November 3rd, 2012

02.00

I’m back. What a weird dinner! I was looking for a restaurant in my hotel street but unfortunately there weren’t any. I had to walk for a while but finally I found this little and cute place called Fusion.

Firstly I didn’t pay attention to the name of the restaurant but when I looked the menu everything was clear...a fusion of Italian and Japanese cuisine. I’ve never heard something like that!

It seems like Italian cuisine is having a huge success here in Japan and people are going crazy for that. Anyway...I decided to stay classic asking for some sushi: six nighiri and six uramaki.

I noticed immediately the absence of the napkin on my sit, I thought they may have forgotten it, but looking at the other tables it was clear that in Japan people don’t use napkins...

I can assure you the Japanese food we are use to eat in Italy is just a bad copy of the original one; eating my dish I had an explosion of flavours in my mouth.

There wasn’t even need to ask more wasabi, my passion, because it was already inside the rise and fish rolls. The waiter, a young and polite man, told me wasabi must be present inside sushi and he was surprised that outside Japan we eat it in a different way.

I finished the dinner really late and I was the last customer inside the restaurant so, drinking my sake, I decided to ask some questions to the waiter. His name is Akinobu and he’s a 21 years old student.

He confirmed that during the last 4-5 years Italian food is spreading in Japan and, on television, there are a lot of cuisine programmes with famous chefs cooking strange dishes in which Italian and Japanese cuisine are mixed.

It was even more interesting what he told me about his job and about the absence of unemployment in his country!

He started to work at 18, as the majority of Japanese guys. Here turning eighteen means becoming adults, having more responsibilities and being independent, even economically.

But, the most incredible thing Akinobu told me was that in Japan the occupation is near 100%!

The government prefers to create useless jobs instead of having unemployed people, you can find, for example, a person who’s job is to call the elevator and to invite you to enter.

Not having a job is a huge dishonour in Japan!

This is it. The first day is gone! Keep following my blog and I’d love to see a lot of comments!

Bye guys!

I suggest you to see this short video of “Wasabi” a French movie with Jean Renò...I just love this scene!!