So stylish, so Osake

To a gaijin or an outsider traveling to Japan, the one thing that astonishes about the country is how it keeps a balance between the old and the new, how exquisite traditions co-exist with the modern without tipping over on one side.

You see it in Tokyo streets every day: Ladies wearing kimono wait for the traffic light to turn green alongside teenagers in the most imaginative and bizarre fashion.

You see it in its culture of consumption: How the designer craze in the 1980s had office women signing up for a long wait for an Hermes bag, and how the economic realities of the 1990s have helped no-brand chic resurface.

You can’t talk about Japan without taking note of its people’s infernal love for cuteness. After all, this is where Hello Kitty was born, where Doraemon, a time-traveling robot cat, and his partner have taken the leap from educational magazines to mangga and anime, where the Chinese zodiac symbols are depicted in cartoonish animal designs.

It is this youth subculture and the rapid shifting of Japan’s character that fascinate restaurateurs Ricco Ocampo and Rikki Dee, owners of Osake, a mid-range Japanese restaurant that opened its first branch at Glorietta 2 and recently its second branch at SM Megamall’s Megastrip.

While Ricco loves the new, Rikki collects objects that represent the old.

"I love Tokyo," says Ricco, who goes to Japan at least once a year just to soak up the revitalizing energy of the city. "I love its fast pace, I love that’s it’s a 180-degree turn from New York. I love that you can never compare the two cities even though they both dictate the trends whether in fashion or technology. I love the Japanese culture and its people."

Rikki, on the other hand, started to collect sake about six years ago, encompassing different designs from different periods and styles . On display at both branches of Osake are original sake bottles with exquisite details and glasses. Some of these pieces cost hundreds of dollars! Ah, but we must give room for everyone’s personal tastes.

At the new branch in Megamall especially, the tension of old and new is prominently on display. Designed by Ricco Ocampo, the restaurant features Rikki’s sake collection as well as modern artworks by artist, model and musician Robby Mananquil.

The space of Osake Megamall is long and narrow. Viewing it from the outside makes the experience feel like you’re viewing a four-cornered tube – a colorful one at that – which suddenly lights up from the inside. Opposite Robby’s paintings where tables for two are positioned is space for continuous seating against the wall for larger groups. The wall is blank save for a map of Tokyo’s dizzying train routes.

Ricco says with a laugh, "The first thing you must do in Tokyo is to learn the train system, otherwise all your money will be spent on taxis. That’s why when we’re in Tokyo we always stay in the Shinjuku area, which is very accessible to the train station."

Lighted by hanging lotus lamps, Robby’s artworks give the space a vibrant ambience. It’s the witty side of Japan, all the things that make it weird and unique (think of the serenity of Zen design and the melding of spirituality and food with the origins of kaizeki against Tokyo’s telephone clubs where knee-socked girls flirt with white-collar executives over the phone – that’s how crazy Japan is).

A UP Fine Arts graduate, Robby made a series of seven panels for Osake Megamall with the brief from Ricco that he should collect found objects to incorporate into his artworks, "everyday life from Japan" during a modeling assignment there. So enthusiastic was Robby in collecting (debris for some, but art material for him) – from SARS forms at the airport to candy wrappers to chopsticks, leaflets and toys – that his colleagues "were also taking things for me, like free magazines and posters. I even got tissue from McDonalds!"

Understandably, the 24-year-old artist was fascinated by the pop culture advocated by his generation. The result is artworks that could very well be Japan’s signs of the times, antithesis of traditional Japanese nature paintings, works that capture the pulse and beat of Tokyo rather than the old cities such as Kyoto, considered the spiritual capital of the country.

The paintings represent the colors of the rainbow and on a more subtle level the world of difference between Japan and, well, the rest of the world. The bold red painting includes a SARS form taken from the airport and an old compact disc, the latter inspired from Japan’s bubblegum pop music rather than the minimalist music of a traditional No play. The yellow canvas contains more Japanese pop icons courtesy of free magazines and a little reminder of imperialist Japan with the Filipino flag inverted – red side up for war. The green panel bears a paper fan, another reminder of the famous Japanese art of origami.

The orange canvas plays on today’s times, with the famous Japanese cat prominently pasted in the middle and the Toyota logo, while a Japanese mask, one that might be used for a stage play, is stuck at the upper right corner.

Robby says he doesn’t mind his work is being displayed in a restaurant. And it’s not his first time, too. He did the portraits of pop icons ranging from Jose Rizal to Nora Aunor for Mangan restaurants. A winner in many art contests since he was a kid, he says that "it was in Japan that I realized I really want to be an artist. I’m aiming to be an Asian artist, that’s the direction I want to take." He’s also planning to take a few art courses in London next year. "I learned the basics at UP, now I want to learn something different."

Ricco Ocampo says that Osake has gotten good reviews from customers when they opened in Glorietta 2 in February, thus only five months later they opened at SM Megamall. "We are so happy with the outcome of the first one and we hope to open at least in three more locations: in Malate, another one in Makati and in Alabang."

How different is Osake from other Japanese restaurants? "It’s really the quality of food that we serve," he says. "Even the menu itself is not as traditional as you’d see in other mid-range restaurants. Our specialty is shiitake tempura, our sushis are not typical. Normally all you’d see is traditional tuna sashimi and California temaki. We have rainbow rolls and other dishes created by Rikki Dee and our young chefs who have worked abroad and in other Japanese restaurants."

Bestsellers include Osake beef stew (P180), sukiyaki (P190), salmon/tuna tataki (P90), chasu with fish cake (P95), mixed seaweed salad (P90), tofu steak (P80), nagisa or fish fillet in tartar (P150). For the robatayaki or grilled section, diners can sample all the items with the sampler plate of seven sticks (P150), or they can opt for geso shoyaki or squid head (P40), kimo or liver (P40), sunagimo or gizzard (P45). For tempura lovers, there’s soft shelled crab tempura (P100), shiitake tempura (P90), shake or salmon belly tempura (P90), kisu and kani tempura (crabs, P100 each), and the usual ebi and tofu tempura.

Osake also has bento boxes and diners’ choices are pork or chicken teriyaki (P60), pork katsu or chasu (P70, P80), buta kukani (or simmered pork, P80), beef teppanyaki (P100), ika teppanyaki (P60), kisu tempura (P80), kisu inomono (simmered fish, P80), ebi tempura (P80), seafood teppanyaki (P90) and shake yaki (P100). Diners get to choose two for their bento box, which is served with rice, soup and chawan mushi.

Of course, one must not miss the infused sake selections from P70 to P80 per pop. You can have Saketini (sake-martini), Sake Rita (Margarita), Sake Driver (Screwdriver), Bloody Sake (Bloody Mary) and Cosmo sake (Cosmopolitan).

All things Japanese are indeed exciting.

Some years ago during an event we covered in Miyajima, Japan, our host told us that one foreign journalist was not allowed to go on a boat to cover the visit of a high-ranking American official because she was a woman and "the sea goddess would be jealous."

This from the same country that has produced the world’s best technology.

You get the feeling that in Japan, things that span centuries dissolve in one Tokyo minute only to return in the next. And all you can do is shout "Kampai!" and thank God for your sake.