Standing sushi bar

You can eat sushi in many ways. Famous are the conveyer belt sushi restaurants, you can get take away sushi at convenient stores and railway stations, and then there are the sushi-ya manned by the itamae 板前 or sushi chef. Eating in a sushi-ya can be very expensive. But then there are local standing sushi bars, where the itamae might concentrate less on presentation and more on taste. I was invited to eat in such a local sushi-ya. Since there was only space for six people, we had to wait outside for 15 minutes or so. Behind the counter were two itamae. The powerful smell of fresh fish made my mouth water.

We ordered okonomi style: a few pieces at a time. The itamae prepares the tane 種 (topping) and takes the sushi rice, moulds it into shape with his hand and puts the tane on top and serves it - up to two pieces at a time - one a wooden geta 下駄. This process repeats itself until you are completely satisfied. We ordered a sake taster with three different kinds of sake and we managed to drink six glasses of sake each.

I didn't even photograph half of all the sushi we ate. I concentrated mostly on the experience. Also, I cannot exactly tell the names of all the sea food. I was told the name of the fish or shell fish with each order but I couldn't remember everything. Trying to name different types of fish you can find yourself in a bit of a quagmire anyway. There are already 20 terms for members of the mackerel family. You really have to be an ichthyologist to name all the fish correctly.

Most sushi we ordered was nigiri 握り, which means 'shape by hand'. It is hand moulded sushi rice with a piece of (mostly raw) sea food on top. If the nigiri needs wasabi the itamae will add a little wasabi between the rice and the topping. The nigiri below looks like it was topped with Japanese seabass 鱸 Suzuki (Lateolabrax japonicus) but I cannot be sure. There is plenty of amazu shoga 甘酢生姜 or gari ガリto eat between the courses - ginger slices aged in rice vinegar and sugar.

The type below is called gunkan maki 軍艦巻き (battleship maki) which is sushi rice wrapped with nori 海苔 and a topping. In this case salty baby sardines. Fish eggs are also a popular topping.

Below: Kujira 鯨 nigiri. Illegal in most countries except Japan, Norway and Iceland. 

A small saucer with shoyu. Soya sauce can also be referred to as murasaki (紫) in a sushi-ya. It is good custom to quickly swipe the nigiri - fish side down - through the shoyu just once. Don't draw circles in the saucer with your nigiri.

We also ordered a cloudy rice wine which reminded me of makgeolli 막걸리. I am not sure how I should refer to this rice wine in Japanese. Is it simply unfiltered sake called doburoku (どぶろく or is there a more specific name?

Bowl of Sushi by Utagawa Hiroshige (Japanese: 歌川 広重; 1797 – 1858).