Bruce Rutledge, The North American Post
Chubu Centrair International Airport, which serves the Nagoya region, is unveiling its own version of Seattle this October 12. The Flight of Dreams complex within the airport will feature a flight park containing an entire Boeing 787 Dreamliner and a shopping and dining complex called Seattle Terrace that will include some of Seattle’s most famous brands. Among those brands will be the Shiro Kashiba Sushi Express, marking the first time Seattle’s sushi master will have a restaurant in Japan.
Other Seattle icons in the terrace area include Fran’s Chocolates, the Pike Brewing Restaurant and Craft Beer Bar, Starbuck’s, an Eltana bagel cafe, Beecher’s Homemade Cheese, Ethan Stowell Pizza and Pasta, and a boutique called Hello Seattle that specializes in famous local brands.
Shiro and Ricky Kashiba visited the facility recently to make sure everything was on track for the October 12 opening, according to their son, Edwin Kashiba. Edwin said his parents were hesitant about the venture at first, but once they were assured of the high quality of the sushi being served, they rallied around it.
Shiro left a job with a prominent sushi restaurant in Tokyo’s Ginza district in the 1960s to travel to the US. He ended up in Seattle and was the first to serve nigiri sushi at Maneki Restaurant and then at a series of his own restaurants. The return to Japan brings his career full circle. But don’t worry — most nights he’ll still be behind the sushi bar at Sushi Kashiba, his Pike Place Market restaurant, his family assures us.
