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In my building, the landlord lived upstairs on the second floor.Not a faceless company—a real person, with whom I’d exchanged greetings for years. I also knew something else:this old building was not exactly popular on the rental market. Finding new tenants for an aging unit with no elevator was getting harder and harder. It was just the new years day, we bumped to see each other in front of the building so,I took a breath and said: “I’d like to rent the room next to mine as well.I’m planning to start a sushi class for overseas guests there.Would you consider renting it to me as a second unit?” For a moment, he said nothing.Then his face softened. He had been […]

Even while I was studying at Tokyo Sushi Academy,one question kept circling in my mind: “Where am I actually going to teach this sushi class?” Skills,yes.Knife work,yesEdomae techniques, rice, fish, timing, every single piece of sush class is getting set gradually. I knew, sooner or later, Japan would reopen.Tourists would come back.When that happened, I wanted to be ready. But the one thing I still didn’t have yetwas a place to actually welcome my guests. Back then, I was living in a small, slightly tired apartment building in the north of Tokyo.Nothing fancy. Narrow hallway, no elevator.The kind of place you choose when you’re self-employed and every yen matters. One day, I noticed the couple living there previously moved out. […]

From the south to the north in the eastern Tokyo including area such as  Tsukiji, Nihonbashi, Ueno, Asakusa, they were called Edomae area. In that same zone, a new kind of urban food culture was being born: street stalls along the river, vendors feeding busy workers, small shops that needed to serve food quickly and safelyin a humid climate, long before refrigerators.Fish spoiled fast. People were always in a hurry. So the craftsmen of Edo invented smart solutions: marinating in soy sauce, curing with salt or vinegar, simmering certain toppings, using vinegared rice that kept better in the heat. Put together, this became what we now call Edomae sushi: Seafood from in front of Edo,prepared to suit the climate and […]

Originally, Edomae was not a cooking term at all.It was a geographical word:the sea right in front of Edo Castle,and the low-lying waterfront districts that faced it. From the south around what is now Tsukiji,through Kayabachō and Nihonbashi,Kanda,up towards Asakusa in the north—this eastern belt of rivers, canals, markets, and warehousesbelonged to the world of Edomae. By contrast, the stylish western neighborhoods we know today—Daikanyama, Hiroo, Shibuya, Harajuku, Shinjuku—were never part of “Edomae” in the original sense.They didn’t face the sea.They didn’t sit “in front of Edo Castle.” Edomae was the front line where city and sea met. From those waters came fish. Fishermen went out into the bay “in front of Edo,”brought back flounder, kohada, anago, shellfish, and more.That […]

Have you heard of “Edomae sushi”?I don’t think so. Maybe you’ve heard of omakase, or tried “authentic sushi in Tokyo.”Maybe you know the difference between nigiri and sashimi,or you can name your favorite tuna cut. But Edomae? For most of my guests—even serious food lovers from the US—that word is completely new. So… what is Edomae sushi? If we stopped a hundred people on the streets of Los Angeles or New York and asked,“Have you ever had Champagne?”most of them would say yes. If we asked the same people,“Have you ever had Edomae sushi?”almost no one would even know what we’re talking about. And yet, in the world of sushi,Edomae is meant to be something like that level of name: […]

Coming to Mr.O’s sushi restaurant as a regular gave me education.I learned the history of sushi and sushi culture.And later, when I started to design my own sushi class,
I kept coming back to what I had seen and heard there:* The importance of rice, not just fish.* The invisible labor and history behind each “simple” piece of nigiri.* The way a counter becomes a place of conversation, not just consumption.* And the quiet joy of being more than a guest—
of being part of an ongoing dialogue between chef and customer.That’s why, in my own class,I don’t just teach people how to shape nigiri.I tell them about akazu.
About how rice can carry stories.
About how a small change in vinegar connects them […]

Around 10 percent of sushi restaurants in Tokyo use Akazu(Red vinegar).There was also a practical element:Red vinegar (Akazu)takes more time and effort to produce than regular white vinegar.
Naturally, that makes it more expensive.For high-end sushi restaurants,
this became a meaningful advantage:* It gave them a way to connect with tradition.* It allowed them to create a more complex, grown-up flavor in their rice.* And it offered a logical reason to price their sushi at a premium.Listening to Mr. O explain this across the counter,
I realized that what he was teaching me wasn’t just “rice trivia.”He was showing me how history, culture, economics, and flavor
all meet in a single bite of nigiri.Akazu(Red vinegar) wasn’t just a seasoning.
It was a story—
about Edo, about […]

After WW2, Japan had to import foreign rice because of poor harvest and logistics.And some of rice imported was contaminated with mold then it caused a major food scandal in Japan.People became terrified of anything that looked even slightly off-white.Yellowish rice meant danger in their minds.After that, many sushi restaurants grew afraid that customers would suspectthey were using moldy rice if their sushi rice wasn’t perfectly white.So, quietly, they stopped using akazu.Because, akazu makes sushi rice colored brown, not pure white color of fresh rice. Since then for a long time, white vinegar became the norm.Akazu slipped into the background.“Time passes,” Mr. O said.“People forget—even their own fears.”Roughly eighty years went by.The scandal faded from public memory.And in Tokyo, a […]

Of all the things I learned from Mr. O,the most important was about something that never appears on the plate by itself:sushi rice.At the academy, we had already learned the basics—how to mix vinegar, sugar, and salt,how to cool the rice,how to reach a good balance.But sitting at the counter as a regular,I could ask him the kind of questions you only ask when you feel comfortable:“Which brand of vinegar do you use?”“Do you adjust the vinegar for fatty fish?”“What happens if you add just a little more sugar?”He answered each question patiently.The biggest lesson I had from him was everything about AKAZU, the red vinegar.By using red vinegar, sushi rice becomes slightly darker color, not pure white.One night, he […]

That first shoot ended, I packed my gear and left—but something stayed with me.So I went back.This time, not as a photographer.Just as a customer, sitting quietly at the counter.I ordered a drink, watched him move, and asked small questions.He answered every one of them with a kind of gentle precision.I was just one guest among many,yet Mr. O never made me feel like I was bothering him.He seemed genuinely happy to talk about his craft across the counter:the way he cooked rice, the timing of service, the balance of a course.That’s when I realized one of the true joys of having a regular sushi place:It’s not just about eating good sushi.It’s about building a relationship with the person who […]