Sushi…?

Sushi is the first thing we think of when we talk about Japanese food and for good reason. Not only is it a very popular traditional Japanese food, it is also very healthy and quite delicious. The main type of sushi is called nigiri-zushi, which is a small ball of rice with a piece of raw (or cooked) fish on top. Other varieties include maki-zushi (rolled sushi), temaki-zushi (cone-shaped rolls) and chirashi-zushi (mixed toppings over sushi rice).
Why not surprise the sushi chef on your trip to Japan by ordering your favourite sushi in Japanese!

Ordering sushi in Japanese is easy!

The best and easiest way of ordering anything in Japanese is:
“……..を一つお願いします。”
“……..wo hitotsu onegaishimasu.” The pronunciation is similar to
“……..o hee-tot-soo on-a-guy-she-mass.”
This translates to something like “Can I please request one……..” and can be used for requesting many things, not just sushi!

So now we know how to order, let’s look at some classic sushi that we can order:
まぐろ　Maguro (Tuna)
サーモン　Saamon (Salmon)
えび　Ebi (Shrimp)
いか　Ika (Squid)
たこ　Tako (Octopus)
たまご　Tamago (Egg)
いくら　Ikura (Salmon Roe)
ほたて　Hotate (Scallop)
うなぎ　Unagi (Eel)

So now if we wanted to order a tuna sushi, we can order using the following phrase:
“Maguro wo hitotsu onegaishimasu.”

Hopefully, the chef will bring you out one freshly-made tuna topped nigiri-zushi!

Order more than just sushi

This useful phrase can be used for many other things which makes it a great expression to learn:

“Takushi onegaishimasu” (Taxi Please)
“Kaikei onegaishimasu” (Can we have the bill please)
“Kore onegaishimasu” (This Please)

Using “kore” (pronounced “core-ray”) is perfect for when you order food from a picture on a menu, but cannot read the actual word!

Good Luck, the world of sushi awaits you!

Further Reading

• Sushi items at JapanCentre.com
• Sushi entry on Wikipedia
• Eat Sushi: A sushi guide

Related Pages:

• Shibuya to Nagoya on a JR Pass?
• US Military and Japan Rail Pass
• Can I look up JR train times online?
• Excluded JR lines, sleeper cars and journey times with JR Pass

Tags: Food, Japan, Japanese Language, Sushi

13/02/08 in Japan, Language, News.