[Special]Explore the unique stores in Ota City known only to those in the know!

Actually, Ota City has the largest number of public baths in Tokyo, and 39 public baths with various designs are currently in operation. You can find a variety of public baths such as nostalgic public baths with the Showa vibes and carefully selected hot spring. Among them, we want to focus on Kamata Fukunoyu located in a quiet residential area, less than 10 minutes away from JR/Tokyo Kamata Sta. and about 12 minutes away from Keikyu Kamata Sta. on foot.



Kamata Fukunoyu has a spacious bath and a stylish rock bath designed like an open-air bath. But what is so unique about Kamata Fukunoyu? Surprisingly, this public bath can serve handmade Neapolitan Pizzas! So, let’s have the Pizza!



We ordered a small size of American pizza at the public bath. It’s an authentic menu with the toppings of cheese, pepperoni, onions and green peppers, and special garlic butter.



The pizzas served at Kamata Fukunoyu are baked with an electric brick oven, using thin dough like Neapolitan style. We can be addicted to the crispness and springy food texture! The dough with rich flour flavor is so good that you can’t get tired of the dough even if you eat it every day.



Personally, I like the garlic butter accompanied with the pizza. You can have it as a topping, but you can also have it on the pizza crust as a dip!



Anyway, do you know why Kamata Fukunoyu began to serve handmade pizzas? Fukunoyu was founded by the father of Keiko Okazaki, the current store owner (left in the photo) in 1949. The public bath was run by another person later, but Kenji Okazaki, her son (right in the photo) proposed that the family should run the public bath and serve their homemade pizza, taking the opportunity of the store renewal in 2016.



Kenji Okazaki who used to work as the manager of a ramen shop says that he wanted something enjoyable for him. So, he thought of serving pizzas which have been his favorite since he was moved by the taste in America in his childhood.
“My favorite at that time was Papa John’s pizza (laughing). I loved the dynamic American style.”



Since he was planning to run a pizza shop when he was working for a ramen shop, he had confidence in his abilities to make pizzas. Currently, he is serving Neapolitan pizzas with thin dough, but the origin of his pizzas lies in America. The idea of serving “American Pizzas” with garlic butter also came from Papa John’s in America. What a nice idea!

Just eating pizzas at the store and taking out pizzas are also available. The price of a S size is 500 yen and that of a L size is 1,000 yen. The L size is recommended because it has the volume to fill an adult’s stomach.
The “pizza after taking a bath” was so popular among local people that many customers came to the store for pizzas while we were interviewing. How about having a piece of pizza after taking a bath?

You quietly savor the sushi that a quiet sushi artisan prepared with various techniques over the counter.
It’s a general style to enjoy sushi at a high-end sushi restaurant with a counter. However, Takasago Sushi is somewhat different!

Takasago Sushi is known as a long-established sushi restaurant that has lasted for two generations in Higashiyukigaya. The sushi restaurant serves tasty sushi, exercising their ingenuity ranging from unusual sushi to plans fully loaded with good ideas under the principle of trying anything to please customers.



One such example is this miniature sushi. You can see how small they are by comparing the size of sushi with that of chopsticks. Surprisingly, rice grains are cut down to make this size of sushi.
The size of sushi is amazing! You can see how much the store owner elaborated his techniques.



The size of miniature sushi is very small compared with that of normal tuna sushi! The store owner began to prepare the miniature sushi, wishing to surprise his customers.



And these are Californian Rolls, one of American standard menu items that can be found at sushi bars in the West Coast of the US without fail.
Huh? Takasago Sushi is a long-established sushi restaurant that has lasted for the two generations as mentioned before, isn’t it? Some people might think this kind of sushi is not authentic. But this menu shows the open-mindedness of Yuki Suda.
When this store was temporarily closed for a store renewal many years ago, the store owner was working for a sushi restaurant in the US for several months. He learned a lot about how American people think about sushi in the training.



Based on his experience in the US, he adopted American menu items including Californian rolls and prepared the English menu, targeting foreigners for sales.
As a result, the number of foreign customers has rapidly increased due to the accessibility to the Haneda Airport combined with his efforts. Quite a few regular customers visit the store every time they come to Japan.



Of course, he never forgets about sticking to Edomae-zushi, an authentic Japanese dish. For example, this young gizzard shad called Shinko. The cost price is expensive, but it also takes delicate work for preparation. Adopting this kind of ingredient is what Takasago Sushi cares about.



This is a popular menu item called “Barazushi” in which you can enjoy a variety of fresh ingredients. This can be served because they go to Toyosu Fish Market to get good ingredients every day on business days.



In addition, the sushi restaurant has innovative fun planning such as regularly having an event to propose the possibility of tasty sushi called a “Premium Wine Party” where you can savor the wine that matches sushi ingredients. All these things came from the flexible thinking and “customer first” policy of the second store owner, Yuki Takasago (left in the photo) and his wife, Yoshiko (right in the photo).



Takasago Sushi is a long-established store that has continued to make efforts to brush up Japanese traditional food, sushi, having a business sense matching with the times. Now you feel like visiting the restaurant to try some pieces of sushi, don’t you?

The popular school lunch menu, “deep-fried bread” that is crispy, fluffy and a little sweet. Did you know that it’s originated from Ota City?
Seven years after the World War II in 1952, many people were still suffering from poverty. Tsunekichi Shinohara, a licensed cook who was working at Minemachi Elementary School as a licensed cook delivered the bread called coppepan served as a school lunch menu to the children who took a day off from school because of flu by deep-frying it and adding a little sugar on it.
The stiffened bread became soft again through deep frying, and the oil and sugar were the sources of nutrition. So, the deep-fried bread became a topic of conversation, and it officially became a school lunch menu item.

The Tokyo deep-fried bread originated from Ota City was revived in Unoki, Ota City at its birthplace. The actual store near Unoki Station on Tokyu Tamagawa Line is currently closed temporarily, but you can purchase it through mail orders and the deep-fried bread is very popular at special events throughout Japan.



Coppepan bread suitable for deep-fried bread was developed and non-sticky oil for donuts was used for the Tokyo deep-fried bread so that gourmet modern people can feel it as tasty.
The Tokyo deep-fried bread has 4 basic flavors (each one is 216 yen (tax included)). (From the upper left to the lower right in the photo) Sugar, the origin of the deep-fried bread, sweet and most popular roasted soybean flour, cinnamon, most popular among women, and bittersweet black cocoa. All the above ones are the flavors that pursued the original plain tastes of deep-fried bread.



For those who want to enjoy deep-fried bread more, they have prepared 9 variations including the ones with cream and deli food.
(From the upper left to the lower right) There are 7 types of deep-fried bread with cream (303 yen for each (tax included)). Custard with vanilla beans, peanuts with crushed peanuts and roasted soybean flour, chocolate that melt in the mouth, unbaked cheese cake with little sour flavor, sweet azuki bean paste mixed with roasted soybean flour, marrons with astringent skins popular for its luxuriousness like sweets, and Fuji apple with crispiness. And there are 2 types of deep-fried bread with deli (303 yen for each (tax included)). Keema curry with moderate spice and piroschki from Russia.

Tokyo deep-fried bread is not just nostalgic but also tasty. It was originated from a bakery called “La Vert”. So, when Tokyo deep-fried bread is sold at special events, other types of limited bread are also sold. The Tokyo deep-fried bread introduced here is available at mail orders. If you are interested in the bread, please check out the website shown below!