Finally I had the opportunity to dine at the place down the street that is either closed or full. And now I know why: 8 seats in the joint, a sushi chef, and a woman serving drinks. A nondescript entrance and I have no idea what the name of the place is.

I don’t know half of what I ate, but it was awesome. My colleague and I left it up to the chef so we had no idea what the total bill was going to be or how long we’d be sitting there for. Turns out 8400 yen for dinner plus three beers for the two of us — $110 — not bad at all!

The meal was all nigiri, gunkan and one cooked fish at the end. There was definitely an ebi nigiri sushi, sea urchin (uni), and I think the “chewy” white fish that I’ve now had twice is turbot (makogarei.) [UPDATE: a Japanese colleague told me the white fish was squid.] The meal was excellent.

Of course, the dinner ended with the chef asking where we were from, and his response to me being from Boston “Baseball!” “Matsusaka!”