Saba o Yomu

In Japan, Saba is considered a “blue fish.”It is very popular to eat and fish vendors can sell a lot of it. But, Saba also has a very short shelf life, so it must be sold and eaten quickly. Fish vendors must count out large numbers of fish quickly for their customers. Rather than counting out each individual fish, the vendor would guess about how many fish he had, then tell the customer a higher number. So, for example, a customer might pay for 100 fish but only get 50. When we say “Saba o yomu,” it means that we are lying about something that has to do with numbers. When an actress lies about her age or weight, we can say “Sama o yonde iru.”

鯖を読む

サバをよむ