Experiences – Life – Inspiration 🇨🇭🇯🇵

There are experiences that do not add joy. They quietly remove tolerance.

My mother and I recently went to a local Asian supermarket in The Hague called Amazing Oriental. Back when I was still living in the Netherlands, my wife and I used to visit this place often. It was one of the few shops where we could find Japanese ingredients that felt authentic enough to bring a small piece of Japan into our everyday life.

Even back then, the prices stood out. Japanese ingredients were noticeably more expensive than in Japan itself, which is hardly surprising once imports are involved. Still, it was our compromise. A substitute that worked well enough.

This time, something new caught my attention. Right after the entrance, inside the store itself, they had placed a sushi bar. Not outside. Not hidden away. Right there among the aisles. It felt unusual, slightly amusing. Maybe it was a clever way to make customers stay longer. Maybe there was simply no other space. I did not ask.

I took a few pictures, but I did not sit down to eat.

The decision was instant and effortless. Ever since moving to Japan and eating sushi there, something shifted permanently. I was spoiled. Not in the sense of indulgence, but in the sense of exposure. The quality of the rice. The balance. The freshness of the fish. The simplicity. The care. Once you experience sushi in Japan, you cannot unknow what it is meant to be.

The contrast with the sushi I used to eat in the Netherlands is stark. Not because it is bad, but because my reference point has moved. My standards were raised beyond what most places outside Japan can realistically offer. Without making a big declaration, I quietly decided I would never eat sushi in the Netherlands again.

What made this realization even clearer was my mother. After visiting me in Japan and eating sushi there, she later said that sushi back home felt like a disaster. She noticed the rice immediately. Then the fish. There was no emotional attachment to defend, no nostalgia to soften the judgment. Just a simple observation. Once you know, you know.

This is the cost of being spoiled.

When you experience something at its best, you do not become arrogant or demanding. You become unable to settle. Not because you want more, but because you have seen what is possible. The old compromises no longer make sense.

This applies far beyond sushi. Travel does this. Living abroad does this. Deep immersion in any craft, culture, or way of life does this. It raises the floor, not the ceiling. And once the floor moves, going back feels uncomfortable, even dishonest.

Sushi just happens to be the lesson that made this visible.