Name: Behind the Counter at a Japanese Onigiri Shop w/ +50 kinds of rice balls
Uploaded: 2025-08-12T18:24:44.000Z
Duration: 15 min 3 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

This is behind the counter at a local Japanese handmade onigiri shop.

I am back here at Jujo Ginza in Tokyo, and it is super early.

It is 3.50 in the morning right now, and we are having an early, early day.

I'm taking you behind the counter at a local Japanese onigiri shop where they make everything by hand.

I've actually featured this place before in one of my street food videos, but this time we're gonna get to go inside of the kitchen.

This shop actually opens at 6.30 in the morning, so I had to come here super early because they start the prep at 4.30.

All we have to do now is wait for them to arrive.

Today, I'm taking you behind the counter at one of my favorite specialty onigiri Japanese rice ball shops in Tokyo, Kamataya.

Hidden behind the Jujo Ginza Shotengai on a side street, about a five-minute walk from Jujo Ginza Station, this onigiri lover's paradise has been warming the hearts of customers while also filling their stomachs with a unique variety of their culinary delights for over half a century.

And of course, I'm going into their kitchen to show you how it's all made.

That's the owner, Soeno-san, who's continued on the family business after his father.

This morning, he's actually the second one to come in as his mother is already here.

There's a main store called Kamataya in Ota-ku called Kamata, and I was able to get on board from there.

All right, first things first, the rice, the heart and soul ingredient of any onigiri.

Apparently, to maintain the shop's high-quality standards, the shop carefully selects the best rice made in Japan each year to use in their onigiri.

But with more than 800 rice cultivators in the country, it could be quite a task.

I guess that's what it takes to make some of the best onigiri in Japan.

How much rice do you go through in a day?

Oh, Sohinde-san's mom is already making onigiri.

Definitely no question about her dedication, as she's been working here since the shop first opened.

So, what's the most important thing when making onigiri?

He's already steaming the second round of rice.

Apparently, this is non-stop for the rest of the day.

Did you ever think you'd be working in an onigiri shop?

31 years old, 29 years old, and 27 years old.

She says that one works in logistics, another system engineer, and the third one works in travel.

Oh, the aonori seaweed in the fried batter smells phenomenal.

So, the shop sets itself apart from many other spots as it handcrafts more than 50 kinds of onigiri, with some of them making use of fried ingredients.

Have you wanted to do this since you were a kid?

He says that before this, he had a regular job, but ultimately decided to continue on the family business.

Apparently, since the shop wasn't doing well, he decided to add shrimp tempura onigiri to their menu, and it was a hit.

Motivated by the success in his natural passion to create, he soon found himself in the onigiri business with an expansive menu of over 50 different types of onigiri, even crafting seasonal items, drawing inspiration from the seasonal vegetables and proteins available on the market.

So, in Japan, onigiri rice balls can be found in every part of everyday life, from breakfast to a quick snack, lunch bentos, and even dinner, but it didn't become an everyday food until Japan's Edo period.

Onigiri was only available to noble families in the Heian period, or the samurais, part of the high-ranking social class, who started to eat it as a portable food during wars, by using umeboshi, pickled plum, salt, and miso to preserve the cooked rice, which are still eaten as fillings today.

So what's important to know when making onigiri?

Around 5 a.m., one more worker arrives to help the team.

So for you, what's the most challenging part of making onigiri?

There are ingredients that are hard to boil.

It's hard to roll onigiri because they break.

These days, the price of roasted seaweed in Japan has drastically increased, not only due to recent inflation, but also due to poor harvests in the top three seaweed production prefectures, Saga, Fukuoka, and Kumamoto, who all experienced red tide, cutting the usual production in half, resulting in higher prices and a lower quality product for consumers in small onigiri shops like this one.

Oh, she's making inari sushi, a seasoned rice stuffed in a sweet and sour bean curd skin, one of my Japanese wife's favorites.

Hey, don't you get lonely here all by yourself?

Well, your focus is sure making me hungry!

So what are you going to do with the ripped bean curd?

Japanese cuisine typically puts a great deal of emphasis on presentation, so it's often required to remove any imperfections.

However, skilled chefs always find a way to utilize the discarded parts to ensure that no food goes to waste.

The shop has about 30 minutes until it opens, so they work quickly to get their onigiri ready.

With three to four people, the shop can produce around 1,000 onigiri in one day.

That's the miso used in their most popular onigiri, nasu miso, which is a Japanese miso with a sweet and sour bean curd skin.    It's fried eggplant in a sweet miso.

The sweet miso blend is the shop's original signature blend, made with miso, sugar, mirin, and other secret ingredients.

The recipe was passed down from Sueno-san's father.

So convenience store onigiri has been very popular in Japan for many decades, but I've never seen this combination before, which is probably why it's a favorite among the locals.

Oh, Sueno-san has finished with the frying and has moved on to the mochi rice for the ohagi.

He's not even finished cooking it yet, but I already want to get a piece.

So before we continue on, I want to tell you guys about the awesome people at Bokksu, who also sponsored this video.

I know that many of you have already subscribed, but for those of you who don't know, they provide a gourmet experience of Japanese snacks, candies, and tea pairings delivered to your front door.

Working with century-old family businesses to provide you with authentic Japanese flavors.

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Behind the Counter at a Japanese Onigiri Shop w/ +50 kinds of rice balls

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