I’d like to thank the sushi academy...

This is sort of scary,” says Joe Green, contemplating the tub of sticky rice, the glistening pink mounds of Japanese pickled ginger, the slivers of cucumber and avocado that lie before him. “I mean, what if we anger the sushi gods? There could be serious retribution.”

Green’s concern stems from his participation in the California Sushi Academy of Venice’s one-day, three-hour sushi crash course, which initiates participants into the realm of spicy tuna, rainbow rolls and other delights. A junior at nearby Santa Monica High School who’s studying Japanese, Green knows as well as any of his more middle-aged companions that, in Japan, apprentice sushi chefs toil for years at menial tasks before they’re allowed to lay their first blade to a chunk of yellowtail. Surely you can’t just sack an ancient feudal ritual without certain consequences!

Fortunately, the sushi gods seem either to be asleep or indifferent, and Green’s life is spared, leaving him and 11 other enrollees clustered around wooden chopping tables to wrestle with the mysteries of, among other things, sticky rice. “Hai!” cries instructor Tommy Kousaka, calling the group to action. With that, hands plunge into tubs of sticky rice and a flurry of slapping, kneading and molding begins. Sticky rice, you discover, really lives up to its name. If you don’t douse your hands properly with water before handling it, you’ll be wearing a pretty suit of it before class is over.

Now the group moves on to creating the cosmetically perfect California roll. Kousaka observes patiently as one of his more dexterous students curls her sheet of seaweed paper around a rice cylinder, using the bamboo mat that is standard-issue sushi-making equipment. The result is quite professional. “You’re a natural!” he exclaims. Another student fares less well, letting out a sigh as ingredients ooze out the ends. “Keep the ends tight and the middle will take care of itself,” one of the several academy professional apprentices counsels. “It’s sort of like rolling a--oh, never mind.”

The academy, it turns out, happens to be the first registered Japanese culinary institute in California. Soon Kousaka is demonstrating the fine art of nigiri-zushi--miniature rice logs overlaid with a saddle of fresh raw fish, requiring a confusing series of eight steps. “Very good!” says Kousaka, surveying his charges. “Now, only 3,000 more to go!” As a visitor scans his face for assurance that he’s joking, Kousaka is asked whether the typical eight-year apprenticeship he underwent in Japan makes for a superior sushi chef.

“Oh,” he says with a note of wistfulness, “I don’t know.”

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California Sushi Academy, 1500 Main st., venice; (310) 581-0213.

Roll of a lifetime

The much maligned California roll--crab, avocado and cucumber wrapped in seaweed and rice--was reportedly invented by a chef in the late ‘70s at the now-defunct Tokyo Kaikan in Little Tokyo. So who cops to still serving it? Sushi Nozawa (“No”), Matsuhisa (“Yes”), Ginza Sushiko (“No.” [Laughs.] “We don’t.” [Laughs.] “Sorry!”) and Teru Sushi (“Yes”). Is it the most popular menu item? “Sorry to say this, but it is,” admits Teru Sushi manager Yuji Horii.