S-Pulse Dream Plaza is a huge shopping mall south of Shimizu's train station. Opened in 1999, I came looking for the Sushi Museum hoping to be enlightened by its history and facts about the national cuisine.
500 yen later, I entered an empty museum which looked more like a social media hotspot where you can take photos with various displays, such as a reproduction of historic shops and market streets. I struggled to find the sushi connection.
Quite deep into the museum, I finally found a few plastic models of the different types of sushi. In the West, it's hard to get a decent variety of sushi, with Japanese cuisine heavily adapted to local tastes which are quite restricted to California rolls, salmon, and tuna.
There is no particular fixed rule on how to eat sushi, although the usual recommendation is to start with the light-tasting ones and progress towards the heavy-tasting pieces. There is also a debate on whether you dip the rice or the fish into soy sauce, or you use your hands instead of chopsticks.
Wasabi has long been used as medicine but it became part of the sushi experience in the early 19th century.
Some of my favourites include scallop, whelk, shrimp, and fatty tuna (toro).
I exited down the stairs a bit disappointed. So I decided to grab a late lunch in one of the many restaurants, hoping its port location would be a good sign I would get delicious, fresh seafood.
It was good sushi! This plate was only 2200 yen.
Also, don't miss the sushi Mount Fuji display in plastic.
The mall has quite a large assortment of shops but in another corner, I found a small exhibition about some other traditional food staples. This area is free to enter.
