Poor Thing

I am Japanese, but I don't eat sushi very much. Because I don't eat raw fish. I eat cooked fish, and a little bit raw white fish, but normally, I feel sick after I eat them. That's why I don't eat them. Raw fish doesn't agree with me. However, there are some raw fish-free sushi, such as Inari-zushi, Maki-zushi, chirashi-zushi etc, and I like them.

If I say "I don't eat raw fish" to someone in outside of Japan, usually I get no reaction. But in Japan, every time I say 'I don't eat raw fish.', everybody say "Really? Oh, poor thing..." with an expression of extreme disbelief, as if they met a weird alien-like creature. I have been told "POOR THING!" since I was child. Poor thing? What do you mean? Why do you say that? Japan is island country surrounded by sea and has rich fishery product. If you stay at a hotel near the sea, it is normal that raw fish is served. Poor thing. I've heard that thousands of times, and I've been fed up with hearing it. I can't understand why they have such response. Everybody marks me as eccentric, just only because I don't eat raw fish. I know fish is an excellent source of protein that is low in saturated fat, and I eat fish if it's cooked. Actually, I don't think it's a poor thing at all, and it's none of your business. It's just about raw fish doesn't agree with me, that's all. What's wrong with it? Sometimes, Japanese have tendency to group everyone into one cookie-cutter category, which they believe they are right.

A decade ago, if I said "I don't have a driver's license", I got a similar reaction. They looked at me with a look of stunned surprise, because most young people had the license and drove a car at that time. But now more young Japanese are moving away from having a car or a driver's license for economical reasons, and also due to waning interest in cars.

By the way, I cooked maki-zushi (rolled sushi). I hadn't eaten maki-zushi more than a year. I can't get Japanese rice around here, but I found and got Korean rice and nori; edible seaweed:) My mother sent me Kampyo (brown one); dried shavings of calabash, so I boiled it down with soy sauce, sugar and mirin; a Japanese essential condiment . Looks a bit ugly, but taste is ok:) Bon appetit.

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