I can has interior..

You guys have all seen the outside of Masato of Japan...but what about the inside?? Well with out further delay I give you..... The inside of Masato of Japan tour!!

Here is what you see when you first come inside the restaurant. I am often working at that wonderful host stand telling people that they will ONLY have to wait and hour and fifteen minutes to be seated. While people wait they can sit on a bench behind the host stand or at the bar you can see in the back. On most Saturdays you can barely walk down the hallway there are so many people waiting.. uggh.

Anyone like Onimusha? Well he lives in our restaurant.. Gotta love the fake samurai armor with the red light bulb eyes..


After coming in the restaurant to the right we have the area we lovingly refer to as "The Pit". I dont know if you can see it in the photos but the floor is raised in this area so you sit on the floor with space for your legs under the table. This area is good for large parties but a pain in the butt to wait on. Also its extremely difficult for elderly and obese people to sit in.

During our lunch service we cook in the "Pit" area. This is going to change soon though. We are going to move all of the cooking to a part of the restaurant people cant see. The tables being used in this photo during lunch service are being ruined due to over use. While I think its kinda interesting to see some cooking going on when you come in the restaurant others feel that it looks too cluttered.. Just another reason to move this cooking somewhere else.

This is a view of the front of the restaurant from the bar.

Here is the main dining area. All of these pictures were taken during the lunch service so the grills are all covered because we dont cook infront of customers for lunch. Hmmm, doesnt look too busy does it? The entrance to the sushi bar can be seen in the middle of the picture. Kinda dark huh? Recently lunch service has kinda picked up a bit .. we usually do about 50 meals for the 2 1/2 hours we are open on average. Friday is usually our best day. I think this will get better as more people learn we are actually open during lunch.

Here is another pic of the main Teppan area from another angle. Theres 8 tables total in this area. Each table can hold around 9 people.

Feel like some sushi?? Right this way folks.

Welcome to the Masato sushi bar where you can get the best sushi in Savannah. No really I swear! Unfortunately this area is closed during lunch. While we do get people coming in asking for sushi during lunch unfortunately theres just not enough demand to justify having it open.

Ahhh precious sunlight.. too bad its all in the sushi bar where no one is eating.

We also have 2 teppan tables at the back of the sushi bar. Currently these only get used during dinner Fri-Sun, which are our busiest days. Err, thats why theres some crap on them.. But do you remember when I mentioned earlier that we were planing on moving the lunch cooking to an area people cant see? Yup this is where were gunna be moving the lunch cooking. Hopefully this week.

Anyways that concludes our Masato of Japan tour. Anyone have any questions?? Thanks for coming. Have a nice day. See you tomorrow.

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Hey!!! Uhh... WTF is this?? What??? Another Japanese Steak, Seafood, and Sushi restaurant?? What?? its opening less than a mile away from our location in only 3-4 months?? Wait you're telling me its an established restaurant chain with a highly professional staff and a brand new 3 million dollar building?? Uh oh.. this could be trouble.. More on this crap next post...

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Oh wait one more thing.. We have a new final list of names for our new restaurant.. which do you like the most?

Kinzo Gold special old storage(Kazuyas translation)
Kokoro Heart
Ranzan Storm Mountain
Shinobi den Ninjya, hiding place, secret. (Kazuyas translation)
Oyama Big mountian

(over) 1 Month Later

Well its almost been one month since I quit my lame ass job in San Diego and moved to Savannah, GA to get my feet wet in the restaurant biz. For those who dont know my plans I've put up some money to join a group of partners to buy an existing restaurant and to help start a new restaurant in the city of Beaufort, SC this summer. About 3 weeks ago we FINALLY got ownership of the existing restaurant in Savannah and have recently begun having architects start the plans for the Beaufort location.

Here is the Savannah restaurant.



I used to work at this place when i was in college and its here i met the other partners im working with now. Its pretty big inside and an extremely complicated opperation.. 14 teppan tables that each sit 8-10 peeps, a full bar, and a separate sushi bar that seats over 20! Not something i really wanted to be involved with because of just how complicated it is to run but it does make money at the moment.

Here is the location for the Beaufort restaurant. ( right next to Kmart oh soo classy)







This place is going to be significantly smaller(just over 3000sqft) than the savannah restaurant and much simplier. One teppan grill and sushi bar will basically cook for the whole restaurant. Instead of needing 7-9 chefs every day well only need 2. woot. Oh this is the place that still needs a name... Currently the front runners for a name are.. Sugoiya ( Thanks sam for suggesting the "ya" sufix which means shop), Toraichi's (Kazuyas fathers name that means #1 tiger), Okiyama (i made this up..i think it means big mountian), and finally.. Okazakiya( Okasaki shop??) . WE gotta get a name decided on soon cause we need to start on our sign.

Work so far has been extremely exhausting. uggh.. Damn manual labor sux! It can be fun and really interesting though. Theres just so much going on during a busy night. The restaurant on a busy night is a very err dynamic environment. Lots of customers everywhere, waitstaff running around, tables being sat, cleaned, people needing this or that. Lots of shiet to worry about in short amounts of time. Its not easy managing everything i gotta say. I definitely have a new respect how difficult restaurant management is. Oh and a busy night is like a friday or saturday were we can have over 500 customers a night.

Im sure many of you are wondering exactly what ive been doing. uh well really ive been trying to do alittle of everything learning how to host, cashier, cook, wait tables, and clean. Ive mainly just kinda been in the role of the support guy who helps out where help is needed and does stuff that isnt getting done. I havent had a set role really so far. Usually on a busy night im just running around every where helping bus boys, sitting customers, boiling some edamame, or taking checks to the cashier. Its kinda hectic but its nice being able to help everyone out and know that things are running alittle more smoothly cause im around..usually.. heh. You know.. I do alot of freaking sweeping.. uggh i hate sweeping but if i dont sweep this crap up who is?





OH ive also been making menus.. heh thats been kinda fun but damn i suc at graphic design and photo shop.. heres some menus ive made so far. oh yeah i suck at spelling too which has led to some annoying reprints..heh



Can you find the typo in the to go menu? $%#@!!!! it sux having to fix 300 of those with white out.. I took the food pics for all the food on the appetizer menu except the gyoza and edamame.. what do you think?

anyways please ask any questions you might have.. ill try to answer them in future posts.. this first post is kinda dry sorry.. Theres alot going on so its hard for me with my poor writing skillz to express everything efficiently.

crap i should probably write about how this compares to my old job huh? maybe next post.