Glossary of terms

Sushi – the literal translation is not clear. It has multiple ways of writing. There are several types of sushi. Maki sushi, nigiri sushi, chirashi sushi, oshi sushi, etc. The common feature is rice. Japanese rice cooked and seasoned sour. The origins of sushi are in pickling fish in rice, where the fish would last six months and the rice would be thrown away. With the long-term development, the pickling time is gradually shortening, and rice is also being eaten. Later, it is not pickled and the rice is seasoned. Since the 20th century, when refrigerators appeared, sushi has been eaten mainly with raw fish. Until then, fish was always prepared in some way – steamed or pickled.

Maki sushi – maki means to roll – rolled. It is a type of sushi where the ingredients are mixed into rice with nori seaweed.

Hoso maki – hoso means thin. It’s a makizushi made from a half slice of nori (nori is a standardized size), with the nori eyelash on the outside.

Futomaki – futo means fat. It’s a makizushi of a whole nori slice, where the nori eyelash is on the outside. Raw fish is very rarely used for futomaki. Uramaki, reverse maki is an inverted roll of half a nori slice. The rice is on the outside, the seaweed on the inside.

Nigiri sushi – nigiru means to make a fist. The name describes the method of preparation where the shape is formed in the palms of the hands. Nigiri sushi is also known as Tokyo style or edomae. In nigiri, the ingredients are mostly raw fish. It’s a slice of fish on a bit of rice.

Chirashi sushi – chirasu means to distract. Chirashi sushi is either a variety of non-raw sushi ingredients mixed with sushi rice and served in a bowl, or sushi rice in a bowl and ingredients, mostly raw fish, piled on top.

Oshi sushi, hako sushi – osu means squeeze, hako means box. It’s an older sushi technique where sushi rice and pickled fish are crammed into a box. The sushi prepared in this way was supposed to last with the traveler for a few days.

Gari – shouga is ginger and gari is pickled ginger served with sushi. It is eaten alongside bites of sushi or between bites to cleanse the palate.

Wasabi – Japanese green horseradish. Most of the time, they use powdered horseradish, which is basically dyed European horseradish with a little wasabi added, but it’s always as pungent as fresh horseradish anyway.

Shari – rice prepared and seasoned for sushi.

Nori – usually means shredded seaweed dried into slices that are used to wrap sushi. In fact, it also means the type of seaweed used for nori.

Miso – a salty paste made from fermented soybeans.

Miso shiru – fish broth flavoured with miso paste.

Shoyu – soy sauce. It is created by further fermentation of miso paste. It is a basic flavouring agent in Japanese cuisine, used similarly to salt. Sushi, which is essentially unsalted, is salted with soy sauce. Just enough to bring out the flavour, but not too salty.

Sashimi – are slices of raw fish and other seafood. The freshest fish is used. It is also essential to arrange the fish slices well. Wasabi is served with sashimi, gari is not served with it.

Obento – a box for serving food. Obento was and is actually a Japanese dish. It is, however, specific in that it has dividers. Nowadays, obentó is also used in restaurants, mainly to make use of the many counters. This allows multiple dishes to be served together in different arrangements.

Buta – pig, pork.

Tori – chicken, bird, poultry.

Gyu – cow, beef.

Sakana – fish.

Shojin ryori – vegetarian cuisine. Mostly meant for mountain Zen monks.

Kaiseki – a dining component of the full tea ceremony. In fact, the whipped tea is preceded by various small delicacies. These delicacies are made from different ingredients, prepared in different ways so that we can get to know the world through them and then better blend in. It is the best and most precious thing that the host is able to offer you at any given time. The restaurant’s Kaiseki is the Japanese version of a tasting menu, which alternates premium ingredients and cuisine.

Shokado – The tea master Shokado created the style of serving kaiseki in little boxes to simplify the tea ceremony and make it more accessible to a wider range of guests. In a restaurant, it means an obento in which bowls of food are placed inside. The contents are usually richer than those of a traditional obentō because they are based on the kaiseki tradition.

Teshoku – menu.

Zensai – a small appetizer to introduce the menu.

Otoshi – simple appetizer, time filler.

Osuimono – clear soup, fish broth.

Yaku – to grill.

Yakimono – grilled dish.

Niru – to cook.

Nimono – cooked dish.

Ageru – to fry.

Agemono – fried.

Katsu – Japanese-style fried schnitzel. A little differently made triple wrap and in any case tonkatsu – a thick spicy vegetable sauce.

Su – vinegar.

Sunomono – a dish pickled in sour.

Tsukeru – pickle, things ending in zuke are pickled dishes.

Tsukemono – vegetables pickled mostly in salt.

Aeru – to stir.

Aemono – a dish stirred.

Menrui – noodle dish.

Moru – to stack, arrange.

Hiyasu – to chill.

Hiyashi – cold.

Zaru – mat, colander. Zaru soba – cold noodles that are wet, laid on a mat to drip.

Moriawase – stacked from multiple species (scrambled).

Tofu – soy milk curd.

Ocha (cha) – tea.

Wagashi – literally Japanese traditional sweets. At Miyabi, mainly made from bean paste, shiroann.

Kudamono – fruit.

Asa – morning

Ohiru – noon

Yoru – evening

Ichi – 1

Ní – 2

Sann – 3

Shi, yonn – 4

Gó – 5

Roku – 6

Nana, hichi – 7

Hachi – 8

Kyů – 9

Djů – 10

Hyaku – 100

Senn – 1000

Ichimann – 10,000, interestingly, the high amounts are counted in manna (10,000) in Japan, not in thousands like here. So djuumann is 100 000 and hyakumann 1 000 000.

Irrashaimasee – greeting in a restaurant (in a shop)

Arigatou gozajmashita – thank you, regarding what has already happened, greeting at the end.

Arigatou gozajimasu – thank you very much, giving thanks in the past tense.

Douzo – please, in the sense of here you go.

Doumo – a simple, non-committal thank you or please (when a guest hands you the dishes, for example).

Hai – yes, especially in the sense of I understand, I will do.

Kinn eidesu – it’s a non-smoking place.

Suimasen – a simple non-binding excuse (not really an apology, use it whenever somewhat possible).

Gomennasai – a real apology, serious and binding. used in a sentence – suimasenn (sorry) kinneidesu (there is no smoking here) gomennasai (whatever unpleasantness you convey to a guest, an apology is always good).

It’s always good to approach Japanese people with a hunched back. Bowing is not to be exaggerated, especially not putting your hands on a plea, rather small, brisk bows. But if you don’t, no big deal, you are excused as you are a stupid gaijin.