10 Fun Stories from Japan – a Miniseries: The snail story

by The Flamingo

Dear reader, you already know what big fans we are about all things Japan. The Flamingo wrote a 10 stories miniseries about funny/awkward/eccentric experiences that can only occur in Japan. I will share with you some more or less embarrassing moments that happened during the trips there, that always make top conversation topics.

2.  The snail story

This story took place in Tsukiji, Tokyo, the largest fish market in the city.

My boyfriend and I were in a random little sushi place, ordering the most popular sushi set. Everybody who loves this type of dish knows that a sushi set contains different types of maki, rolls, sashimi and so on, so it’s a mix. You eat what you like from the assortment. This place actually had a round bar table with the chef in the middle and he was serving all the guests…which, at the time, was just us.

The chef put two small plates in front of us, one for each…with two giant snails in their shell. This was no ordinary snail, it was not cooked the way the French do it, there wasn’t any Hollandaise sauce on the side. This was sushi, which means it was raw. The chef looked pretty pleased with himself and offered us a big smile wishing us “tadaima” (enjoy your meal).

We looked at our plate, that was surely not what we had ordered, a giant raw snail…maybe still alive in its shell. My boyfriend asked, where is all “the other” sushi, but the chef looked offended and showed us that we must eat the mollusk first. The last thing we wanted to do was to bring offense to a Japanese chef. So we each stared at our snail, turned it around to see if it popped out of its shell. The chef was of course enjoying himself and watching us like a hawk (“two stupid gaijin”).

Well, we did eat it, more like: swallowed it whole. The chef looked very pleased with us. We were nauseous, but by the time the pieces of good sushi came, we forgot all about it…until he put two slimy pieces of squid tentacles on our plate. This time he laughed looking at our tortured expressions, he took them away, offering some nice tuna instead. I can add that we never had better sushi to the present day, than in that tiny place eleven years ago.

This is how we passed the test of a very proud Japanese chef, declaring us worthy of eating in his restaurant.