When you arrive at the restaurant in Iwaki, you step into a setting that reflects the city’s deep connection to the sea. Situated along Fukushima’s Pacific coastline, Iwaki has long been a hub for fishing and seafood culture. This context shapes the experience from the moment you walk in — you are not visiting a tourist facility, but a working casual sushi or seafood restaurant where the craft is practised daily.

The session begins as your guide demonstrates nigiri techniques, showing how to shape the rice and place the fish. You then follow along, shaping the rice with your hands, pressing and forming each piece under the guide’s instruction.

Your guide explains the techniques and answers your questions, making it easy to learn as you go. You work through the steps at a pace that allows you to repeat and refine each movement.

By the end of the 90-minute session, you have hand-formed a set of nigiri sushi pieces that you assembled yourself from start to finish. Your guide’s answers to your questions add context to each technique, connecting the methods to sushi-making in this region.

You sit down to eat the nigiri you shaped, finishing the session with a direct result of your own work at the counter.