Taste of Saipan: Himawari Japanese Restaurant

I thought I like Sushi but now I had come to love it after visiting Himawari — a Japanese restaurant in a rather secluded area in Garapan.

Himawari is actually also a Japanese store and the restaurant which was also named after it, is housed on its right wing area. The place was small but nevertheless attractive in its own right. Besides I had always like Asian decor especially the Japanese styles of clean, simple, serene designs although this particular restaurant is more in to dark wood when it comes to their furniture and some antiques for decorations.

My  fiancé and I together with his family had decided to have dinner which was rather unexpected. We were just supposed to have an ordinary dinner at some restaurant we frequent but in a sudden inspiration my fiance turned towards Himawari out of the blue asking us if we cared for some Japanese food that night. So we said why not since we haven't tried the place yet and how glad I was that we did.

We ordered their specialty — a plate of Sushi in 12 different varieties and another plate of Salmon Roll plus a steaming bowl of Ramen. The Sushi variety plate was beautiful and very creatively made served with wasabi and pickled ginger or gari; the art in the food and how painstakingly it must have been done didn't escape me. I reached out with my chopsticks and picked a roll surrounded with tiny little orange gems that I found out was called Tobiko—a roe commonly called flying fish roe that is commonly used to flavor and enhance texture of a variety of sushi rolls which has a slightly salty taste—and popped it in my mouth where it melted in a surprisingly perfect mingling of flavors that was truly delicious. The next I tried was this roll with peach colored fish on top which I believe is white tuna and I was surprised on how delectable and fresh the fish was without the taste of rawness that I had to double check on what I was eating to check if it was indeed raw at all. I tell you every bite of that morsel of fish was heaven in itself and was a real treat to the senses. I had quite finished the thing already when I asked my fiance the name of the fish to confirm what I just ate and he laughed telling me that I should have left some for him to see. I tried all the other rolls that looked yummy and they were all fantastic except maybe the one filled with orange fish eggs which was actually Salmon eggs called Nigiri Sushi-Ikura that I didn't finish because I didn't like the way it all went popping inside my mouth when I chewed it. I scanned the remainders of the plate trying to decide which to try next and I could have gone ahead and ate everything if I didn't recognized the rolls that came with octopus and other sea creatures I couldn't fathom to eat and so I left the rest to my companions and eyed the other dish instead.

I tried one of the salmon roll applied with mayonnaise and melted cheese stuffed with avocado, cucumber and some other vegetables and once again it didn't disappoint. I think I finished three from that roll and by that time I was munching the third one I was already stuffed and couldn't have another bite even if I wanted to. 

They haven't seen the last of me though because right now I'm already hankering to go back for more of those wonderful sushi!