While I was in the process of planning my trip to Japan, the most common question I received was along the lines of “Are you planning any big sushi meals?” My answer to that was always a resounding yes, and while I was in Japan, I did indeed enjoy quite a bit of sushi over my two weeks there. One thing I spent an inordinate amount of time researching for my trip was where to have one blowout omakase experience. I wanted something very high quality, but not super formal or regimented. I wanted something where I would feel welcomed as a foreigner, but where I’d be dining with mostly locals.

I hit the jackpot. Sushi Saisho in the Ginza neighbourhood of Tokyo ticked all those boxes. And it did, mostly because of the sushi master himself, Saisho.

I was immediately made to feel at home by Saisho. He was warm, quirky, and very funny. As he prepared the dishes with the help of one other person in the kitchen, he explained the food and ingredients, and generally kept the merriment up among all of us. He seemed to be equally funny to us in English as he was to everyone else in his native tongue.

Saisho’s restaurant seats 10 people, so it was super cozy. On the evening I arrived for dinner, there were 9 people dining including myself. I was one of only three westerners; interestingly, the other two were originally from Vancouver. While there were two languages being spoken that night, we all interacted and shared some laughs as we enjoyed our meal. That was definitely helped along by the unlimited pours of any drink you liked. Draught beer, wine or, as we all selected, generous glasses of sake from Saisho’s collection. While still a neophyte in the world of sake, these were all wonderful accompaniments to what we were eating.

Three huge chunks of delicious tuna started off the meal for all of us. As far as openings for a night of dining go, this is pretty high up on the list of ways to kick off a meal.

Over the course of a bit more than two hours, a varied selection of dishes were placed in front of me. All were wonderful, but some truly stood out. Like this oyster from Hokkaido. These are prized in Japan and for very good reason. The size of it alone is something I hadn’t seen before, and it was salty, briny, fresh and unctuous.

I had been working on my chopstick skills for a couple of months before leaving for Tokyo. I had seen a whole fish delivered to a fellow diner a bit earlier in the night so I knew that I was going to be in for a challenge. This whole roasted saury was delicious, even if it took me a bit longer to eat it than some of my fellow diners.

By watching others, I learned the key to this dish was to flake away some of the fish to get to the spine, then pull that out in one long string. I was pretty proud of myself – first major chopsticks skills test passed with flying colours.

As Saisho was lightly searing a piece of fish for the person next to me, he placed a hunk of bluefin tuna in front of me. Delicious!

I think from start to finish there were about 20 courses placed on the table in front of me to enjoy. Through the sake, conversation and laughter I wasn’t keeping accurate track of everything. This course was another that stood out – the bite with all the mini fishes topping perfectly seasoned rice (left) was delicious and the shrimp head meat with egg (right) was otherworldly.

A large clam steeped in a delicate broth was a nice interlude between courses of sushi. Saisho had his sous-chef working on this broth all night and would check it and tweak it each time he went to serve this dish.

As the meal was nearing wrapping up, I knew by the reaction of a few of my fellow diners that I was in for some big-hitters among the last courses. This snow crab with roe dish was something I loved. Toward the end I was picking up each individual roe egg with my chopsticks to make sure I was savouring this as long as I could.

And the final dish, unique to Saisho, was uni with mushroom and aged waygu beef. This was a umami bomb of flavour and a perfect way, save for a final glass of sake, to finish out an exceptional meal.

As I was enjoying that last glass of sake, those of us left were kidding around as I pulled out a stack of yen to pay. Saisho was stunned and was showing my bills to everyone else in the restaurant as I had a number of rare 2000 yen notes, something none of the Tokyo residents had ever seen. When he asked where I got it from, I showed him a map of Canada and Saskatchewan on my phone and he passed that around to everyone who was dumbfounded that someone from so far away had a stack of these notes that no one had ever seen before. Everyone burst out in laughter that I had brought these all the way from Canada.

This really was as perfect a night as I could have hoped for. The food and sake was outstanding and the atmosphere was a great mix of intimacy and fun. It was one of the highlights of Tokyo for me.