Tsubaki-ya

To those of you who've noticed it's been a while since my last post, I apologize! My husband recently deployed, and I've been working on finding new food adventure buddies who are as adventurous as he is. For today, I'll post about Tsubaki-ya, our favorite restaurant, where we had our last dinner together.

Tsubaki-ya is an izakaya style restaurant that serves both alcohol and food. They have a great selection of awamori and sake to compliment their fresh sushi. They also serve a variety of other traditional Japanese dishes.



My husband always orders the sashimi selections of the day when we go. The fish selections range from tuna and salmon to whitefish, and once we were even served fresh octopus. You can choose a plate that comes with three types of fish, or five, and they are served with garnishes of cucumber and daikon radish. If you're feeling adventurous, it's a great choice, since you never know exactly what you'll get.



There is also a great selection of sushi rolls available. My personal favorite includes Salmon, cucumber, and cream cheese. (I can't remember at the moment whether it's called an Alaska roll or a Philadelphia roll!) They also have cucumber rolls, California rolls, and a few others. The caterpillar roll is a very pretty choice that incorporates a lot of different types of fish- great for impressing guests visiting from home.



There are also a bunch of non-sushi entrees to choose from. The tempura here is excellent, and available a la carte or as a set meal. There is a selection of yaki tori style kebab skewers, some fun appetizer selections, and some standard Japanese dishes like stir fry, white or fried rice and miso soup. Pictured above is another of my husband's favorites- vinegrated seaweed noodles, with cucumber and a lemon slice for garnish.

Cocktails are reasonably priced at around ¥500-¥800, but the selection is a bit small. They do have very good plum wine, and my husband is a fan of their campari soda and gin with lime. They also have cassis soda, which is a favorite of a friend of ours.

There is a very nice English menu available, and the staff all speak fairly good English. This place is a bit pricey when you're eating with a hungry Marine, but as a couple, we usually get out for under ¥5,000 including a few drinks.


Hours and Directions:

Tsubaki-ya opens at 5pm daily, and closes after midnight. If you leave from Camp Courtney's housing gate early enough, it would even be a decent distance to walk to on a nice evening.

Tsubaki-ya is so close to Courtney that it's actually visible from the apartment tower I live in! To get there from Camp Courtney, simply turn left onto Route 75 (a double left from the housing gate) and drive past Capital Steakhouse and the first traffic light. The restaurant is on the right immediately after that light. From this direction you'll see a concrete wall painted white that reads "Parking for Customeis Only."

From McTureous, turn right out of the gate onto Route 8. Make your way to Route 75 and turn left. After you've passed through two stop lights, you'll pass through one more intersection before seeing Tsubaki-ya on the left. If you pass through a third stop light, you've gone too far.


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Nigiri Uminai Sushi: aka the ¥105 Sushi Go Round

When I lived in Okinawa as a kid, I thought that Sushi-go-Round restaurants were the coolest thing in the world. What an inventive idea! I love being able to see my food before I choose it, and sushi is already one of my favorite foods. Coming back to Okinawa as an adult slightly changed my perspective. I visited an old favorite "Kaitenzushi" (the Japanese word for Sushi-go-round) restaurant in American Village, and it was a lot more expensive than it used to be (when my parents were paying!). Plus, it takes about 40 minutes to get there from my house, and I tend to forget I'm hungry until I'm ravenous.

I thought we would never go to a Kaitenzushi restaurant again, until my husband and I heard about the ¥105 Sushi Go Round. Not only is it less than 10 minutes from Courtney AND McT, but it's cheap, and has really good sushi!



The full name of this restaurant is Nigiri Uminai. The first word, Nigiri, is the name of the style sushi that has a piece of sashimi sitting on a little ball of sushi rice. The second word, Umi, means ocean. To be completely honest, I have no idea what the last part of it means. If anyone speaks more Japanese than I do, please feel free to let me know! To keep it simple, I just call this place Nigiri Sushi, for short.



Like any sushi-go-round, Nigiri Sushi has both a bar area and booth tables organized around a moving track full of individual plates of sushi. You are free to grab whichever plate catches your eye, and at the end of your meal, your price will be calculated by tallying the number and type of plates on your table. There is also ice water and hot green tea available at your table, via tea packets and a hot water spigot at the table.



If you sit in the bar area, a sushi chef in the middle of the tracks can take special requests for you, and make them right in front of you. If you sit at the booths, however, there is a really neat touch screen computer system that will allow you to special order sushi, drinks, desserts, and even some assorted side items. Everything is written in both Japanese and English, and its really intuitive. Even better, when your order is ready, it wheels out to your table on a little race car!

This is a great family friendly restaurant to go to. It's better if everyone going likes sushi, but there are a few other things available as side items. They usually have small bowls of soba, fried chicken pieces, potato wedges, and some assorted dessert items. There are a few things on their menu that are a little more than ¥105, but they are still fairly cheap. We usually leave completely stuffed for under ¥2,000 for two adults, including a few sodas.


Directions:

From Camp Courtney, simply take a left onto Route 75. You'll cross through 3 stop lights before seeing Nigiri Sushi and the Tsutaya movie/music store on the right.

From McTureous, take a right out the gate onto Route 8. From there, continue straight for a while. Take a left onto Route 75 just past the KFC and Lawson. Drive one block north, then turn into the Tsutaya parking lot on the left, and Nigiri Sushi will be at the far end of the parking lot.


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