What’s with “omakase”?

Rich Pav General

How did that word slip into the American vernacular and when? People who don’t know Japanese are using it on the web.

For those who don’t know, it means “relying on/letting someone else do it.”

e.g:
Me: “Who’s making dinner tonight?”
Wife: “Omakase.” (Short for omakase shimasu.)

Bloggers are using the term when they post information that originally came from readers.

Update: How foolish am I not to have checked Wikipedia first? Sushi restaurants, of course.

Rich Pav

Richard has been living in Japan since 1990 with his wife and two teenage sons, Tony and Andy.

3 thoughts to “What’s with “omakase”?”

    1. The Wikipedia article explains how the term omakase is used in sushi restaruants. That’s how people who don’t speak Japanese know what it means. I never thought of that, but it makes perfect sense.

      And I hope I finally squashed the bug that was making WordPress throw an error every time someone posts a comment.

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