# ゲストコーナー：名店探しのポイントや、おすすめの“おにぎり専門店”／全国3000種類のおにぎりを食べ歩いたおにぎり研究家・大塚正樹さん

- Show: ジェーン・スー　生活は踊る
- Published: 2026-10-22
- Canonical: https://podc.club/en/episode/1630372322_e0e07ada3b8c.html
- Audio: https://pdst.fm/e/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.megaphone.fm/TBS5775343069.mp3
- Source: Edited from a machine transcript of the first 30 minutes of the episode. Not an official summary.

Onigiri researcher Otsuka Masaki (大塚正樹), who has personally eaten over 3,000 varieties of onigiri across Japan, revealed his personal rule for spotting a great shop: always order the salmon. He also introduced five onigiri specialty shops in the Kanto region — in Itabashi, Saitama City, Higashimurayama, Okegawa, and Nikko — each with tasting notes and access information.

## What this episode answers

### What is the best menu item to order when gauging the quality of an onigiri specialty shop?

Order the salmon onigiri. Salmon reveals a shop's true skill more than any other filling because every shop handles it differently — flakes, freshly grilled fish, smoked salmon, or the intensely salted Tohoku-style bodakko — and a shop that puts genuine care into its salmon will be equally excellent across everything else on the menu.

### What are the features and popular menu items of the long-established onigiri shop in Itabashi that draws a morning queue?

The Itabashi shop is a 28-year-old neighborhood institution within a ten-minute walk of either Kamiitabashi or Tokiwadai stations on the Tobu Tojo Line; it opens at 7:30 a.m. to a waiting queue, sells 500 onigiri a day at just ¥110 each, and blends its rice in different seasonal combinations — the top seller is maitake tempura onigiri.

### What kind of place is the onigiri café in Saitama City that opens a family home just two days a week?

"Onigiri Café Kondo-san Chi" (おにぎりカフェ近藤さん家), five minutes from Yono Station on the JR Keihin-Tohoku Line, is literally the tatami-floored interior of a dry-cleaning family's home, opened just two days a week; guests remove their shoes at the entrance and eat in a warm, community-like atmosphere where children and elderly regulars mingle, and the meal can be finished with sweets from a nearby bakery run by the owner's daughter.

### How did Akitsu Number One manage to create over 1,000 onigiri varieties?

Owner Takeshita-san has devised and served a brand-new onigiri every single day for over three years, pushing the cumulative variety count past 1,000, with a publicly declared target of 2,000; his background as a fried-chicken street-food vendor gave rise to signature items such as tori-meshi onigiri with fried tempura bits and yaki-onigiri.

### What is the unique onigiri that can only be eaten in Nikko?

It is the yuba-wrapped onigiri at Fudaraku Honpo Honten (ふだらく本舗 本店) in Nikko City, where soy-sauce-seasoned rice is encased in thick, semi-raw Nikko yuba instead of nori, producing a shape that resembles a tamagoyaki; made in limited quantities each day and sold exclusively at the Nikko location along the road from Nikko Toshogu toward Lake Chuzenji.

## Article

## Salmon Onigiri: The Litmus Test for a Great Shop

One insight Otsuka Masaki (大塚正樹) has drawn from eating his way through over 3,000 onigiri varieties across Japan is deceptively simple: order the salmon. Unlike crowd-pleasers such as pickled plum or kombu, salmon gives shops room to show real personality — whether they use ready-made flakes, freshly grilled and pulled-apart fish, smoked salmon, or the intensely salted variety known in the Tohoku region as *bodakko*. According to Otsuka, any shop that puts genuine care into its salmon onigiri will be equally excellent across the rest of its menu.

Otsuka also pays close attention to what he calls *najimi* — the zone where a filling's umami has seeped into the surrounding rice. He brought a maitake tempura onigiri to the show and praised it as having "an exceptional amount of najimi."

## Kanto Pick 1 — Itabashi: A 28-Year Neighborhood Staple

Tucked into a residential area within a ten-minute walk of either Kamiitabashi or Tokiwadai stations on the Tobu Tojo Line, this long-running shop sells 500 onigiri a day and draws a queue before its 7:30 a.m. opening. When it first opened, a single onigiri cost ¥100; today the price is ¥110 — barely moved. Regulars often buy in multiples of ten. Rather than the airy, loosely packed style fashionable today, the shop sticks to a firm, old-school squeeze, and blends its rice in different seasonal combinations. The top seller — maitake tempura onigiri — won praise on the show for its springy texture, while the salmon was singled out for its "perfectly calibrated saltiness, not overdone."

## Kanto Pick 2 — Saitama City: Onigiri Café Kondo-san Chi (Two Days a Week)

"Onigiri Café Kondo-san Chi" (おにぎりカフェ近藤さん家) sits five minutes on foot from Yono Station on the JR Keihin-Tohoku Line — and it is, quite literally, someone's home. The owner opens the tatami-floored rooms of a dry-cleaning family's residence just two days a week. Guests remove their shoes at the entrance and eat in a setting that feels entirely domestic. The shop has naturally become a neighborhood gathering point: mothers with strollers come regularly, children run around freely, and elderly regulars look on warmly. A set of classic salmon, kombu, and shiso-hijiki onigiri comes with house-made side dishes such as pickled cucumber. After the meal, guests can also enjoy cream puffs or cake from a nearby bakery run by the owner's daughter.

## Kanto Pick 3 — Higashimurayama: Akitsu Number One

"Akitsu Number One" (秋津ナンバーワン) stands along the transfer passage between Seibu Ikebukuro Line's Akitsu Station and JR Musashino Line's Shin-Akitsu Station. A handwritten sign reading "Cheering squad for commuters and students" marks the spot. The shop opens at 5:00 a.m. every day of the year without exception. Owner Takeshita-san has devised and served a new menu item every single day for over three years, pushing the cumulative variety count past 1,000 — and he has publicly declared a target of 2,000. His background as a fried-chicken street-food vendor lives on in standout items like tori-meshi onigiri with fried tempura bits and yaki-onigiri (grilled rice balls). The space was formerly a flower shop, and the team still sells locally grown vegetables out front — some of which find their way into the onigiri.

## Kanto Picks 4 & 5 — Hagama Rice at a Roadside Station, and Nikko's Yuba-Wrapped Specialty

"Michi-no-Eki Benibana-no-Sato Okegawa" (道の駅 紅花の里おけがわ) in Okegawa City opened just last year and is already drawing crowds, with good access from central Tokyo. Rice is cooked in a traditional *hagama* iron pot on-site and shaped to order; the generous toppings piled on each ball have been compared to "a flower garden." The headline item is an onigiri crowned with an enormous ebi-fry (deep-fried shrimp) — reportedly the size of an eyeglass case — distinct from the bite-sized tenmusu style. Onigiri featuring local vegetables and regional specialties round out the menu, and a car is recommended for the visit.

In Nikko City, "Fudaraku Honpo Honten" (ふだらく本舗 本店) — located along the highway from Nikko Toshogu Shrine toward Lake Chuzenji — wraps its onigiri in Nikko yuba (tofu skin) instead of nori. Nikko yuba is known for its unusual thickness; the semi-raw yuba is wrapped around soy-sauce-seasoned rice, giving the finished product a shape that resembles a tamagoyaki (rolled omelette). Each bite layers the soybean richness of the yuba with the umami of the rice. Made in limited quantities daily and sold exclusively in Nikko, this is a true local specialty.

## Book: *Nihon Gotouchi Onigiri Taizen* Now Available

Otsuka has published *Nihon Gotouchi Onigiri Taizen* (日本ご当地おにぎり大全) with Tatsumi Mook. The book features more than 100 shops from Hokkaido to Okinawa, covering not only dedicated onigiri specialists but also confectionery shops, rice retailers, and dagashi candy stores that happen to serve onigiri — a testament to just how widely this humble food has taken root across Japan.

## Takeaways

- Salmon onigiri is the single best dish to order when testing an unfamiliar shop, because the care put into it reliably predicts the quality of everything else on the menu.
- Even within Kanto alone, onigiri specialty shops range from a pre-dawn commuter staple open 365 days a year to a family home that unlocks its tatami rooms just twice a week, reflecting extraordinary variety in format and culture.
- Onigiri compresses local ingredients and daily life into a single bite, making it worth seeking out as a regional specialty wherever you travel in Japan.