Osakana Tengoku

Tonight, Erin and I had dinner with Matt and Tadari at Sakana in SF. One of the sushi chefs is Yama san, formerly of Jidai-ya in Palo Alto where Shin used to take Tom, Rich and me all the time. Shin would order bizarre delicacies that weren’t on the menu, and many a good time were had.

The name of the restaurant (the word for fish) reminded me of a song that was ubiquitous when I was studying in Japan in 2002, called Osakana Tengoku (Fish Heaven). I think I even had it as the ringtone on my mobile phone for awhile.

Anyhow, I did some Googling and came across the origin of Osakana Tengoku (it was the campaign song of the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperative Associations’ Seafood Center) as well as a translation of the lyrics: “Come on, let’s all eat fish together. The fish are waiting for us, oh!”