Three Tokyo Sushi Bars Favored by California Chef David Kinch

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Emily Brennan, David Kinch, the Chef and Owner of the Restaurant Manresa in Los Gatos, Calif, on Eating in Tokyo. New York Times, Nov 10, 2013 (in Sunday’s Travel section).
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/1 ... ided-by-a-chef.html

Note:
(a) “restaurant Manresa in Los Gatos, Calif”
(i) Manresa Restaurant
http://www.manresarestaurant.com/
(“Chef Kinch and the Manresa team find inspiration from European traditions and refinement, American ingenuity and the vast bounty that California has to offer”)
(ii) Manresa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manresa
(capital of the Comarca of Bages, Catalonia, Spain; section 5 Places borrowing the name)
(iii) Los Gatos, California
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Gatos,_California
(a town at the southwest corner of San Jose; section 1 Etymology)

(b) “The first is a sushi bar, and it’s not Jiro. It’s called Sushi Mizutani 鮨 水谷 after the chef, Hachirō MIZUTANI 水谷 八郎.”
(i) Jiro Dreams of Sushi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiro_Dreams_of_Sushi
(a 2011 American documentary film; The film follows Jirō ONO 小野 次郎, an 85-year-old sushi master and owner of Sukiyabashi Jiro すきやばし次郎)
(A) Correct transliteration should be either Jirō or Jirou (a typewriter could not type out the macron: the horizontal bar over the letter “o” to signal a long vowel). But daily English does not have that nicety (“jiro”), so I do not correct it, but you should know.
(B) Sukiyabashi Jiro
http://www.sushi-jiro.jp/
(C) Sukiyabashi is a bridge (“ya” and “hashi” are Japanese pronunciations for house and bridge, respectively; ‘su” and “ki” are Chinese pronunciations for respective kanji).

数寄屋橋
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%95%B0%E5%AF%84%E5%B1%8B%E6%A9%8B
(“1629年（寛永6年）江戸城外濠に架けられた橋である。橋は現在の晴海通りにあり、1929年（昭和4年）に石造りの二連アーチ橋に架け替えられた”)

translation: First built atop outer moat of Edo; replaced by a stone bridge in 1929 which lasts to the present days)
(D) 数寄屋造り
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6 ... B%E9%80%A0%E3%82%8A
(数寄屋造り（すきやづくり）とは、日本の建築様式の一つである; 数寄屋と呼ばれる茶室が出現したのは安土桃山時代である)

translation: Sukiya-zukuri is an architectural style in Japan; a [stand-alone] teahouse (where a host entertained his guests with tea ceremony) called sukiya 数寄屋 appeared in Azuchi-Momoyama era (1573–1603; Azuchi and Momoyama were castles of warlords 織田信長 and 豊臣秀吉, respectively).
(ii) View photos only at
Jen, Sushi Mizutani. Tiny Urban Kitchen, Jan 10, 2012 (blog).
http://www.tinyurbankitchen.com/2011/11/sushi-mizutani.html
(iii) Talking about Sushi Mizutani, Mr Kinch says, “No, sushi is about the rice. The fish — I don’t want to say it’s secondary — but if you’re getting the best of the best fish, how you define your style is by what kind of rice you use, how you prepare it, shape it. Is it salty? Is it not too sweet? It can have a strong vinegar taste. It could be warmer. You work very hard at defining the style of the rice and choose your preference, and for me it’s Mizutani. His rice is perfect.”

The “it”--eg: Is it salty?--is rice, not fish.

(c) “Ginza Kojyu. It’s a great omakase restaurant, meaning it’s one menu only * * * The chef, Toru OKUDA 奥田 透”
(i) Ginza Kojyū 銀座 小十
http://www.kojyu.jp/
(ii) omakase お任せ; 御任せ 【おまかせ】 (n,v): “leaving a decision to someone else (often of a meal to be selected by the chef)”

(d) Sushi Ishikawa  鮨 いしかわ (Ishikawa is a surname and a prefecture)

is located at 東京都新宿区. All above are in Ginza 銀座 (a neighborhood in Chūō Ward 東京都中央区, west of Tsukiji)
(e) “The outer market at Tsukiji 築地.”

築地場外市場  Tsukiji Outer Market
(f) Ueno is a neighborhood in Taitō Ward 東京都台東区.

Taitō is on the northern border of Chūō.
(g) “There’s a street that’s famous among chefs called Kappabashi Dori where you can buy all things culinary — the plastic food displayed in windows to the finest knives.”

Kappabashi-Dori 合羽橋 通り
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kappabashi-dori
(also known just as Kappabashi 合羽橋)
(i) dōri 通り 【どおり】(n): “street”
(ii) Japanese Wiki says, “文化年間にこの地で掘割（後の新堀川、現在は消滅）整備を行った合羽屋喜八が合羽橋の名前の由来の一つとされており.”

translation: One theory is the name of the place [there must have been a bridge of that name] was after Kihachi KAPPAYA 合羽屋 喜八, who dug here to create 新堀川, which no longer exists.