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only in japan
welcome to tokyo sushi can be considered
a national cuisine
there's many varieties there's a high
end and a low end there's high tech
and then there's supermarket sushi all
kinds of sushi and the shop behind me is
known for its originality
and it's known for its size as well or
lack thereof
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welcome to tokyo's hota ward near
shinagawa and takasago sushi
it's a family-run restaurant that serves
all kinds of sushi
it's one of the few places in the city
where you can get something like a
california roll
they're creative the head chef is yuki
sugeta
and his apprentice ise meguro sugeta-san
has been making sushi for over 30 years
and has won acclaim for his creativity
i started off with a regular piece of
akami hon maguro tuna sushi
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beautiful then i asked for it
micro sushi
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it requires a lot more work and a
certain skill
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it's an eight-piece nigiri sushi set
at first he lays out the fish and tamago
they're very small less than a
millimeter thick
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next the rice
one rice grain is too big so meguro-san
chops it up to make a smaller base
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the piece of rice measuring to about a
third of a grain
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the rice is placed with fine chopsticks
on a wooden sushi gata tray
the maguro on top shaped and balanced
it requires a lot of concentration to
not just balance it but make it look
good and presentable
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the tamago is a little more complex
it requires a micro roll of nori seaweed
the nori wrapped around very carefully
to keep shape
the microikura looks to be the hardest
nodi is wrapped around the micro rice
ball
when balanced and shaped one small
tobiko egg is set on top
it's about half a millimeter in size
smaller than ikura
just getting one tobiko egg out of the
container is complicated
finally a cucumber garnish on top
the chef make sure the tray is clean and
presentable
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here is the full scale version and here
is the micro sushi
it actually looks alike just shrunken
down to a fraction of the size
it could even be considered cute
certainly no one would make a meal of it
right makes you wonder why even such a
thing exists
wow this is a really big contrast you
can see between the normal size
sushi and the micro sushi and let's ask
the chef
why he came up with this idea and what's
the deal with this sushi anyway
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it's sort of an appetizer a dish for
kids who want to try it
or just to entertain customers
first let's try the maguro this would be
the best way to eat it
um
a really good cut of akami
now let's try the micro version of it
like is there any flavor
it's not that easy
eating micro sushi really challenges
your chopstick skills
so the question is does microakami have
any taste at all
that's maguro that's maguro
it's just a very slight taste of maguro
it might be because i actually ate mango
right before it gives it away but
um very very interesting
a normal piece of sweet tamago egg sushi
looks massive now
it's micro-sized brother it's very
accurate and looks like a model of it
the microwicura is my favorite one egg
is all it takes to give it color and
flavor
i think it's just stuck on the
chopsticks i'm not holding it at all
it's just stuck on there
don't get me started with the salmon
it's certainly 100 times smaller when
put to the original size
besides micro sushi sugeta-san's
creativity takes him to the flower and
plant world
sushi made with ikura and squid looks
like a hydrania
the cucumber giving it a nice green
accent
this one you can see the ikura egg on
top but when you look down on it
it's a cherry blossom of fish
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this sakura won't last long it was at
the bottom of my stomach minutes after
it was made
i really love sushi and sugita-san made
me one final set
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[Laughter]
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sushi is japan's original street food
made fast to be eaten fast
it should be fun and colorful and at
takasago sushi
it's all that and delicious too if