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mottoyomitaiAs usual, original article is here if you'd like to follow along with the photos!
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(Part 1) JO1’s Kimata Syoya has a birthday celebration with artistic sushi together with Ohira Shosei | Real Thoughts with Kimata Sushi
Artistic sushi that’s also pleasing to the eye will be served one after the other!
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[Photo 1]
Writeup
This is the regular column “Real Thoughts with Kimata Sushi” by JO1’s Kimata Syoya, who loves sushi. For this popular series, he will bring along one member to a trendy sushi restaurant in each issue, and have a heart-to-heart talk while eating delicious sushi. His 6th partner is a member his age, Ohira Shosei.
Ohira Shosei, from JO1’s generation of miracles “S4”, is in attendance!
[Photo 2]
This time round, we are joined by Ohira Shosei, one of the four members of JO1’s 2000-line “S4”. Tsurubo Shion, who was the guest for the very first issue and who was considered “just a good friend”(of Kimata’s) is also a member of S4, but as for Ohira Shosei, the fans consider him and Kimata to be “twins” because of how in sync they are. In addition, they are also good friends outside of work, and they often go out together on their off days as well.
Where did he bring Ohira Shosei, who has a well-honed appreciation for art, to…?
[Photo 3]
Ohira Shosei has a well-honed appreciation for art and aesthetic – he regularly displays flowers at home, and does watercolour art on canvas as well. The restaurant chosen for this issue suits him perfectly – it’s “Udatsu Sushi” in Naka-Meguro.
This restaurant was opened by Udatsu Hisashi-san, who has trained in sushi restaurants in Tokyo’s Kanda and Ginza areas, in 2019. The fish is sourced every day from Toyosu Market, and the rice used for the sushi is organically produced under a contract with a farm in Kumamoto prefecture. In addition to an absence of compromise in their work, the restaurant’s charm lies in how it seeks to overturn the typical stereotype of sushi restaurants with its extravagant presentation and art gallery-like atmosphere. In 2022, it received 1 Michelin star.
Cross-talk
[Photo 4]
Kimata: The two of us are truly “friends”, aren’t we. Like, when they ask us what our relationship is like.
Ohira: That’s right… It’s like, being with each other feels so natural, that I’ve never really put much thought into it. (laughs)
Kimata: We go out to eat pretty often, don’t we. We go to conveyor belt sushi places quite frequently. Speaking of which, just recently I ended up spending the night in Shosei’s room, for some reason…
Ohira: Yeah! We live in the same apartment so you could have just gone home, but we bought food from the convenience store and watched TV in my room while getting excited, and played music out loud…
Kimata: We did all that, and somewhere along the way we fell asleep. (laughs)
Ohira: What’s more, Syoya fell asleep on the bed, so I had to take the sofa. (laughs)
Kimata: Yesterday too, even though it was already 3am when I came back from work, I still dropped by your room to pick up a drawing. The one that drew a while back and promised to give to me.
Ohira: Kimata Syoya ends up casually coming by my place pretty often just like that, you see.
Kimata: It’s because you’ll let me in no matter what time it is, Shosei!
[Photo 5]
Kimata: And so, I think the restaurant for today is perfectly fitting for you, Shosei, since you draw pictures and place flowers around your house.
Ohira: First off, the appearance of the store is really cool. A wooden front door in the midst of this residential district is really amazing. Apparently, this door was previously used in a warehouse for 100 years.
Kimata: Once you enter the restaurant you’ll be surprised again, right. There’s a lot of artistic paintings and photographs that are on display, and it doesn’t seem like the interior of a sushi restaurant.
Ohira: Seems like foreigners would like it here, too.
[Photo 6]
Kimata: What’s this thing on the table, that looks like wood-patterned paper?
Chef: It’s for placing your smartphone on. The number of guests from overseas has increased, and so it’s also meant to serve as a kind of keepsake (that they can take home).
Kimata: The marking that’s printed on here is different for each one too! That makes them feel unique, which is great.
Ohira: You’re right. Amazinggggg. I’ve never really been to a restaurant like this before, so I didn’t even notice… (laughs) I feel a little nervous today, you know.
[Photo 7]
Kimata: We’ve got vocal lessons after this, so we’ll order soft drinks. First, let’s have a toast.
Ohira: Cheeeers!
Kimata: You know, one of the plans for today is also to have you conquer your dislike of wasabi, Shosei. And what’s more, I don’t want to force you to like it, but rather I’d like for you to eat (wasabi) in delicious forms and come to enjoy it, so I thought that I’d want to bring you to a restaurant with a very skilled chef right off the bat.
Ohira: That’s what I thought as well. I’ve not had many chances to go to a really fancy sushi restaurant. My hometown was by the seaside, so I’ve grown up eating seafood and I love it, but I’ve never been a fan of wasabi. Also, sea urchin (uni) is one of those things I could never develop a taste for, but I feel like I’ll be able to enjoy it today in a restaurant like this!
[Photo 8]
First off is the signature dish, the “herb maki”!
Chef: For tonight’s menu, we will serve you 8 dishes and 11 pieces of sushi. To begin, please enjoy the herb maki*.
[ T/N: Maki is short for “makizushi”, or rolled sushi. ]
Kimata: It’s here! This is the signature dish for this restaurant, right?
Chef: That’s right. We did not create it with this intention, initially, but the customers began to treat it that way.
Kimata: What made you first decide to create this dish?
Chef: It came to me when I visited a farm in Hiroshima prefecture that raised organic vegetables. These flowers are organic as well, and they are edible.
[Photo 9]
Ohira: Woah, amazing! Flowers are blooming from the sushi! Do you change the types of flowers used according to the season?
Chef: That’s right. For today, we’ve used violets. Which colour would you like?
Ohira: For me, my member colour is yellow, so please give me a yellow one! A lot of the flowers I display at home also tend to be yellow.
[Photo 10]
Kimata: Shosei, how do you buy flowers?
Ohira: I’ll go to the florist and discuss with them, going like “this flower and that one are really cute~” and adding on to my basket as I go. I’ll just randomly choose flowers that I think look cute. That’s why I don’t really know much about the different types of flowers. (laughs)
Kimata: Shosei, you own a lot of flower vases as well, right. You have some weirdly-shaped ones, too, like that one shaped like a jar.
[Photo 11]
Chef: This is a herb maki with swordfish. The fish has been lightly cured, and the inside is filled with sliced shallots, and organic vegetables we’ve received from Kajiya Farm in Hiroshima prefecture.
Ohira: The plate is cute, too!
Chef: It’s made of Venetian glass from Italy.
Kimata: Woah, there’s a purple flower on it too, just like my member colour!
Ohira: Is it okay for us to eat this…?
Chef: Yes, please eat it as is!
Both: We’ll tuck in~
[Photo 12]
Kimata: Hm? These chopsticks are longer than normal!
Ohira: You’re right.
Chef: That’s intentional. When the chopsticks are long, your posture will naturally straighten up, and so both yourself and the atmosphere of the restaurant will become more sophisticated.
[Photo 13]
Ohira: Ah! (hurriedly fixes posture)
Kimata: (bites down, unbothered) Delicious! The fish is, of course, tasty, but the flavour of the seaweed is great, too.
Chef: For the seaweed, we source it from Chiba prefecture, and it’s actually made from a blend of two different types of seaweed. The fragrance really comes through, so we make sure to mix it strictly in accordance with the appropriate proportions.
Kimata: Woah~! I can already smell the fragrance of the seaweed even before I bite into the roll! It’s really, really delicious.
Plenty of wasabi on top of smoked tuna belly…
[Photo 14]
Chef: Next we have the smoked ootoro (fatty tuna belly). When you open the lid of the dish, the smell of the smoke will waft out. Please enjoy the smoky fragrance, and then after than eat the tuna.
Kimata: I notice the shape of my dish is very slightly different from Shosei’s.
Chef: Each of these dishes was made by a craftsman in Fukushima prefecture, so there are slight differences between each one.
Kimata: The dishes are art, too!
Ohira: You’re right.
Kimata: This isn’t just a regular sushi restaurant, huh. It’s like we’ve come to an art museum!
[Photo 15]
Ohira: May I open the lid? (excited)
Kimata: Let’s open ours together! Ready, go!
Both: Woahhhhh, amazing!
