Kid Ethnic: Mixed-Race Adventures in Japan: The Dinner That Would Not Die: A Triptych

The Dinner That Would Not Die: A Triptych · 28 April 06

Takeshi leads his lady-friend toward his favourite restaurant. He waves you along, too. His smile is large.

“I am happy,” he says. “Tonight you will eat real fresh-killed fish.”

Panel 1:
The fish arrives on your plate, speared from tail to head, surrounded by seaweed and wasabi. The fillet had been sliced into sashimi pieces.

The tail of Takeshi’s fish still moves. “This is real fresh-killed fish,” he declares.

Panel 2:
You want to eat the fish. You know you shouldn’t want to eat a thing until you’re sure it’s dead.

But you can’t help yourself. It looks so good.

So, you eat the fish’s body. And you munch on seaweed.

It feels natural, not barbaric. Like a simulation of being a fish.

You try to remember that you are a human, but you lose yourself.

I am just a fish eating a fish, you think. He is very tasty.

And so flows the circle of life.

Panel 3:
After you eat the body, the shopkeeper takes the now barely twitching fish’s tail and head away.

She brings you other, deader, fish to eat. Then, a few minutes later, she returns the fish’s head and tail to you. They have been fried. You wonder how to eat a big fried fish head tail.

“It is soft,” says Takeshi. “It is so soft and easy to eat.” He puts the tail in his mouth. You take a fish’s head, and bite it in half, just below the eye.

Takeshi, he speaks the truth. It is so soft and easy to eat.

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You know, I’ve always thought fish was rather awful, and this just further validates those thoughts.
— Mel 976 days ago #

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