Sebastian Masuda to open SUSHIDELIC, a new sushi restaurant in Soho, New York City. The location will open on June 28, 2023.

“King of Kawaii” Sebastian Masuda, creator of Harajuku’s “KAWAII MONSTER CAFE,” loved by celebrities around the world, has created a new restaurant concept  in New York City

Enjoy an Immersive Kawaii Experience

Featuring a Menu Developed by Japanese Chefs and Supported by AUTEC, Inc.

Opening in SoHo, the Trendiest Neighborhood in New York City

SUSHIDELIC is scheduled to open at 177 Lafayette St. in the heart of the SoHo area, where the latest fashions and trends are born and where many fashion brands have opened their flagship stores.

We will keep you updated with the latest information as it becomes available. Please look forward to the chemistry between “Sushi” and “Kawaii,” two of Japan’s proudest exports.

Sebastian Masuda

In Saiki City, located in the southernmost part of Oita Prefecture, visitors will find a unique project. For a limited time, guests can enjoy a sushi-netarium, where sushi–not stars–will be featured in the sky. Saiki City, where the event takes place, is a treasure trove of seafood thanks to the Bungo Channel and boasts the largest catch in Oita Prefecture. It’s also known as Oita’s premier sushi destination, with more than 350 varieties of ocean delicacies to enjoy each year. Saiki Sushi, made from fresh local fish, is known for its firm texture and for having just the right amount of fat. To promote this tasty dish throughout Japan, the interactive sushi-netarium promotion was created!

A Planetarium Experience Featuring Soothing Music and a Sky Filled with Sushi

The sushi-netarium is said to have a relaxing effect comparable to that of Beppu Onsen, the most famous tourist attraction in Oita. Those taking part will be able to see not only a sky filled with sushi, but a sushi meteor shower and the Gari Borealis. As you watch, it might become impossible not to crave sushi! Visitors will be able to take part in this special viewing at certain locations in Beppu City and at Oita Airport from September 22 until November 30. In a public announcement, the city invited guests to eat plenty of tasty local food and soak in the Beppu Onsen before enjoying the sushi-netarium to wrap up a wonderful day. 

The Beautiful ‘Sushi Projector’

Check out these impressive projectors made exclusively for the sushi-netarium! These original sushi projectors in the shape of Saiki sushi are the only five such projectors in the world and come in the shapes of tuna, yellowtail, octopus, egg, and shrimp. 

Come enjoy this strange sushi-centric activity in the south of Japan! Participating facilities are listed on the website below.

High casual brand PAGEBOY has begun selling limited-edition collaboration items with sushi chain Hamazushi at stores nationwide, the official web store, and ZOZOTOWN. An original novelty box will be gifted to customers buying collab items while supplies last!

Lineup

Long Sleeve T-Shirt

Short-Sleeve T-Shirt

Short-Sleeve Patterned T-Shirt

Bucket Hat

Socks

Plates

Fans of the popular sushi chain can grab a shirt featuring Hamazushi’s unique wave pattern motifs. Unisex brand PAGEBOYLIM also announced a simultaneous collaboration, with a long-sleeve T-shirt perfect for the guys out there.

A new restaurant by the name of Kimura Don is set to open inside Shinjuku Takashimaya’s Restaurant Square on July 20, 2021.

Kimura Don is a new donburi restaurant produced by Koji Kimura, a chef whose popular sushi bar Sushi Kimura, located in Futakotamagawa, has held two Michelin stars since 2013. His new eatery continues the traditions and techniques honed at Sushi Kimura while spinning innovation into new donburi rice bowl dishes conceived from the many ideas Kimura has conceived over the years.

The donburi to be served recreates that perfect balance between vinegared rice and toppings which Kimura mastered at his sushi bar. Customers can enjoy a range of additions including donburi classics such as meat and fish as well as seasonal ingredients. The restaurant also uses locally grown and reared produce and ingredients that’s also environmentally-friendly from Tokyo such as Kinuhari rice from Hachiojo and Akigawagyu beef. This will help to foster a relationship between local farmers and consumers. 

Lunchtime Dishes | ¥3,500 Each | Serving Times: 11:00-17:00 (Last Orders 16:00)

Pick from five different donburi bowls such as tuna, pilchard, and roast beef. Each season will also has its own exclusive dish made with seasonal ingredients. There’s also a special option to order a set of two smaller versions of the dishes too for ¥3,800. 

Evening Courses | From ¥12,000 | Serving Times: 17:00-23:00 (Last Orders 22:00)

The evening course line-up is also made up of five different bowls as well as seven seasonal snacks.

Koji Kimura | Comment

“I’ve been set up in Futakotamagawa for 16 years. I studied how to prepare sushi rice for many years, since it serves as the foundation, so that I could create unique sushi. I have made sushi rice that’s unique and draws a line under other restaurants, rice which when combined with toppings explodes with umami flavour. I use this same sushi rice as the basis for lots of innovative donburi dishes, and I’d love for people to enjoy a taste at the first place in Japan to do this.”

The Kirby Café branches in Tokyo and Hakata rolled out their Spring 2021 menu on Friday which is set to run until June 6. Themed on a springtime picnic, the line-up includes three items: six siz different temari-zushi servings, cherry blossom mochi, and a cherry blossom latte, all inspired by the Kirby video game series.

The Menu

Cherry Blossom Temari-zushi: Eat In ¥2,178 / Takeout ¥2,138

A serving of six sushi rolls perfect for a spring picnic. Each roll features designs that will be instantly-recognisable to Kirby fans.

Souvenir – Lunchbox (4 Designs)

Kirby’s Spring Search | ¥1,078 (Tax Included)

Kirby is playing hide and seek under the cherry blossom tree in this cute dish which is adorned with shiny coloured candy.

Cherry Blossom Latte | ¥968 (Tax Included)

A light pink-coloured cherry blossom latte with a touch of salt. Mix everything together for a tasty sipping experience.

The fruit sandwich eatery Maruichi Seika has opened a pop-up shop on the second floor of Kita-Senju Marui in Adachi, Tokyo. The shop is a collaboration between the popular local restaurant Ippo Ippo and Maruichi, a long-standing and much-loved fruit shop.

Fruit is the key ingredient at Maruichi Seika where they want customers stuffing their cheeks with strawberries, oranges, pineapple, and more. Fruit is packed into fat sandwiches and combined with mascarpone cheese for a filling treat. The bread is provided by Furansuya, a local bakery in Kita-Senju that has been running for over 10 years.

A Select Look at the Line-Up

Sky Berry | ¥740 (Tax Included)

This sandwich is named after a particular variety of strawberry is known as the Sky Berry. It’s sourced from Tochigi Prefecture and is known for its superior sweetness, juiciness, and the fact that it’s low in acidity. Ordering this lets you enjoy three different kinds of well-known strawberry: the titular Sky Berry, the Tochiotome which is also from Tochigi, and the classic Amaou from Fukuoka.

Setoka | ¥840 (Tax Included)

The Setoka is a rare and super sweet, full-bodied citrus fruit that’s normally given as a gift in Japan. In sandwich form, it enjoys a perfect balance of sweetness and tanginess.

Pineapple | ¥630 (Tax Included)

The Golden Pineapple from the Philippines is the variety used in this sandwich, packed with mouth-watering sweetness and offering a rich fruity fragrance.

Maruichi Mix | ¥740 (Tax Included)

This sandwich is a combination of fruits including the Amaou strawberry from Fukuoka, the Kanjuku Kiwi from Ehime, and the Premium Banana from the Philippines. It also contains the best picked mikan which are bought fresh from the market every day.

If you’ve never tried a fruit sandwich in Japan and are in Tokyo this winter, then don’t miss out on Maruichi Seika’s limited-time line-up.

DMM VR lab released a new 3D VR game last week on Steam and DMM.com titled No Sushi, No Life.

The game is set in the year 20XX in a sushi bar in Neo Tokyo City. The aim of the virtual reality game is simple: to eat as much sushi as you can. Players must grab all the sushi coming their way and wolf it down. Their reflexes are tested as more sushi plates speed toward them on the conveyor belt. If a plate of sushi falls to the floor, it’s game over. As players eat more sushi the conveyor belt will run faster and faster. Can you survive the culinary onslaught?

Japanese food and confectionery company Bijuu is opening a new restaurant called Tsurigitsune inside Osaka International Airport’s North Terminal on August 5, 2020. The restaurant will specialise in inari sushi, a type of sushi packed into pouches of deep-fried tofu.

Bijuu is known for producing and selling such products as Kyoto’s famous coarse sweet red bean paste-filled yatsuhashi otabe crackers.

Tsurigitsune will serve “Kyo Dashi Oinari,” a type of inari sushi made with fried tofu Saga Tofu Morioka—a long-standing tofu shop in Sagano, Kyoto—soaked in lots of sumptuous Kyoto-style dashi. The restaurant will also serve a special type of sweet otabe cracker which cannot be eaten anywhere else.

Kyo Dashi Oinari (Includes 15) | ¥3,240 (Tax Included)

The dashi that the Kyo Dashi Oinari are soaked in take up all the delicious flavour of kombu, sababushi smoked mackerel, iwashibushi pilchard, and katsuobushi dried bonito, all of which serve to add that authentic Kyoto flavour.

Tanto Otabeyasu | ¥930 (Tax Included) *Served 6:30-10:00

As well as Kyo Dashi Oinari, Tsurigitsune’s menu includes a line-up of dishes that celebrate the flavour of dashi, including soba, dashimaki tamago omelette, and more.

If you’re travelling to Osaka, why not get an authentic Kyoto experience too by dining at Tsurigitsune?

Matsuya Foods, Gastroduce Japan, and Teruzushi have all joined hands to cook up the new “Eel Burger” which will be sold exclusively in Japan via Matsuya Food Court on Rakuten and Matsuya PayPay Mall starting from 8:00pm (JST) on July 4, 2020.

Like all countries around the world, Japan’s food industry is suffering at the hands of the COVID-19 pandemic, with less customers dining in restaurants and eateries. That’s where Matsuya Foods comes in, which has launched an effort to collaborate with fellow restaurants to release exquisite dishes online. That begins with the “Eel Burger,” the first of many foods to come.

Teruzushi is a sushi bar famous for its “theatrical entertainment” style of sushi serving which has earned it the spotlight in the news and on social media in Japan. They serve high-grade sushi which can have the average person easily spending over ¥30,000 during their visit.

The restaurant, located in Fukuoka, is also famous for its “Unagi Burger,” which uses 220g of eel that is prepared in the kabayaki-style and wrapped around sushi rice. That itself is then wrapped in high quality domestic seaweed, resulting in a unique burger-style of sushi. The Eel Burger is an amalgamation of flavours and textures, with the crunchy seaweed complementing the soft eel.

With just a small bit of ingenuity, turn everyday food into something cute using Kaori’s easy recipe! With a few simple ideas, an ordinary recipe magically transforms into a cute dish.

Hinamatsuri is almost here, and I’ve got the perfect treat for this year’s festival: Hello Kitty Sushi Cakes. These Hello Kitty decorations can be made with basic Japanese ingredients, so follow along and try making them yourself.

1: Equipment/Ingredients

15cm cake tin

1 cup vinegared sushi rice

200g tuna

200g salmon

3 Japanese rolled omelettes (dashi-maki tamago)

20 beefsteak plant

Ikura salted salmon roe

Hanpen pounded fish cake

2:

Line a cake tin with baking sheet paper like in the photo. Use a cake tin with a detachable bottom spanning 15cm. In the case that you don’t have a cake tin with a detachable bottom, cover the bottom of your tin with cling film which will make it easy to remove everything afterwards.

3:

Cut Hello Kitty, flowers and other shapes into some hanpen pounded fish cake.

4:

Slice the tuna, salmon, and Japanese egg into cubes about 1.2cm each.

Pile the ingredients in this order: rice→tuna, salmon, and egg→rice. Refer to the photo below.

5:

Leave the ingredients exposed around the outside like so✨

6:

Top with the rest of the ingredients as you like.

7:

Finish by adding your Hello Kitties and flowers which you can decorate with leftovers, like the noses and middle of the flowers. I also used cucumber and crab sticks for the head decorations.

Kaori invites you into her world of character-themed food dishes in her recipe series. Be sure to check out her Instagram where she has uploaded many pictures of her character dishes!

SHARI and SHARI THE TOKYO SUSHI BAR in Ginza, as well as CRAFT in Ariake, are releasing the perfect accompaniment to your hanami flower-viewing experience in Japan this spring: the “Hanami Roll Sushi Bento” lunch box, which consists of 36 bite-size sushi pieces made up of 12 different kinds of sushi. It will be available February 18 to April 30.

Hanami Roll Sushi Bento (36 Pieces/Serves 3-4): ¥4,500 (Tax Included)

As soon as your take the lid off this colourful assortment of rolled sushi, you’ll find yourself reaching for your camera to snap a photo for Instagram. Each piece is 3cm in diameter and so is deliciously bite-sized. The line-up includes four new kinds of sushi rolls conceived for this release which use seasonal spring ingredients, like sakuradai cherry blossom sea bream, sakura ebi, rape blossoms, fuki giant butterbur, green beans, and moreーas well as eight other types of sushi that are popular classics at each of the three restaurants.

Shrimp Roll

From the four new rolls, we have the sakura ebi shrimp roll, which is served with a gorgeous cherry blossom colour. It’s made with shibazuke pickles and vinegared rice, which gives it its colour, and contains, rape blossoms, okra, Chinese yam, and egg. The rape blossoms add a springtime bitterness to the sweetness of the sakura ebi, creating a wonderful combination of flavours.

Beef Butterbur Miso Roll

Then there’s the sakuradai roll is wrapped with vinegared tobiko flying fish roe, okra, and cucumber, which is topped with sashimi-style sakuradai cherry blossom seam bream and salty cherry blossom leaves. The spring vegetable and tempura roll has shrimp and green bean tempura mixed with yuzu kosho paste; and finally, the beef butterbur miso roll, which contains beef rib seasoned in a sukiyaki style, finished with sesame seeds, and seasoned with butterbur miso.

The eight popular classics include the wagyu roll sushi seasoned with luxurious truffle oil, Italian roll, duck roll, salmon roll, spider roll (soft shell crab), and more. All of these varied picks go great with wine or champagne.

Hanami Roll Sushi Bento (9 Pieces): ¥1,200 (Tax Included)

The “Hanami Roll Sushi Bento” comes in various sizes. As well as the 36 pieces of 12 sushi types, there’s also 18 pieces of 9 types (serves 1-2), and the 9 pieces of 9 types (serves 1).

Reservations are available until 15:00 the previous day. Order yours for your Hanami cherry blossom flower-viewing this year in Japan.

Muten Kura Sushi opened the first of its its all-new chain of “global flagship” sushi restaurants in Asakusa BOX on January 22.

This kaitenzushi restaurant, or “conveyor belt sushi,” aims to promote Japanese culture. It wants people, both Japanese and foreign, to rediscover the wonders of kaitezsushi, and what better place to open its first branch than Asakusaーone of the biggest tourist hot spots in Tokyo?

The restaurant’s design and decor takes on a more traditional approach, drawing inspiration of Japan’s Edo period with classic ukiyo-e paintings and paper lanterns adorning the walls, amongst many other things. This classic image of Japan has found its way to the dining space itself too, with flat tables made from plain wood and chairs topped with tatami. This gives it that air of grace and beauty which is typically associated with traditional Japanese culture, as well as a relaxed atmosphere.

The logo used on the restaurant’s paper lanterns, crockery, staff uniform and elsewhere was designed by Japanese art director and creative director Kashiwa Sato. It was created for the brand to be used on all future branches, including all Japanese restaurants and those planned for the US and Taiwan.

The restaurant even has several Japanese festival games for customers to play, like target practice and ring toss. They can win coupons that can be used in the restaurant, and kids can win toys too.

Some of the staff can speak foreign languages too, and tablets that you order food from are available in 4 languages.

Staff also carry a “Langogo Genesis,” a speech translation machine, to allow for smooth customer service. It’s connected to an AI language server which can speak and translate quickly in 104 languages.

This global flagship restaurant also has a self check-in and payment system. Using touch screen, customers will be shown their seats automatically. The AI also adds up how many plates you have used by scanning their QR codes, and this is used to determine how much you need to pay. This means you needn’t wait for someone to bring the bill, you just head straight to the till.

There’s also a smartphone app (called スマホでくら) which you can use to book a table and makes for easy checking in when you arrive at the restaurant.

Head to Kura in Asakusa, Tokyo to enjoy Japan’s longtime affordable and delicious fast food: sushi.