In Japanese, 面 is indeed men but I haven't seen it used for noodles. It is usually used for face, mask, (rarely) man.
麺 is the kanji for noodles (notice that 面 is a radical). But, noodle is also often just written in kana as either めん or メン.
Note I am not a native speaker, so not totally confident.
I believe 面 is used for noodles in Mandarin...?
That’s great, thanks for correcting me! I saw it used as 拉面 in a ramen restaurant and it translated to ramen when I used Google translate so I just sort of put it into my head and never looked into it further. They must have been using the mandarin characters in the restaurant, because it does indeed mean noodle in mandarin.
Small nitpick: Mandarin is the name of the spoken language. The written language you are talking about is called simplified Chinese, as opposed to traditional Chinese used in Taiwan (who also speak Mandarin).
mandarin is both written and spoken, what you refer to as "simplified chinese" is mandarin written with simplified characters. there are many chinese languages each with their own written forms, but across china it is standard to write in mandarin despite many not speaking it, causing your confusion
The irony that Taiwan uses "traditional" Chinese while China uses "simplified" Chinese meanwhile China actively acts like Taiwan isn't its own country is hilarious.
Good to know! I always assumed Mandarin and Cantonese were interchangeable terms with Simplified and Traditional Chinese, respectively. Saves me from making the mistake IRL.
So I most like getting salmon belly sashimi with a side bowl of rice. That is how I can construct my favorite sushi experience. I can vary the amount of fish, rice, and sauce to make every bite the best.
However, that doesn't really seem to be an option, and I am sure there is a good reason? If it's just to respect the chef, I really really dislike Wasabi, it's like soapy cilantro but sharp and destroys all other flavors.
I feel ordering nigiri without Wasabi is offending the chef because the amount they put on is part of that art, and I respect artists, my tastes just don't always jive with them. I see ordering sashimi and a side of rice as not offending the chef, but am I actually being more offensive??