20 September 2024

Tasting Toyama at Sushi Jinjin

Two of my good friends lived in Toyama before returning to the States, so this was not my first, second, or even third trip to Toyama. I’ve been to Toyama several times before this business trip, so I thought I was fairly familiar with it.

I was wrong.

Among the things I hadn’t explored on previous trips was the high-end food available throughout the prefecture. For example, the Michelin-starred Toyama restaurant SushiJin, run by self-taught, late-bloomer Chef Kimura Izumi. At 29 he decided to pivot into sushi, an industry where people usually begin their training much younger, and, in part, it is this unconventional path to mastery that helps make his creations so unique. The other part is that he serves up Tokyo-style sushi omakase using Toyama-local ingredients.

He has now relocated and reimagined his restaurant as Standing Sushi Jinjin, an intimate environment, reminiscent of a cocktail bar, where people can partake in his award-winning omakase in a casual, welcoming environment. Usually with Jamiroquai playing in the background. Rave reviews across social media show that Chef Kimura’s new concept is accessible, even for sushi amateurs, and nothing short of exceptional.

After a hot summer’s day of traveling around Toyama Prefecture, we of Team Musubi pulled up to the counter to try the omakase for ourselves, along with a chilled glass of IWA sake, and chat with Chef Kimura.

Contents

• A Chef’s Global Journey
• The Kimura Connection
• Covering the Courses

A Chef’s Global Journey

As the legend goes, he ate an incredible omakase at Ginza Kyubey in Tokyo, decided to become a chef, and the rest is history. But that’s not the only reason he does what he does and why he is now a Michelin-starred chef who travels the world. What truly sets him apart is his dedication to using Toyama ingredients, and staying local to the hometown he has so much pride in.

But he’s modest about it: “I'm making the standard of a normal sushi restaurant, I just use things from Toyama… I don’t think I’m doing anything unusual.” But the world would seem to disagree, with him being invited abroad to create sushi experiences in far-flung places like Dubai.

And part of his mastery is the ability to make anyone feel at home, even when he’s far from home. “My identity is in Toyama. But I don't force that onto others, I go to that country and feel the culture of that country and make it my own.” This is partially due to the fact that many countries have import restrictions that limit the amount of Toyama-local ingredients Chef Kimura can pack, but he tries to bring some Toyama with him wherever he goes. He explains, “It's really important to link the story, why we do this. Toyama has done it this way, but this country is like this, so we will do it this way.”

It is this respect for the ingredients and the culture, whether at home or abroad, that adds a unique spin to what he calls “following the royal road of sushi.” His talkative nature behind the counter is another—most omakase I’ve been to are a truly reverential experience, with an almost sacred feeling hovering in the atmosphere. The restaurant is mostly quiet until the chef speaks to tell you what you’re being served, and then there’s the low hum of conversation between dining companions. Standing Sushi Jinjin is decidedly not that. It is a lively environment where Chef Kimura speaks to his staff and customers in a friendly, booming voice that immediately makes you feel comfortable even though you’re eating a Michelin-starred feast.

The Kimura Connection

Chef Kimura’s friendliness comes from wanting to bring people in and connect with them. He told us, “I think that my style is to create things while linking them to my country and letting them be my townspeople, with the feeling of ‘Thank you for choosing me today.’”

But there’s also a sense of connection to the ingredients: “I always treasure fish, but it's not like we're begging for fish, the fish chose me, if you like. The fish that came today didn't go to Ginza or Kanazawa, they came to me.”

Ultimately, Chef Kimura seems driven by needing to share what he finds with the world from the top down, and being able to do so behind the counter is just what called his name… quite literally, the way he explains it. “My name is Izumi (spring, in English). A drop of water drips from the top of the mountain. It creates a lot of greenery, and then you see it at the end. People are interesting, and they try to go higher and higher. But I'm the opposite, and I think I'm doing it because I want to give something to others.”

It even goes so deep as the shop he has chosen to open his second location in, which is deeply entrenched in Toyama’s history. He told us that when surrounding buildings were burned down in the air raid on Toyama in 1945, this building was the only one left standing. And it’s in that history that he has found an alignment with his values: “80 years ago it was all that was left. How can I be an artist with that? I can tell you one thing: I will use what remains… Why do these things remain? Because they want to carry on.”

We were given a glass of IWA 5, Assemblage 2, to go with our meal. I asked Chef Kimura what he thinks makes this sake so special and he replied, “As a chef, I think IWA sake’s taste is wonderful no matter what… I don't know what it is, but I think all of Richard’s (Geoffroy, founder of IWA 5) thoughts are expressed. And the taste changes depending on the temperature, and it's different every time, so it's amazing.”

And it’s not just the sake that impresses him, he explained, “Richard and Charles(-Antoine Picart, CEO of Shiraiwa KK), are always challenging themselves, and in the end, the answer is that we too must continue to challenge ourselves, and have the ambition for cooking so that we will not be defeated.”

The philosophy behind his work is apparent when you realize that all Chef Kimura wants to do is be the best at what he does: making sushi for everyone to enjoy, being inclusive to all who eat his food, and bringing the world a taste of Toyama. He says he’s studying English, no doubt to be able to converse as easily and energetically as he does in Japanese. But, wondering what else drives him, I asked where he finds inspiration for his menu.

“Don’t we dream a lot of the same dreams? It’s like the brain creates a screenshot when you properly throw yourself into something. I have to keep telling myself I want something… I own a few of my own companies but sometimes there is work I can’t figure out in the moment. So I tell myself, ‘Izumi, please take care of this for me,’ so even when I’m sleeping I’m thinking about it, and that’s how I move forward. That’s my inspiration. Also, nature.”

As a creative myself, I found the answer as mystical as it was totally realistic. When writing, I can get stuck on a line or a word, and I’ll sit and sit trying to figure out my next move. But what always brings me to a solution I’m happy with is stepping away, telling myself I’ll figure it out, and seeing where my brain goes once it’s not forcing an answer to appear. Perhaps if we all start telling ourselves, “Please figure this out for me,” before shutting our eyes, many things will clarify themselves in the dream world.

In the meantime, I will keep dreaming about the incredible omakase we experienced.

Covering the Courses

In order to give you, the reader, the slightest idea of the innovation and variety you can expect when booking the omakase at Standing Sushi JinJin, I wrote down everything we ate. As it was a hot day, I limited my drinking to only a single glass of Assemblage 2, but it was all I needed to round out the experience. The smooth, chardonnay-like taste of the sake went well with the meal, which I found leaned sweet due to the use of local red rice vinegar—but never overwhelmingly so.

Course 1: Fried aji “horse mackerel”, handed to us in a paper sleeve a la fried chicken.

Course 2: Buri “yellowtail” nigiri
Course 3: Bleu cheese chawanmushi, a steamed egg dish

Course 4: An oyster on the shell from the chef’s hometown, served with tomato and pepper jelly

Course 5: Shiroebi “broad velvet shrimp” nigiri
Course 6: Toyama shrimp, shabu shabu-style
Course 7: Kawahagi temaki “Filefish in a hand roll”
Course 8: A rice bowl featuring my three favorite seafoods: Kani, uni, and ikura “Snow crab, sea urchin, and salmon roe”

Course 9: Ankimo “monkfish liver”
Course 10: Squid nigiri
Course 11: Snow crab nigiri

Course 12: Chutoro “a cut of fatty tuna” nigiri
Course 13: Unagi, eel, grilled and served with an ash salt made from the ash of a rice container [Note: it was during this course that my colleague informed me of a holiday called Doyo-no Ushi-no Hi, which was July 30th this year, on which people eat eel to renew their vitality in the summer heat.]

Course 14: Sea snail
Course 15: Spring roll
Course 16: What the chef calls fish espresso, which changes from day to day as it’s a blend of the parts of fish he can’t use otherwise
Course 17: Nodoguro, “blackthroat seaperch”, which is a signature of Hokuriku. Grilled and skewered with negi “green onion”

Course 18: Monaka, which is essentially ice cream fully encased in an ice cream cone-like wafer. Ours featured salted ice cream, which was the perfect way to end our long, hot day in Toyama.

If you find yourself in the Hokuriku area, make sure to stop by Toyama for a reservation at one of the best restaurants in Toyama, Standing Sushi Jinjin, just a short taxi ride away from Toyama Station. Not only will you experience an incredible course meal made of local ingredients, accented by conversation with an energetic chef, but you can also try the sought-after IWA 5 sake and get the full Toyama experience.

Standing Sushi Jinjin

3-8 Ichibanmachi, Toyama
930-0061 Japan