Obama dines at world-class sushi restaurant in Japan
For his first meal in Japan - the first stop in a four-country trip through Asia that began Tuesday evening - President Obama got to dine at one of the world's most renowned sushi restaurants.
Mr. Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had an hour-and-a-half dinner at Sukibayashi Jiro in Tokyo's Ginza district Wednesday. U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy and National Security Advisor Susan Rice were also in attendance.
Chef Jiro Ono is so famed for his sushi skills - he is widely considered to be the best in the world - that he is the subject of a 2011 documentary, "Jiro Dreams of Sushi." His restaurant has just 10 seats but three Michelin stars, a rare honor. According to a 2012 piece in the New Yorker, a meal at the restaurant includes twenty pieces of sushi served all at once, and costs hundreds of dollars per person.
"That's some good sushi right there," the president said as he left the restaurant.
vidJiro came to work at the restaurant when his struggling family sent him there at at the age of seven.
"I was too young to apprentice with the gardener or carpenter," he told CBS Sunday Morning last year. "The local restaurant was the only place that would take me. So that's how I ended up in this business."
After a good night's sleep, the president has a full day meetings and ceremonies in Japan, including a joint press conference with Abe, a tour of the Miraikan Science Expo and Meiji Shrine, and a state dinner.