Fish - a Japanese Obsession

Raymond Lin

Raymond Lin

Raymond Lin

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Anyone caught this on BBC4 or iPlayer?

It's about a Writer/Fisherman who goes to Japan to understand their obsession with fish and take a closer to at their culture. I saw it last night and some of the things is WTF !

If anyone have any interest in Japan, I recommend it, more so if you like Sushi !
 
I found it really interesting, was very hard to criticise them on issues such as whaling when it's shown to be ingrained into their society.

Funniest moment for me:

Presenter: "What do you think of whaling aki?"
Translator: "mehhhh, i prefer dolphin! very tasty!"

Made me chuckle...

The part on puffer fish (fugu) was also quite interesting.
 
The bit in the hotel where Aki ordered these Giant Prawns off the net that arrived in a box of wooden chips and then tears the head off one and starts biting into the body really caught me off guard. I was at least expecting he to use a knife and take out that "poop shoot" down the center of the prawns first. But no.....with the shell still on it, he takes a bite !
 
There's a japanese season on bbc4 at the mo. The wabi sabi program was pretty good too. They are craaaaaaaaazy people!
 
Brilliant tbh. Am a fish keeper and thaught The japs where just barbaric but this film showed me the real side of japan and fish.

One of the funest bits was the English guy asking would washing the fugu in the washing machine not break it?

The guys just said Washing machine made in Japan and smiled lol
 
Charles Rangely Wilson (also did accidental angler) is a top bloke

he was saying there was some bits cut about some of the stranger forms of fishing

he said ( on a fly fishing forum we are members of)

There were some big culture clashes, especially over the treatment of fish, but the more I thought about, the more I thought the biggest difference was not so much how fish are treated - I've been on a trawler in the UK and they don't exactly knock each fish carefully on the head - but in the fact that the Japanese are comfortable with the process of food production and we tend to hide it. Anyway, we were careful to show rather than judge and I'm pleased to hear that came across.
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he also did some fishing that didnt make it to the program

Shame, cos we filmed catching some big bass in tokyo harbour (got one of about 7lbs) and also an ancient form of fly-fishing called tenkara - where you use only a short zero-weight rod and no reel, just six foot of silk line and a tippet and hop skip up mountain torrents trying to catch a pretty Japanese trout called an amago. I did get a couple, though they were tiny. Neither sequence made the cut.
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thankfully he doesnt get as excited or moan like bloomin robson green

the accidental angler was in a similar vein...it was part travelogue and part fishing..he went to bhutan following trout that can trace their genes back to Loch leven in scotland.
 
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I ate Sushi last night, it was fresh and delicious. It cost me Yen135 per dish. I had 5 dishes , but the bloke next to me had about 10. This Japanese lady told me that sushi in London isn't made with fresh fish, and that Japnese tastes far superior. I really like the octupus sushi.
 
neocon said:
I ate Sushi last night, it was fresh and delicious. It cost me Yen135 per dish. I had 5 dishes , but the bloke next to me had about 10. This Japanese lady told me that sushi in London isn't made with fresh fish, and that Japnese tastes far superior. I really like the octupus sushi.
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The English don't eat much sushi and most wouldn't know a fresh fish if it slap them in the face so in a way the resturuants can get away with it.
 
platypus said:
Sushi is great, but good sushi is hard to find here.
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Much easier to find good sushi in Hong Kong too, went into one call "Welcome". It's just a chain supermarket like our Tesco (not as big), and they had a Sushi Counter and behind it were 2 people working, making fresh sushi. You can buy individual ones 40p each, or these meal Bento Boxes (about £5) which you get twice as much as you do for the same money in M&S sushi meals for example.
 
The only place I've had decent sushi in England was in a Japanese restaurant in Manchester. The place in Cambridge is ok, but it really isn't the real thing.
 
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