On the way to Sapporo, I only had an hour layover in Narita, so after getting through immigration, baggage claim, and customs, I ran over to the domestic counter to check my bags in then went up to the observation deck to cool down. After the sweat evaporated, I went inside to look for a quick bite. I was thinking of going to Sushi-den, the usual sushi-ya I eat at, but I didn’t want to scarf everything down in like 10-minutes and run out of there, so I went to Kyotaru, the take-out sushi place over on the North side (it’s right on the main walkway fronting the balcony overlooking the check-in counters). One of the first things I saw was their Battera, so without even looking at any of their other offerings, I grabbed one and was off to the domestic gate.
It made it through security fine, and I unwrapped it in the waiting area rather than eat it on the plane and make everything stink like vinegared mackerel. Under the paper outer wrapper, the food was wrapped in an actual bamboo leaf! The battera was really good. This wasn’t really surprising, but the worst battera I’ve ever had was in Japan, so my hopes weren’t as high as they would have been for some other foods. It wasn’t as good as the one at Inaba Honolulu, but for a 550-yen take out, it was outstanding. The fish was good quality and crazy thick – the thickness of the sushi was nearly half fish! The rice was a tad sticky, so it was a bit difficult to get the pieces apart, and the konbu was a somewhat inelegant opaque green, but the test was in the eating, and this passed with flying colors (thankfully not literally, no pun intended). I do suggest eating it in proximity to somewhere you can wash your hands, or to have a disposable wet hand wipe handy, as you will get either the fishy oil of the vinegar on your hands in the process of unwrapping it, wrangling the green plastic leaf, or opening the little packet of gari (pickled ginger).
550-yen
Recommended
Three-and-a-half out of four vinegared monkeys
You know, I forget where the heck my mom would always get the pack of battera and sake oshisushi on her way back from Japan. I did it too, but forget where in the airport I grabbed it. I’d guess Kansai since its oshisushi. In hindsight, I kinda wonder if it was against ag rules, although the battera is vinegared, I’m not sure what kind of prep the sake has.
I think it is against the rules, although there is some note on one of the Narita sushi store pages that oshisushi specifically “makes a great gift for friends overseas!” I had some sake oshisushi (wow – say that 10-times really fast!) when I came back from Sapporo a few times ago that I had bought for dinner but ended up eating Kakiage tempura instead that I threw out because I wasn’t sure if too much time had passed without refrigeration since it was made. Erred on the side of not wanting explosoive diarrhea and vomiting.