image:
“The ika had made too many turns.”
We watched as the trained sushi chefs silently and expertly added more plates onto the conveyor belt. It was late afternoon and there were maybe five other customers who sat perched on their stools in cramped quarters. Our gaze was focused on the freshest catch to satisfy our appetites.
A plate of ika[1] nigiri sushi went round and round, waiting for someone to claim it and save it from yet another 360-degree turn on the belt. The ika had made too many turns. It was not attracting any one of us as we conspiratorially and collectively ignored its existence. One of the sushi chefs sprayed it with some water to give it a glistening exterior, just as a woman would put on fresh make-up to attract a suitor.
I remarked to my companion, “wouldn’t it be sad to become a dry piece of squid on the kaiten sushi of life? That’s a fate one wants to avoid.” We laughed about it as we began making a conscious effort to avoid it while counting every turn it made. Four, five, six…it went round and round, to a point where you wanted to ask the itamae-san[2] to please put it out of its misery.
Years later, the shop went out of business. And I too found myself discarded like some unwanted fish.
referenced works
- Few countries eat as much squid in as many different ways. Have you tried hotaru ika (firefly squid), an early spring delicacy the size of a large beetle, that squelches sensuously down your throat in a gush of fishy gutsiness? Or ika sugata yaki, a mortician's masterpiece of whole squid grilled whole and served in as "lifelike" a position as possible? ↩
- Literally, person in front of the chopping board. Even the cheapest sushi places will usually have live performances of your particular morsel being prepared. How long it languishes unclaimed on that cold belt of death is a different matter. By contrast, itamae-sans in the very finest establishments never let their sushi expire in such an undignified fashion; they are attentive even to exactly the right temperature of their fingers as they coax fish and rice into a gem-like mouthful, which should be consumed almost as soon as it leaves their touch. ↩
location information
- Name: a kaiten sushi shop (now gone)
- Address: 24-8 Udagawa-cho, Shibuya
- Time of story: afternoon
- Latitude: 35.661236
- Longitude: 139.699445
- Map: Google Maps
033 “Dewy eyes closed, her porcelain arms and legs splayed attractively”
032 “The ika had made too many turns.”
031 “A tongue was moving around my big toe, like a warm slug crawling. ”
030 “Ichor will gush out of this carefully constructed image”
029 “I wince, more than her.”
028 “Their schoolbags were puddled around their socks, forgotten”
027 “Amongst the bottles and the obscure records and the crimson velvet walls”
026 “Nostalgia isn’t an easy indulgence for amateurs”
025 “... but anyway please take one of these little cheese cakes ...”
024 “The inhabitants of the blue, makeshift tents in the bushes.”
023 “Yeah … I’m sorry too. Merry Christmas.”
022 “I was dead broke. It was winter.”
021 “The district's energy had faded to rest on my last night there.”
020 “The slightly bald salaryman didn't correspond to any memory I could conjure up.”
019 “She laughed at my effort and responded in English, ‘Long time, no seduction.’ ”
018 “In my dreamy state, oblivious to signs and announcements I often boarded the wrong train.”
017 “I was fifteen years old and it was one of those nights.”
016 “That ear of corn just wanted to go home”
015 “With his painstakingly coiffured mane blowing in the wind”
014 “Her voice, even across languages, betraying her worry.”
013 “I saw them drawing bamboo sticks from a silver rectangular box.”
012 “A simulacrum of someone else's home, equal parts comfort and loss.”
011 “Jumbled Escheresque insanity where geography in any traditional sense ceases to exist.”
010 “I could hardly make out anything apart from his glowing eyes...”
009 “Shibuya was like a stroke.”
008 “I cried for a while and wiped the dead bracken off my karate pants.”
007 “Both my tie and my disposition hang limp as I calculate the remaining distance to the station.”
006 “I once read about a Chinese maiden whose feet were unbound by a cruel man …”
005 “The Bad Girl strutted off and I was left with a ham egg pie.”
004 “I arrived expecting an irritated Japanese person to step out of the crowd and identify himself as Hideki.”
003 “The woman at the ticket window seemed surprised to see another human being. I was the only visitor.”
002 “Flanked on either side by adult manga shops and the like, the smell of yakitori in the air.”
001 “For two weeks the day began with this morning walk, our shared routine.”
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