Of Sushi

Another bright and sunny day here in Kyoto. Spring has finally arrived, and it's beautiful. With that in mind, classes started the other day. Things are going well so far. I'm in B class. They go from F to A, A being the highest before you're put into seiki level, which is when you can take classes in Japanese with Japanese students. As is, I can take classes in English with them, but not their normal Japanese classes. Not gonna' lie, understanding is fine, so I may sneak into a couple this semester anyway if I get the chance. As is, right now I'm taking a Comprehensive Japanese class, a Listening & Speaking class, a Writing course, as well as International Organizations (which focuses on NGOs, etc.), Political Economies of East Asia (comparing Japan, China, Korea), possibly a Women's Studies course which is focused on women in war (I know. Not my specialty, but interesting), and last but not least, hopefully a International Management course (which looks at the logistics and marketing strategies of an international corporation). Overall, a pretty decent schedule if I do say so myself.

To answer a quick question that was posted in comments, classes will continue as normal. Kansai is in fact so fine that nothing will change whatsoever with regard to classes. We may take in some more students though who are refugees. Therefore, no worries with class schedules changing unless something major strikes Kansai. The rest of Japan is obviously a bit more affected. According to Tai, Rikkyo University is only taking in two international students this semester because the rest cancelled due to fears of going to Tokyo. I'd like to say that I'm personally proud of those students and especially one of them since he is also from Miami.

What people aren't understanding abroad is that Japan is quite a big country. The problem is that it's normally compared to California. People therefore get a little nervous because California is only 1 state in a country of 50 of them. However, Japan is also relatively the same size as Italy. Because Italy is a country and not a state (by the American English definition of course), people suddenly become much calmer. Therefore, I'd like to propose comparing Japan to Italy in size for the rest of time.

Due to the belief that Japan is a small country, people are refusing to buy fish from Japan. I understand as much as the next person that when you hear about radioactive materials being dumped into the ocean, the last thing you want to do is go eat fish. Most of Japan's fishing is done farther away from the coast though. This is due to past overfishing problems. But Michelle, you might say, fish swim. They can swim close to the coast. And yes, they can. I don't deny it. But if you're concerned about that, then don't eat fish that live close to shore. Those that live out in deeper waters should of course be checked, but if they make it into your markets, they are safe. Japan's economy depends on exports. They will be responsible in this.

In order to prevent more radiation from escaping to the ocean though, TEPCO has installed steel barriers and silt fences. Although I'm not sure about the effectiveness of this, we can only trust them for now.

I love me a good plate of sushi and honestly, if I can eat it here, then you can eat it thousands of miles away. Furthermore, most sushi restaurants abroad are actually switching to fish from other places. Even Japan is not necessarily making sushi from locally caught fish at times. If you're eating salmon sushi for example, it much more likely that it will be from Norway, and your tuna will likely be from Spain. The term sushi (寿司) refers to fish that is offered with vinegared rice. It is a preparation style, and in no way requires the fish to be harvested from Japanese waters. The only requirement of that fish is that it must be of an exceptionally high quality to serve raw. If it is not, you could end up making your customers sick. 

So, this begs the question, which is sushi? In the West, it often refers to what is called makizushi (巻寿司) here in Japan. This is the rolled sushi. It is rice, fish, and sometimes vegetables wrapped with rice in a piece of nori (海苔) or seaweed. A second of type of sushi is nigirizushi (握り寿司). This is hand-formed sushi which is a bit of rice, some wasabi, and fish or something on top. There is also oshizushi (押し寿司), which is literally "pressed sushi." This is specialty in Osaka, where a block-type sushi is formed. There is also inarizushi (稲荷寿司), which is a wrapper made of fried tofu filled with sushi rice. It was believed to be a favorite of the god Inari. I actually find this to be quite sweet, and normally reserve it as a dessert-type sushi for this reason. Second to last, we have chirashizushi (ちらし寿司), which is literally a "scattered sushi." This is when the fish is put on top of rice in a bowl. Lastly, there is narezushi (熟れ寿司), which I actually haven't had yet, but it's been fermented. Considering that Kyoto is known for it's fermented foods, I'll have to check it out.

So, now that we got cleared up. Please don't put your local sushi restaurant out of business. Go support them. It's delicious, and you should at enjoy it when you know its safe.

Oh, and before I go, I'd just like to state that I want a subscription to NIKKEI Shinbun so bad. Because I currently don't have a subscription, their newest articles right now are locked. I have to figure out the cost of it, but I think it'd be nice.

Sources:

Grab Your Chopsticks and Geiger Counters (WSJ)

TEPCO Installs Barrier to Prevent Sea Contamination (WSJ)