» • • » Chinese student asks for cooked sushi at Sukibayashi Jiro, gets flamed by Chinese netizens There are no trackbacks yet. Skip the peace sign – Security researcher cautions against striking Japan’s favorite picture pose Japanese snow monkey filmed trying to have sex with a deer【Video】 Only Japanese cooks could make canned sardines this appetizing [Pics and Recipes] Attack on Titan manga’s former editor arrested for wife’s murder It’s the end of an era…literally! Emperor may abdicate throne in 2019 and end the Heisei Era Japanese Twitter user shares the phrase a man should never say to his wife Japanese cat owner’s kitty becomes her iPhone case, fills tech fans and animal lovers with envy Green tea Cup Noodle brings matcha to the wonderful world of instant ramen Colonel Sanders becomes harbinger of death in darkly comical Japanese New Year’s card Gorgeous Kingdom Hearts stained glass clock installed in Tokyo for game series’ 15th anniversary

Kids today get all the best toys! “Sketch Aquarium” turns doodles into lifelike swimming fish Make your boyfriend hate you with these Line stickers designed for pushy, clingy girlfriends NowWeeklyMonthlyYearlyNowSkip the peace sign – Security researcher cautions against striking Japan’s favorite picture pose1 Japanese snow monkey filmed trying to have sex with a deer【Video】2 Only Japanese cooks could make canned sardines this appetizing [Pics and Recipes]3 Attack on Titan manga’s former editor arrested for wife’s murder4Emperor may abdicate throne in 2019 and end the Heisei Era5 Japanese Twitter user shares the phrase a man should never say to his wife6 Japanese cat owner’s kitty becomes her iPhone case, fills tech fans and animal lovers with envy7 Green tea Cup Noodle brings matcha to the wonderful world of instant ramen8 Colonel Sanders becomes harbinger of death in darkly comical Japanese New Year’s card9 WeeklySkip the peace sign – Security researcher cautions against striking Japan’s favorite picture pose1

“I Like Orange Juice!” Piko Taro releases new single that’s just as ridiculous as PPAP 【Video】2 Have a moving Hatsune Miku come to life inside your computer desktop background3 Japanese Twitter user shares the phrase a man should never say to his wife5 Pikachu and Super Mario left out of lineup of official spokescharacters for Tokyo Olympics6 Cardcaptor Sakura brings anime flair to your hair with beautiful traditional Japanese hairpin7 Artist discovers way to strip his anime-style characters’ clothes off using a hair dryer 【Video】8 26 scenes from one of the liveliest Coming of Age Day celebrations in Japan 【Photos】9 Manga artist says she’s found the reason why men won’t read comics written for women Monthly“Nurse Goldfish” in Hokkaido amazingly appears to help disabled friend eat every time1 Skip the peace sign – Security researcher cautions against striking Japan’s favorite picture pose2 What’s a furisode kimono without sleeves?

An incredibly elegant wedding dress【Photos】3 U.S. university has “Reading and Writing About Magical Girls” as introductory English course4 POOP: Pen Oppai (Breast) Oppai Pen conceived online 【Video】5order sushi tei online Japanese Twitter drawing of perfect girlfriend prompts illustrated rebuttal featuring ideal man6sushi san francisco embarcadero Japanese cats appear to be building resistance to cat-deterrent spikes, Twitter reveals【Photos】7buy sushi train franchise Director of anime Your Name responds to criticisms about the hit film8spring sushi menu dundas

W.T.F. Japan: Top 5 strange things Japanese people do for Christmas【Weird Top Five】9Piko Taro releases new single that’s just as ridiculous as PPAP 【Video】 YearlyDonald Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump reportedly to be appointed next ambassador to Japan1sushi delivery toronto bloor Japanese fan blown away by J.K. Rowling’s reaction to his Harry Potter/Fantastic Beasts drawing2sushi for delivery manila Ryuk from Death Note performs Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen in official release video3sushi bamboo mat how to use Japan’s most beautiful breasts chosen as winner of Bioppai Contest 2016 is selected 【Video】4 Japanese men showing an increasing fondness for women they call “penguin girls”5

Japanese mayor pledges to open onsen amusement park if this hilarious video gets a million views6 One-finger selfie challenge is the boldest Internet craze yet7 This Michigan Starbucks barista looks just like a Final Fantasy character8 Tokyo’s Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen Cafe is now open, and we stopped by for a PPAP meal!9 15 times when Japanese cosplayers forgot part of their costumes and found genius solutions【Pics】 Anime & Manga  (192) Food & Drink  (298) Games & Tech  (169)One of the hardest reservations to get in the world is a seat at Jiro Ono’s sushi counter, a three-Michelin-star restaurant adjoining the entrance to the Ginza metro station, in the basement of a business building in Tokyo. A meal there, which consists of twenty pieces of sushi served one at a time, costs thirty thousand Japanese yen (about three hundred and seventy dollars), and lasts about fifteen or twenty minutes. (By contrast, a meal at Noma, probably the toughest get on the list, takes a good three to four hours).

There are only ten seats, there is a set menu (no appetizers or modifications), and there are definitely no California rolls. The question of what makes this hole in the wall so worthy is the subject of a gorgeously shot documentary opening today called “Jiro Dreams of Sushi,” directed by David Gelb. Jiro Ono was born in 1925, left home at the age of nine, and has been making sushi ever since. Though Japan has declared him a national treasure, he still says, at the age of eighty-five, “All I want to do is make better sushi.” He goes to work every day by getting on the train from the same position, he always tastes his food as he makes it, and he dislikes holidays. Jiro is described as a shokunin—a person who embodies the artisan spirit of the relentless pursuit of perfection through his craft. Another Japanese term that came to my mind while I watched the film was kaizen, meaning “improvement” or “change for the better.” The concept is one of process, and it is often applied in business settings, like manufacturing and logistics, to ensure constant and never-ending improvement.

Before cooking his octopus, Jiro used to massage it for up to thirty minutes. Now he will massage it for forty minutes, to give it an even softer texture and a better taste. Before a meal at Sukiyabashi Jiro, guests are handed a hot towel, hand-squeezed by an apprentice. The apprentices, who train for at least ten years under Jiro, are not allowed to cut the fish until they practice just handling it. One of the older apprentices says Jiro taught him to “press the sushi as if it were a baby chick.” Jiro’s near-impossible standards extend to the Tsukiji fish market, where his older son, Yoshikazu, bicycles every day to check out the day’s catch. He meets with trusted specialists, each of whom has his own focus: shrimp, eel, octopus. In one scene, a man wrestles a live octopus into a plastic bag, but not before the octopus makes a convincing run for it, suctioning itself rather alarmingly up the man’s forearm. Jiro’s tuna dealer is an anti-establishment character who tolerates only products of the highest quality.

At one point, he surveys a warehouse floor covered by giant, gaping tuna, whose gunmetal coloring makes them look like warheads or shrunken submarines. “People say there is good quality here today,” he says directly to the camera. Then he adds with a smirk, “There is nothing good here today.” By this point in the movie, it comes as no surprise that Jiro has his own rice dealer, or that his rice alone is revered by foodies for being expertly cooked, fanned, vinegared, and maintained at the perfect temperature. After a screening of the movie at the Japan Society this week, Eric Ripert said, “Never in my life have I tasted rice like that—it’s like a cloud.” (Ripert, an exacting French chef who travels with his own fish knives in a custom Louis Vuitton case, is a great admirer of Jiro, who reminds him of his own obsessive mentor, Joël Robuchon.) The rice is served at body temperature, because, according to Jiro, each ingredient has an ideal moment of deliciousness—as Ripert put it, “The rice is perfection now.”

When the sushi is placed in front of a customer, it must be consumed right away; hence, the fleeting nature of the meal. It wasn’t until after the movie was over, when an audience member asked about female sushi chefs, that I realized practically everyone in the film—from the apprentices to the chefs to the fishmongers—is male. During his visits to Japan, Gelb had heard a range of explanations for this, from the claim that women’s hands are too warm (they would cook the sushi just by handling it) to the idea that the hours were too long and it wouldn’t be safe for them to ride the train alone late at night. “It’s sexism, frankly,” Gelb said. When asked if he had anything to add on the topic, Ripert wisely answered, “No.” The audience seemed only mildly relieved to learn that there is gimmicky sushi bar in another neighborhood of Tokyo with all female chefs. Jiro has two sons, both sushi chefs—Yoshikazu, the older one, works under his father at Ginza station, and his younger brother, Takashi, runs his own branch of the restaurant, in Roppongi Hills.

The layout of the second location is an exact mirror image of the original, since Jiro is left-handed and Takashi is right-handed. As the elder son, Yoshikazu is expected to succeed his father when he dies or loses the physical ability to work. Gelb’s own filial dynamic explains at least part of his Japanophilia. His father, Peter, is now the general manager of the Metropolitan Opera, but while David was very young Gelb père was the assistant manager of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. At the time, Seiji Ozawa was the conductor, which meant frequent family trips to Japan. It also certainly meant exposure to a great deal of music. Besides being visually captivating—some of the montages are veritable food-porn slide shows of glistening seafood—the film has a strong soundtrack of classical music, old and new. Philip Glass’s works appear throughout, and, for the film’s ultimate sushi montage, Gelb used Beethoven’s soaring Poco sostenuto vivace from Symphony No. 7. At the end of the film, when asked about Yoshikazu’s ability to succeed him, Jiro delivers an answer that is equal parts dad and shokunin: “He just needs to keep it up for the rest of his life.”