Mr Rabbit had to make a couple of business trips to Japan last year.  Both times he had dinner with his Japanese cousin (MRJC) at her favorite sushi bar– Nigi-Nigi in Nishi-Ogikubo (near Nishi-Ogikubo station on the JR Chuo line, contact info at botton).  MRJC calls Nigi-Nigi the “stand-up sushi bar” because there are no seats.  The place has enough room for the master to work and about 8 people to stand there and eat.

The place is run by Isao-san (the chef) and So-chan, his fiancee.  MRJC goes there a lot and they know her well.  So well that I have never actually ordered anything there.  MRJC calls ahead to let them know when we are coming so they can stock the sake we like.  When we get there, they give us food, keep our glasses full, and tolerate my inane attempts at Japanese conversation (”What’s the best Murakami novel?”) until we can’t stand up anymore.  Then I hand over all my money, they give some of it back, and we stumble to the whiskey bar in the alley to try and sober up enough to catch the train.

Sushi in Japan typically starts with drinks.  At Nigi-Nigi, we drink happo-nigori sake.  Nigori sake is the cloudy unfiltered sweet sake; I’ve seen it marketed as “pearl sake” in the US.  Happo nigori is sparkling nigori; Japanese champagne; rice mixed with stars.  I love this stuff and MRJC and I usually polish off a big bottle each, which makes Nigi-Nigi rather punishing the next day.

After settling in with drinks, next comes the sashimi.  The first picture is the sashimi that Isao-san did in Jul/Aug 2008.  The second picture is the sashimi he did in  Dec 08.

After that, comes the middle phase where we eat whatever raw and cooked food he throws at us.  I always forget to take a picture of them, but Nigi Nigi always has uni (sea urchin) from Hokkaido which is really sweet.  We eat a bowl-ful each with a spoon.

In Aug, there was a cooked clam and asparagus thing that had butter in it:

In Dec, there were some shellfish (scallops, clams) skewers with togarashi (hot pepper) that was so good I almost forgot to take a picture:

Grilled crab was also a big hit in December:

And raw snails were in season as well:

In December there was a funny tuna-looking fish in the case:

I was told it was kujira, or “hu-ee-ru.”  Hueru?  Hueru?  Oh!  Whale!  When confronted with a sushi case with a big chunk of endangered species, I decided I had to have a taste:

It looked like beef, with visible muscle fibers, but it wasn’t chewy like beef; it had a lean texture like fish.  I spent the rest of the trip telling everyone I ate whale.  They seemed a little embarrassed by this but also said that most Japanese over age thirty got whale meat in their school lunches and have a certain nostalgia for the stuff.  (Note for our lefty friends: Culturally, Japan has been eating whale meat since at least the 7th century AD so arguably they have as much right to take whales as First Nations cultures in Canada.  According to the International Whaling Commission, Japan takes about 1000 whales per year under IWC scientific permits, which means whale meat is available legally in Japan but is quite expensive.)

The final two phases of sushi are nigiri-sushi (raw fish on rice) and then miso soup.  We ate nigiri and it was great but by then we were just going through the motions.

The Nigi-Nigi crew work really hard.  They are open until 1am-2am every night, then they wake up at 7am to go to Tsukiji to buy fish for the coming day.  I’m trying hard to guilt them into taking us on one of their fish buying trips next time I’m in Japan.

The financials are a bit hazy, but it generally costs us 10,000-12,000 yen per person (USD $100-$120 if $1 = 100 yen).  This may be on the high side, since So-chan told MRJC that they like us because we eat and drink a lot.

Posted on January 11th, 2009 by admin
Filed under: Japan, Restaurant Reviews