A note on the words: izakaya is a Japanese pub and yakitori is chicken grilled on skewers, ordered by the piece and seasoned either with tare, a sweet soy glaze, or simply with salt. Tsukune is the minced-chicken meatball, bonjiri the tail, and gizzard the sunagimo. Iburigakko is the smoked daikon pickle of Akita, shio-koji a marinade of salt and fermented rice mold, katsuobushi the shavings of dried bonito, shishamo a small whole fish grilled with its roe, and ray fin the dried fin of a skate, warmed on the grill and torn into strips to eat with a drink. A shichirin is the small charcoal brazier set on the table to grill at your own hand. Wako-shi is just over the border from Tokyo in Saitama. Prices are as of this writing (August 2026).
Kojiro on AutoReserve (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
I want something good to eat today too. This is Hangover Meshi. This time, somewhere I do not usually go: I was out in Wako-shi. I visited a place in front of the station called Kojiro — the ultimate chicken liver skewer, best before 180 seconds. Having decided to drink around here, I had no feel for the area at all and picked the shop purely on the strength of its name. It is right by the station. When the name itself contains “the ultimate chicken liver skewer, best before 180 seconds”, it stands out from a long way off.
There is an enormous menu, covering a whole wall. And every item has an amusing tagline. So we decided to order more or less at random.
Starting, naturally, with beer.
The portions feel generous. Plenty of cream cheese and plenty of iburigakko. In the center of Tokyo it would be a third to a half of this.
Fried burdock with a money-back guarantee. If it is not the softest burdock of your life, they refund you. So we tried it — and it is soft. Soft enough to make you laugh. Outside, a thin fried coating, crisp; inside, how to describe it. Fluffy? Airy? Perhaps it is cooked long in a pressure cooker. It certainly is soft.
Right, here is the ultimate liver skewer. Its full name is the ultimate chicken liver skewer with spring onion and salt, best before 180 seconds. An hourglass is started the moment it is served. Eat it within 180 seconds! So: take the photograph, add the katsuobushi that comes with it, and…
…in it goes. Yes. Delicious! Soft inside, good texture, good aroma. The salt lifts the savor of the liver. Precisely because the liver is so richly flavored it holds its own against the spring onion. This is a fine thing.
The headline item eaten, from here we order whatever looks like a specialty, one after another.
Cheese and tsukune cannot fail to be delicious. Exactly so. They give it a good char, so there is fragrance too. The tsukune inside being light and tender is thanks to the shio-koji.
Chicken thigh yakitori. The spring onion and salt sauce is good. Salt shows the flavor of the chicken better than tare does.
The yakitori is good. About here I switched to a highball.
Having worked through the yakitori, I was looking at the menu — and there is a shichirin grill.
There was a set, so I ordered the set.
Ray fin, and squid and shishamo and shiitake came with it as well, I think?
Yes, the shichirin grill is good too, and thoroughly satisfying.
It is an izakaya in front of Wako-shi station, and the quality and the satisfaction are both quite high. Snacks this good, a shichirin grill on top of it, and the drinks include the big mega sizes as well. The signature 180-second liver skewer was delicious too. I thought they were doing all sorts of things for social media, but the ability genuinely backs it up. And the final bill was reasonable enough. Making a habit of going to Wako-shi is another matter, but now and then it might be good.
Kojiro — the ultimate chicken liver skewer, best before 180 seconds (Izakaya / Wako-shi Station)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★★☆☆ 3.6
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
