>>> It's his ego, and I don't know if it's his culture or his personality, very stoic, doesn't really smile. That doesn't get you far out here. You gotta learn how to turn that on and off out here. He hasn't mastered that at all."

Interesting. I've been living around guys like Jonas for a decade now, so he doesn't seem odd or stiff to me, just seems normal.

Japanese-American men have run Hawai'i since post WWII. They have power here. People defer to them and look to them for favors, not the other way around. Japanese culture is patriarchal; Hawaiian culture has a strong matriarchal side, but young women don't get that respect until they are aunties.

Jonas is probably a perfectly fun guy when he's taling pidgin to his brah's, but maybe a little stiff otherwise.

I know at my house we thought the women were too stupid to pass up a deal where a skilled fisherman was offering to split his catch, with no work on their part, because they would rather eat snails? I empathized with Jonas' frustration.

As far as sushi chef goes, I don't know any personally, but I've known other chefs, and they all have an ego, It comes with the territory.

I know this much about the sushi tradition: There are rules; there is tradition, and RESPECT is part of it. Respect the chef, and the chef respects you. Jonas most likely encounters a great deal of respect in his normal life. Sushi creation is an art and there is a real mastery to it.

Honestly, if a sushi master chef were to offer to catch fish for me, I would be far from snotty about it. I would consider it an honor.