Thursday, November 25, 2010

Spy-Shopper: The Fish Edition

Here's what amazed me, as a naive Hoosier girl brought up far from any ocean, the first time I set foot in a Japanese supermarket:

















...and that's just in front of me.  There's an equal amount of fish available behind me.  That entire corner of the store is dedicated to the Fruits of the Sea.  I'd never seen so much fish in one place in the whole of my life, except for Hamburg's Fischmarkt.  But that's down by the port--you sort of expect to see whole fish for sale in a place like that early on a Sunday morning.


...Sanma, 88Yen... each.  Healthy, yes.  But we may want to reconsider, given the ill-health of the world's oceans.

...this is why I rarely take Teddy shopping with me.  That child can *not* keep his hands off the fish:-))                                 

...Teddy couldn't stop touching the mussels, either.  These were 98Yen.  Not in Indiana, they ain't!





...Buri, 278Yen for a package of three.  I had to wonder, though, what they were going to do with that huge Buri in the back, since there was no price on it... .   Surely not just for looks?   I apologize for not translating the names of these lovely denizens of the sea--but I haven't the least idea what they're called in English.  When I get home this evening, I'll see if I can't look them up:))

Happy shopping, Happy Thanksgiving (if you're in America), and Mata Asobou, ne!

5 comments:

  1. First off I had to look up 'Hoosier'. Turns out Bill Bryson's mentioned it at some point which must be why it rang a vague bell, even though I had no idea what it was. One theory is that it derives from 'hoo' an old Cumbrian word for 'hill', and I'm sticking with that, 'cause I was born early due to a Cumbrian hill (well, a junior mountain) that my parents decided to take a 'short-cut' over. The ensuing strain on various things led to me being born two months early. Well, my mum says two, the doc said one, which led to some fuss, as they hadn't been married 8 months...

    "Healthy, yes. But we may want to reconsider, given the ill-health of the world's oceans."

    I recently heard someone on telly say that if you take the modern stock-figures as a percentage of the best-guess for stocks 200 years ago, and ignore any numbers after the decimal point, most major food-fish are actually extinct. Not sure how accurate that statement is, but If it's even close...

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  2. There are several theories as to why people from Indiana call themselves "Hoosiers" (which is also a pretty good basketball movie). I have *no* idea which, if any, is correct:)) I went to Indiana University, whose teams are styled the Hoosiers, thus the appellation. Born early, eh? No worries--no family planning here! Accidents, all three of 'em (1 honeymoon baby, 1 "you've-been-gone-for-six-weeks-I'm-so-glad-to-see-you-OOPS baby, and 1 we-just-moved-into-a-bigger-apartment-yay-OOPS baby. Now we're on you-sleep-over-there:)) 5 and a half years of non-stop pregnancy and breastfeeding. I. Am. Done. Somebody should study male seahorses and figure out how to make brood pouches for human males. ;-))

    There are a couple of good/frightening TED talks on the state of the oceans, but I'll have to go look them up!

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  3. Ah, that's an easy one. All you need to do is scoot back down the tree of life to somewhere around the Cambrian, then return via a carefully selected alternative set of branches. :-)

    Ooh talking of videos, I need to re-watch that Vitruvian Man one...

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  4. Happy Thanksgiving from Minnesota!
    And i don't blame Teddy. I'd want to touch the mussels too

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  5. Happy Thanksgiving! How's your weather? My mom (they're in Arizona now) said the Midwest was getting pounded with sleet and other Weather Nasties. If it's bad out, stay in! And enjoy your pumpkin pie:-))

    (I really shouldn't blame Teddy for touching the mussles--it's only by sheer force of will that I don't touch them myself... ;-))

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