Theory #1: Sushi

Sushi is great. Here is theory #1: Sushi and sunshine are similar words. How could a Japanese word be a cognate of an english one you ask? In 1852 American Matthew Perry commanded a squadron of ships in an attempt to reach a trade treaty with Japan. Now as we all know the United States spoke/speak english and Japan is commonly referred to as the "Land of the Rising Sun", or the origin of the sun. The sun produces sunshine. Now sushi as we know it today was invented by Hanaya Yohei of Edo (today the Japanese Capital City of Tokyo). He lived between 1799 and 1858 and so my theory was when Mr. Yohei was looking for a name for his new "fast-food" product, he decided to go for a metaphor of the experience of eating sushi. When he let Perry try his invention, Perry stated: "It reminds me of sunshine running through my veins." At first Yohei decided to call it sushine, thinking he heard that instead of sunshine. Later he changed it to sushi because of its awsomeness.

Though I could be wrong ;)