away. But it turns out that that was only the first course. The next course is fish head soup. When it comes, Nana tells us, "The eyes are the delicacy. Please eat them." This leads credence to my belief that the Japanese are all involved in a giant conspiracy to see exactly what bizarre things they can make gaijin do--a national "Candid Camera". But I don't mind playing along and MJN's a good sport, too. So we eat the fish eyes. I swallow mine whole, pretending it's a giant grape. "Mmmm. Delicious." I smile. All in all, it's an incredible lunch and an unforgettable experience.
A very full MJN after lunch.
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens
March 28, 2003
Comments
In the first or second week I had started teaching English, two other instructors took me and another newbie out to an izakaya where they served sashimi in that style. I knew it'd be fresh, but I had no idea that the fish was supposed to move - so, of course, when I go to get the first piece, right on cue as my chopsticks touched the meat, it shook - not a small shiver either but totally jerked. I jumped out of my seat it was such a surprise! Anyway, the fish was good, and to be honest, I was more than a little amused watching it go through rigor mortis after about 15 minutes. But at the same time, it seems like unnecessary suffering (I know how American of me). "koroshite-kudasai." -Jason
Comment by: Jason Cha. Posted April 1, 2003 04:10 AM.
How "American" of me?? Try the word "humane" instead. How cruel to enjoy torturing a helpless animal with no regard to its ability to feel pain. In my culture, animals are treated with respect and killed humanely and only out of neccesity, not subjected to the frivolous whims of misguided sashimi chefs. Shame.
Comment by: Dave. Posted March 23, 2006 11:20 PM.
Eating live fish is a disgraceful practise and brings your nationality into disrepute
Comment by: fatboy. Posted June 3, 2006 10:00 AM.
Shame on you. Can you please stop and think and use your brain to comprehend what you are talking about?? To eat something alive inflicts unnecessary pain and you simply shame yourselves to act in such a way as to have no campassion. We all have to eat but we DO NOT have to inflict unnecessary suffering. Bon appetit and hope u dont come back as a fish in Japan (or maybe that would be divine justice)
Comment by: annie. Posted June 3, 2006 10:03 AM.
I really hope you all rot in Hell for such shameless cruelty.
Comment by: Daniel. Posted June 3, 2006 10:07 AM.
I take back my previous comment as that surely makes me as bad as you. But such was my level of digust at the description above, i just flipped!
This and the three previous comments were all left by the same person who disdains to use his or her own name and email address when trolling other people's sites. -- M Sinclair Stevens
Comment by: Daniel. Posted June 3, 2006 10:17 AM.
Any culture that would inflict cruelty on this scale is truly barbaric. Totally horrifying.
Comment by: Jhumphreys. Posted July 20, 2007 02:36 PM.
I think everyone here is forgetting that all cultures are different. If you had grown up with this, it would be normal to you and you wouldn't mind it. It's not barbaric to the people who do this, and they do it because they can gather more of the "Life energy" of the fish by eating it this way. Don't diss a culture because it differs from your own. I wouldn't do this myself, but to the hosts it was a special meal and the guests didn't want to be impolite since it was not only expensive, but something their hosts thought would be enjobable for them.
Comment by: Me. Posted August 28, 2007 03:54 PM.
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If you're a vegetarian, you might want to skip this story.