Secret Words at the Sushi Restaurant (Part 1) (Patreon)

Did you know there are a bunch of secret, insider words used in Japan when visiting an izakaya bar or sushi restaurant? Maybe you've heard of some of them?Anyway, they're really fun, so I thought I'd share.

My ex's family (all the uncles) were in the fishing industry in one form or another, so that's how I learned most of them. There's a bunch so I'll do five today.

1) The first one I heard and thought was delightful was murasaki (紫). The word literally means purple. But when you're in a sushi joint and you ask for some murasaki, you'll get soy sauce.

I just read, though, there are three theories as to why it's called murasaki.

One, the actual color of soy sauce, or at least how it used to look when made back in the day.

Two, is one of the ingredients of soy sauce is a bean called tanba mame (丹波豆) that is...you guessed it, purple!

Or not. That's the purplest photo I could find. They are usually just black as far as my eyes can tell.

Three, long long ago soy sauce was extremely valuable and expensive. When regular people were finally able to buy it, the price was three times more than rice and eight times more than salt. Purple just happened to be a noble and difficult to come by color just like it was in the West. Purple kimonos were especially prized. So soy sauce was treated with just as much respect and nicknamed murasaki. Such a precious condiment.

2) Next is hikari mono (光り物 ), shiny or light things. Shiny things are any fish that has shiny silver skin. Horse mackerel (aji), saury (sanma), and sardines (iwashi) are a few. I usually hear this when talking to someone about what kinds of sushi do you like. Do you like hikari mono? 光り物好きですか？Hikarimono suki desu ka?

3) Gyoku (玉) means rolled egg. There are two ways to write the word egg (tamago), 卵 or 玉子. In the second way, that first character can also be read gyoku instead of tama. So as a cute secret name for tamagoyaki, you have gyoku.

4) Aniki (big brother) and otōto (little brother). These two aren't used by customers, but by the staff. When you're talking about some food item that isn't super fresh, maybe it's left over from yesterday, you'd called that big brother (兄貴) and suggest that be served first. A freshly made item would be little brother (弟).

5) Agari (あがり) means tea. This one is totally new to me and wild. Okay, back in the day, when a geisha was bored or not involved in entertaining a customer, because maybe she wasn't popular, she (or the situation) was called ocha o hiku (お茶をひく), or to pull away or take away the tea. I imagine it's like at the end of a meal when you're clearing the table, you take the tea away. Your time here is done. Because of this phrase, just using 'ocha' in eating establishments sounded unlucky and was frowned upon.

On the other hand, when a geisha was being called to a tatami room to entertain some guests as she was popular, she was called "Oagari-san". Agaru means to raise up and is a lucky word.  So switching out ocha (green tea) with agari (raising up) to mean tea was done and still to this day used.

Okay, there are actually a whole lot more, sp I'll do a Part 2 a little later. I don't want you to have to read a blog post all day.

More soon, stay safe and well, XOXO,

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