The Restaurants of Misawa

Boredom is getting to me still so maybe blogging is in order. I've found that there is limited guidance on the restaurants of Misawa Japan. Especially guides geared toward those who's Japanese is limited. Odd since this is largely a US military town. www.misawalife.com is a very good site but only covers a small fraction of the restaurants here. Of course alot of Americans are probably hanging out at the AAFES Food Court eating Taco Bell and Subway, then heading over to the Commissary for Cap'n Crunch and Hot Pockets but I'm sure there are quite alot of adventurous folks who wander the streets looking for some local flavor. So I'm not going to make this an all Misawa blog, my attention span is way too short to stick to just one subject. But I will add some more detailed info about the food here.

I honestly didn't expect to get much good food in close proximity to the base but was wrong. Not that I'm a gourmet or anything. My wife would say I'm in no position to rate Japanese food since I don't even eat natto. But I consider myself to have a broader palate than most and this is just my opinion anyway so.

I've been to around a dozen restaurants by now, most all of which have English menus and waitstaff that at least understand a moderate amount of English. You wouldnt know that just wandering the streets though. It didn't occur to me to take pics of them until now so I will attempt to put up pics, reviews and maps in the hopes that someone else might find it useful. So first review . . .

Location Map
Kozo Sushi is the actual name but locally this place is known as "The Pink Sushi Place" for obvious reasons. From the main street side it appears to be sushi takeout. But in the back is a small kaitensushi bar.

Kaitenzushi for those who don't know is the type of place where the sushi comes around on a conveyor and you just take what you want. The sushi is presented on plates of varying colors. Each plate color has a different price. When you're done eating they just count up how many plates of each color and tally the price. The positives are that if its busy the fish is fresh and the prices are usually very reasonable as compared to traditional sushi places. The negative is if its not busy the fish isn't fresh or you have to order each thing individually which is the same as going to any other sushi place.

I will take some pictures next time and add a conveyor belt sushi primer at some point just because there are some really interesting aspects of this type of dining.


So anyway this particular place is very good. When we went the place was full, it only seats about 16 people so if you bring the whole family be prepared to wait. We waited maybe 10 minutes to seat two. Most importantly they met the basic criteria for good sushi . . . warm rice/cold fish. The menu is available in English so you can identify what you're eating and how much it costs. The fare covers all the basics (salmon, tuna, mackerel, yellow tail, urchin, roe, natto, etc) along with some good interesting items. The overall experience was excellent, the food quality was definitely above average and the folks who run the place were super friendly and very accomodating to two non-Japanese speakers.