A friend just got back from a tour of Japan. He loved it, but said he found the sushi unsatisfying. I didn't see how, until he explained that it "lacked flair." He's a spicy-tuna-roll kind of guy, while Japanese sushi is austere and plain, the emphasis being on the fresh fish and subtly seasoned rice and its proper preparation. Whereas we Americans like crazy junklike license plates on the wall, and cooked fish and cream cheese with our salmon "sushi."

The concept of "authentic" Japanese sushi is one every sushi restaurant very much wants its American customers to believe they're getting when they belly up to the bar. And the sushi very well may be authentic. But chances are, if an American is eating it, it ain't authentic. And that's nobody's fault but our own. Specifically, our palates are to blame.

Takashi Yoshida (nickname: "Stash") has quietly run the very good and truly authentic Hikaru for 23 years. And that's just at the Second and South location. The Main Street restaurant has been around for 12. When he came to Philadelphia in the early 1970s, there were only two Japanese restaurants: a tempura joint, and a sukiyaki house. Sushi hadn't really taken off yet. Yoshida can cite the differences between how we eat sushi, and how sushi is eaten in the Land of the Rising Sun.

"In Japan, sushi is mostly nigiri. There, sushi sales are 80 percent nigiri and 20 percent maki, or rolls. Here, I sell 70 percent rolls, and 30 percent nigiri. Americans are afraid of eating raw fish, so it's mostly cooked or smoked fish they order when they order sushi. "

Hikaru sells no smoked fish, but some of their most delicious rolls have cooked fish, and are loaded with flair. Yoshida confirms that rolls like these were developed for American palates. There's the Green River roll, an inside-out maki with unagi (broiled eel) and avocado, the outside rice rolled in seaweed flakes. The Hang On Salmon roll features delicately cooked salmon and tender asparagus. The Dynamite has soft-shell crab tempura, cucumber and a spicy sauce made with mayonnaise. If loving these culinary developments is part of being an American, then I've never been more proud.

Yoshida goes as far as to call maki-like California rolls and the Philly roll --that's our namesake cream cheese with salmon, yo — "U.S. imports." But there is no denying that cream cheese and salmon taste great together. It's nothing to be ashamed of; it's just not authentic sushi.

Hikaru, 607 S. Second St., 215-627-7110, and 4348 Main St., 215-487-3500.