47 – Practice, Pressure, and a New Standard
The opening party also exposed my weaknesses very clearly.
As I tried to serve everyone in a reasonable rhythm,
I realized:
My hands were still too slow.
At Tokyo Sushi Academy, I had hit the target in the exam room—
18 pieces in three minutes, all the same size.
But exam speed and real-life hosting are not the same game.
In the classroom, I wasn’t just shaping nigiri.
I was:
Answering questions
Explaining ingredients
Checking if everyone’s rice looked okay
Watching for who needed help with hand movements
Adjusting the pace so no one felt left behind or left out
Every second I spent talking or demonstrating
was a second I wasn’t shaping.
I went home from that party exhausted—
but also grateful.
Because now I knew something I couldn’t have learned from school alone:
There is a difference between “being able to make sushi”
and “being able to host eight people through a sushi experience.”
If I wanted to run a true private, premium class,
I needed both.
So I went back to practice with a new standard:
Not just speed,
but speed while talking.
Not just consistent shapes,
but consistency while keeping my eyes on the guests.