Hello everyone. This is Sushi Hatake.
I’ve just finished sharpening my knives for the year. With that, 2025 has come to a close for me.
These three knives in the photo are my trusted companions—extensions of my hands that help me every day.
Among them, the one that holds the most meaning is the deba in the middle. When I look at this knife, a particular memory comes flooding back.
“You’re No Good at All”
It was about three months after I started at my current sushi restaurant.
I had worked my way through preparing shrimp and shellfish, then moved on to final prep work—removing pin bones, checking for anisakis parasites under blacklight, torching the skin on certain fish, blanching others, and preparing tate-jio salt curing. After clearing all these stages, I was finally allowed to fillet fish.
I had been asking to work with fish for so long. This was the moment I’d been waiting for.
Then, after I filleted my first fish, a senior chef said to me:
“You’re no good at all. Maybe you should quit.”
It was a shock. But having lived 44 years, I’ve been through this kind of thing more times than I can count.
“Give Me Three Months”
I told him this:
“Please give me three months. If I’m still useless after three months, you can do whatever you want with me.”
Less than a month later, he stopped saying anything.
Another colleague once told me straight to my face: “I don’t think you’re very smart, Hirai-san…”
The restaurant world—especially this workplace—runs on individualism. If you can’t pull your weight, nobody will give you the time of day. Don’t get me wrong—if you talk to people, they’ll respond. It’s just… a cold response.
Now, my coworkers invite me to hang out outside of work.
A Bad First Impression as a “Weapon”
I’ll be honest.
Those first three months were brutal. At my age, I dreaded going to work every single day.
But no matter what world I’ve entered, I’ve always gotten beaten down at the start. For better or worse, I’ve gotten used to it.
I’m the type of person who makes a terrible first impression. Most people dislike me right away. That’s just a fact.
So what do I do? I tackle each challenge one by one and make sure I never repeat the same mistake twice.
That alone makes my reputation climb. And the people who disliked me the most at the beginning? They end up loving me the most.
It’s like that cliché of the tough delinquent rescuing a puppy in the rain. When your first impression is rock bottom, the second half is actually pretty easy.
Frustration and Anger as Fuel
My motivation comes from frustration and anger.
Maybe those aren’t pretty words, but they’re what drive me.
So here’s to another year—no, to a lifetime of taking on new challenges.
I hope 2026 is a year full of challenges for all of you too.
Sushi Hatake offers private sushi catering for corporate events and private parties. Experience the artistry of a real sushi chef up close.