Is everything in the video true? I know in the US if you tried to eat sushi with your bare hands it wouldn't go over so well in most places.

Alex, don't believe everything you see on TV, or the Internet, for that matter. :)

BTW, despite the fact that this was a parody, I've heard that it actually isn't bad manners to eat sushi with your fingers, technically, but A) don't do it on a date, for obvious reasons and B) wash your hands first if you do. :)

Oh, and if anyone knows a sushi place where I can get panda, squirrel, or elk, mail me privately...

Now I finally know how to behave when I come to a sushi-ya in Japan. Is there follow up? For kareokee?

ICANN is Defined by the Corruption - That IS ICANN

ICANN is a black-hole of evil. Some people like
that and are attracted to it. ICANN is not defined
by walls in some building or some historic place
on Earth. ICANN is the evil black-hole where
Fidel and Vinton attempt to control the masses.
Those that want to be controlled, and help to
promote and expand the ICANN black-hole have a
home there (or here).

[1] http://dcc.syr.edu/miscarticles/NewTLDs2-MM-LM.pdf

"The paper shows that ICANN?s current approach to TLD
additions is anti-competitive and fosters
rent-seeking, political strife, and the potential if
not the reality for corruption. At the least it
perpetuates the perception of ICANN as operating with
irregular and subjective procedures. This is a
disservice both to ICANN and to the broader Internet
community."

Jon, hear hear! I represent the International Barbeque Association, an organisation of culturally unique consumers of charbroiled food products, and the ICANN has completely ignored our culture and discriminated against us in our quest to have the TLD ".bbq" become a reality. They are anti-competitive and obviously under the thumb of the evil vegetary-industrial complex.

If, and only if ICANN is toppled, will the fellow sons of our fathers be able to register ".bbq" domains and be recognised as the unique group that we are!

Viva charbroiling!

Hilarious!
To Alex, you can actually eat sushi with your hands. It's the "posh" way, actually.

Excellent. I would add one more tip though: if you don't like soy sauce, pick your nose before eating.

I watched it again. I think it's more fun if you are familiar with sushi-ya. The wet towel stuff cracks me up.

Unable to play the video, Google is blocking it in my country... Not very Web 2.0

That is a gut-bustingly funny video. I wish I could find out who made it. Tried googling but didn't come up with anything.

For any of you that don't actually know what's real there, clearly the salt thing at the end is a joke - the salt's an old Shinto tradition - good luck or purification or something - clearly not for eating... And the origin of the name for 'agari' is a joke, but just about everythign else is pretty true.

That IS the way the cool dudes eat sushi (dip upside down, with the hands), although you really don't want as much soy saurce as that guy put on his -- way too much, IMHO. Just a sheen on the fish, and maybe a little bit in the rice if you want.

Part of the humor of the first half of the video is how true everything is, although the guys are just acting kinda silly and overdoing it for effect. ;)

Heh. I just watched it again too, and noticed how many other jokes I had forgotten about since I watched it this morning, like the 'toro' being full of random stuff, and the geta being used to walk home... It's certainly full of jokes, but there's a lot of truth to it too. ;)

The requirement to make a little 'peko' when you enter alone and hold up one finger is hilarious...

The 'toro' isn't made of random stuff, though. Reminds of the Utaban show last week where they brought an entire tuna in the studio as a present for a Korean guest. The tuna was cut up on the spot and they lined up the various parts. Mouthwatering!

It is a Namakibashi Production that was entered in for ResFest. It's off the Video Victims 2 DVD which is available in Japan.

http://www.digital-voice.net/vv2/movies/

Here is a list of some of the other stuff they have done:

http://osaka.eigasai.com/ssff2005/osaka/o_02.html

Was directed by Junji Kojima. Comedy duo Rahmens contributes.

Available on the Best of Resfest, Vol. 3 DVD
http://www.res.com/bestofresfestdvds.html

There's another short I'd like to see — apparently it's not on the Internets — called "The Japanese Tradition: Dogeza"

More of Junji Kojima's work at TeeVee Graphics's Video Victim:
http://www.teeveeg.com/

Folks on my blog have tracked down the original source:

http://www.kanai.net/weblog/archive/2005/12/08/22h34m16s

The one with the English subtitles is a "fansub" done without permission, but that is the one that is all over the web right now.

Funny how it took a fansub to make this video take off. Too bad the original content creators didn't subtitle it...

Trevor Hill: That's what I figured, that the salt and towels and shoes and stuff were a joke, but the rest was just ridiculously overdone. But never having made it past Narita airport I wasn't sure.

kind of put me off sushi, toro (my favorite) and japanese feet.

China, depends on which Japanese person the feet belong to,... :)

I went to a Sushi place in Boston, Mass a week ago and I was using chop sticks, while several (japanese) people around me were using their hands to eat, so I just joined them...Nothing wrong with being a little rustic sometimes!

That was very funny. It was all I could do to not bring attention to myself because I watched it at work.

It reminds me of my first couple trips to Japan. I had studied Japanese, but without actually being there the situations presented in text and travel books get more weight than they perhaps should, so I paid very close attention to make sure I got things right. Eventually I learned that I did not need to do everything my hosts did, and that I was easily forgiven because at least I tried.

Here are a couple (not that great) jokes I came up with while studying Japanese:

Situation: A customer goes into a noodle shop. He cannot see the proprietor.
Kyakusan: Gomen-kudasai
Soba-ya san: Hai
Kyakusan: Somen-kudasai
Soba-ya san: Hai

This (with no seasonal reference) Haiku is relevant considering the trip to Germany:
Doitsu no sushi
Chigau aji desho
Buraunshaigaa

> I wish I could find out who made it.(by Trevor Hill)

His nickname is Rudd-Crunch.
http://longtailworld.blogspot.com/2005/12/documentary-on-japanese-sushi.html

He deserves more.

I compiled the chronology of events on my posting below, including gen-san's comment above. thanks.
http://longtailworld.blogspot.com/2006/01/documentary-on-japanese-sushi.html

AtomFilms is gonna produce English-dubbed version to deliver on its web. The sub-copy is back on GV. This time, by somebody named "Japanese Home Documentaries."
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-892542405730558424&q=sushi

Seems like there are endless number of troops out there on standby.