This experience was absolutely amazing.Rather than just one standout dish, everything from start to finish was delicious.This is the kind of Japanese cuisine that leaves you at a loss for words.I don’t even know what to praise because everything was so good. (laughs)The first dish that left an impression was the grilled horse mackerel.Even though dried fish is a familiar dish, the grilling technique, aroma, and the umami of the flesh combined to create something completely different.It doesn’t look flashy, but you can truly taste the difference.The crab shinjo soup was also wonderful.Kojitsu uses a variety of dashi made from katsuobushi, maguro bushi, muro bushi, and kombu, and they even shave the bonito flakes just before serving the soup.Perhaps that’s why the aroma is strong, yet the dashi doesn’t overpower the dish.Eating the crab shinjo and sipping the dashi soup is a moment I truly love about Japanese cuisine.Next was the grilled eel.By not layering unnecessary flavors, the essence of the eel and the grilling technique come through clearly.Then there was the seasonal conger eel shabu-shabu.Dipping the delicate conger eel into the dashi and enjoying its gentle flavor is very much in line with Kojitsu’s style.I was also looking forward to the hand-made soba, which is highly praised in the evening course.What stood out particularly was the dipping sauce.It had a unique flavor that was slightly different from the typical soba sauce, making me ponder, "What is this sauce?" as I enjoyed it.And the finale was something extraordinary.What appeared before me was a unique clay pot that I had never seen before.At Kojitsu, they change not only the type of rice but also the cooking method according to the season when preparing the clay pot rice.The freshly cooked white rice that came out of that pot was simply delicious.The rice was so well-prepared that I wanted to eat it plain, and then finally, the cold soup was served.The contrast of the warm, freshly cooked white rice with the cold soup, along with the temperature difference, dashi, and sweetness of the rice, made it so easy to eat even at the end of the course.Instead of just showcasing high-end ingredients and saying, "Isn’t this amazing?" they made me think, "Why is this so delicious?" with seemingly simple dishes like dried fish, soup, soba, and white rice.That’s what makes it truly remarkable.The ingredients, dashi, cooking techniques, and rice preparation—all were done with care, yet the dishes didn’t feel complicated.Everything was absolutely delicious.You can really understand why they won the Tabelog Award Bronze just by tasting their food that night.