ASAKUSA Underground

Cheap Sushi near Asakusa

Do the Japanese have to eat so much of sushi? Is it a God-given right for Japanese citizens to eat Sushi once a week? Now we know very well that the popularity of sushi has reached New York, London, and even Dubai while we are eating up our precious marine resources.

Modern sushi was invented in Edo period as an equivalent to hamburgers nowadays. They were street foods for workers who felt a little hungry. They just grabbed one piece of sushi with a hand and ate while working. The origin was not noble at all. Like other things like tempura, Noh, and Kabuki, it has climbed the social ladder, and now is very expensive.

Some people think that the Japanese have been eating sushi once a week for hundreds of years. Not at all. Not up until recently. Before World War II, Japan was not a gastronomic paradise as it is now. Please read Kojin Shimomura's novel "Jiro monogatari". Those days eating a piece of Tamagoyaki(omlet) on his birthday was something very special, and the boy Jiro waited for it every year. These days if you give a Japanese kid a Tamagoyaki sushi, he will ask you to give him an Ikura sushi instead. Ikuras are salmon eggs and considered like caviars here. The presence of conveyor-belt sushi bars changed the whole story.

Most Japanese used to be afraid of a sushi bar unless they had access to company money. At a good sushi bar, they don't have a menu. You never know how much you will have to pay while eating. Cheap pricing and a self-evident way of serving sushi on a differently coloured dish according to its price was the key of the success. Now we have some bars declaring the flat price of \105 for any dish. (\100 plus 5% tax)

If you are able to find an accommodation in Kiyokawa area near Asakusa, you are very lucky. The rooms are cheaper and you will have some money you have saved to spend on eating sushi in Japan. Besides, you are within a walking distance from Kura-zushi, the cheapest conveyor-belt sushi bar around Asakusa. Not only their dishes have a nice flat price of \105, but also their foods are organic. Well, almost.
Unfortunately, at this moment, Japan does not have a government-authorised system of certificating organic foods, like the AB(Agriculture Biologique) symbol in France. Therefore, anyone can say "We sell organic foods" while selling foods dressed with pesticides. There is no guarantee, but why don't we believe Kura, shall we?

It is because Kura-zushi is the first sushi chain restaurant who cries out its motto of "Being healthy". "No MSGs. No artificial colorants. No artificial sweeteners. No artificial preservatives." They even list the origins of all the fishes they serve, on their Internet site. (only in Japanese)

-Kura-zushi Minami-Senju ten(Minami-Senju branch)
4-7-2 Minami-Senju, Arakawa-ku, Tokyo
(La La Terrace 2F, which is near Minami-Senju JR station)
tel. 03-5604-1610
business hours 11:00 to 23 :00 (order before 22:30)

くら寿司　南千住店

東京都荒川区南千住4-7-2

If you are a fundamentalist of organic foods, you can find plenty of points to criticize Kura-zushi, but they deserve a little credit as a precursor. For true lovers of organic foods, we should mention the name of Shizen Noho Narita Seisan Kumiai, which could be translated as the Association of Organic farmers in Narita. It is a very small organization of a few dozens of farmers, who grow vegetables in the most organic way possible in Japan. Again, it is not a perfectly non-chemical way in the strict sense, but they are gutsy forerunners.

-Shizen Noho Narita Seisan Kumiai
415-11 Takamatsu, Tomisato-machi, Inbagun, Chiba-ken
tel. & fax. 0476-94-0322

自然農法成田生産組合

千葉県印旛郡富里町高松415-11

You can buy their organically grown vegetables in the town of Narita, which is a short bus or train ride away from the airport.
At Airin-do, they sell their vegetables and other organic / health foods. It is very difficult to get fresh organic vegetables in Asakusa. It is not a bad idea to get your provisions here. You can also visit the famous Shinsho-ji temple, which is far bigger than its counterpart in Asakusa.

-Airin-do
zip. 286-0036, 4-5-1 Karabe, Narita-shi, Chiba-ken
tel. 0476-29-6153 fax. 0476-29-6163
e-mails: airindo@nifty.com

あいりん堂

千葉県成田市加良部4-5-1

[Related articles]

・Two old men, Fukuoka and Lao-tzu
The greatest organic farmer and his philosophy.

・The best Minshuku
A minshuku hotel where they serve only organic vegetables.

・Eat Alfalfa
Tips to travel healthily.

[Recommended sites]

・The Japanese Green Tea Shop
Supplier of Organic Japanese Green Tea

[To the readers]
To get to these places, you need a map. ASAKUSA Underground has tried a famous Map site and found one thing. You can read Chinese town names both in Chinese and in English, and Sri Lankan ones not in Singhalese but in English. Strangely, all the street and town names in Japan are shown only in Japanese. It seems that the site manager does not care about the English-speaking fellows lost in the Kanji labyrinth of Japan.

We came up with a solution. Copy the address in Japanese, even if they look like hieroglyphs to you. Be sure not to include the name of the shop / organization, which is written above its address. Then paste it as you do with an address in English. The pointer of the map site will show you where it is. Print it and take it on you, and ask local Japanese on the spot. We hope it will work with your system.

A much better solution.
Use diddlefinger.com (see Getting around).


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