land of the rising sun

Japan is known as the “Land of the Rising Sun” and I know why. The sun was up this morning at 4:45 AM. This really surprised me. Atlanta and Tokyo are at nearly the same latitude, so I thought sunrise and sunset would be about the same. For the most part, Japan does not observe Daylight Standard Time. The sun was gone last night by 6:30 PM. All my previous visits were in late Fall or Winter, and sunlit hours never caught my attention because they seemed to be about the same as home.

Today was another hot and hazy day. Temperatures were in the 90’s with extremely high humidity. Outside, the haze seemed to hold the city held hostage until some rain finally began falling around sunset.

I met with my friend Masa for lunch and dinner. Lunch was Standing Sushi, a place where there are no chairs. In front of each standing spot is a small post where you can hang your backpack or laptop case. Standing Sushi is lunch at warp speed. The restaurant is tiny; my hotel room is larger. There’s not much conversation as people duck in to slam some lunch, and then bolt right back out. Because it’s sushi and prep can take a minute, you can literally eat lunch on a fifteen minute break.

Dinner was a slower experience. Masa got a little carried away. He said he wanted to know how I best liked fish. I said I really didn’t have a preference, and I was sure whatever we had would be great. THAT was a mistake. Masa ordered in Japanese, then told me food would begin arriving shortly. We started with a sashimi platter with varieties of snapper and amberjack, some cod, and I think even something called alfonsino (clearly named after Alfonso Ribeiro from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air). Next, and not necessarily in this order, we had fish served tempura’ed (baby scallops and vegetables), deep fried (assorted white fish), boiled (cod) and served in a teriyaki-ish sauce, grilled (marlin), and tartare (I have no idea what was in this one, but it was sort of red). They even gave us a colorful fish guide so we could know what the fish looked like as it’s former self. It didn’t please Masa too much when he again at the end of dinner asked for my fish preparation preference … I told him I liked it all (although the tartare was a bit weird for me).

Tomorrow is Eel Day.

filed under: sushi, tokyo