Japanese Restaurants

So, I went to a Japanese restaurant last night. Not the first time might I add. Although, there was a time when consuming the sliced up meat of raw dead fish stuffed in the middle of a hollowed out cylinder of vinegary white rice held together with sticky seaweed paper didn't appeal to me. You just don't know until you try is what I say. However, sushi of course is the stereotype meal. They also do Fwied Wice. Hang on, might need to consult Prince Philip about that. But who wants to read about the good things in life? That doesn't sell newspapers (not that this is trying to be the next News of the World - why would anyone want a blog to be that?).

My first rhetorical question about Japanese restaurants is, why do they give them random names? Typically, they will choose an English word borrowed from the Japanese language so both the English (who can barely speak their own language properly let alone understand something as alien as kanji) and the Japanese recognise the word as, well, Japanese. Tsunami - a great thunderous wall of water crashing into shores decimating miles of land and buildings, killing and maiming people in its wake - was the name of a rather pleasant eatery Drain (as in 'Financial': wife, who keeps local economies thriving where ever she might be) and I ate. Now, having done some investigative work, so you don't have (won't) to (do), I found a nice little Wikipedia link listing all Japanese words borrowed by the English language. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_Japanese_origin There, I've saved you 20 seconds Google searching. Compare that to all the Japanese restaurants in England, most of the words are used up. If you fancy going into the sushi business, you better hurry before Hentai (Cartoon porn) and Urushiol (ingredient of Poison Ivy) are taken.

My second non-rhetorical question as I'm actually quite curious is, why is Japanese food so expensive compared to America? Go to Nobu in Central London and you might want to consider auctioning a few items on Ebay (the car you arrive in would be a good start). However, fly into Las Vegas, go to Hard Rock Cafe hotel, get a table at the Nobu there and you'll have enough money left over to fritter it away on a game of Craps (or 'oh crap' as you realise that wasn't monopoly money you just threw down). In fact, you can safely assume a reasonable Japanese restaurant in New York City will be no more expensive (if not actually cheaper) than other similar quality food parlours (did you notice I did that writer's trick of not to repeat 'restaurant' to make myself look very important). Therefore, if ever Drain and I are in New York, I will overdose her on sushi for the entire time we're there so she'll be the proverbial overexposed McDonald's worker who turns down free junk food when we're back in market forces Britain. Now, will the same principal work with money...? hmm.