Buying Fish, Japanese Style

So we're in the basement of the Seibu department store tonight, looking for our next pigout on sushi and all of a sudden we hear this yelling in Japanese and witness a crowd forming.

What's happening is the nightly fish auction. You've got at least one, if not two people working the crowd, calling a play by play as to how the guy behind the counter is hacking up a fish (tonight's example, a 50lb tuna). The commentators have wireless microphones so that everyone who's gathered to watch the spectacle can hear what's going on. As the fish is cut into sections by the butcher using an extremely sharp knife (cuts bone like butter, or maybe the fish had already been deboned), the part of fish being cut is wrapped in plastic, weighed, labeled and then placed in the freezer case for purchase. Those interested in that particular cut of fish, then rush over to the freezer case and grab the piece they want.

I sat there in awe tonight over the happenings, wishing that the seafood that we normally purchased was THAT fresh. Our sushi dinner, was, again, fantastic, complemented with a bottle of Saki that contained no English print. I had to guess (we do that a lot here in Japan with food and drink) that it was Saki, and based on price, I'd say it was a mid range example. Not too shabby.

One other food related note... we'd read somewhere that the Japanese don't really much care for sweets, but after seeing the endless rows of confectioners in the food basements of the grocery stores, I declare that claim utter horsepuckey...

~S