The name of the Japanese grocery store in Central Square (on the corner of Prospect Steet and Mass. Ave) was Yoshinoya, IIRC. I used to live within walking distance from it in the early 1970s when I lived in Cambridge and Boston before heading to Japan and shopped there occasionally. Does anyone know when it closed? When my wife moved back with me to Boston for a few years she avoided Yoshinoya due to high prices and bought most of her Japanese groceries in Chinatown. Back in the early 70s, other than Yoshinoya, the only other outlet for Japanese groceries to my knowledge was Erewhon (owned by Michio Kushi) on Newbury Street. Although a Macrobiotic store, they were one of the earliest importers of Japanese foods such as adzuki beans, soba/udon noodles, green tea, ban-cha, hoji-cha, and mugi-cha. Of course, they did not offer much in the way of processed foods other than furikake, miso, tofu, tamari soy sauce, natural instant ramen, and boxed cereals (in later years). Their brown rice though was sourced in the US, mainly from an organic grower in Texas.

The Japanese restaurant scene in Boston has changed a lot over the years. The only Japanese restaurants (if you can call them that) I can remember existing around 1971-72 were those that were part of Michio Kushi's macrobiotic empire, namely, Sanae on Newbury Street and The Seventh Inn on Boylston Street. Of course, they did not serve white rice, so I don't think that many Japanese expats or tourists ate there. However, they were pioneers in natural food cuisine and I can remember eating tofu cheesecake and tofu salad dressing in Boston and NYC macrobiotic restaurants decades before I ever saw them served in Japan. IIRC, there was also a Benihana operating around this time not far from the Arlington Street T stop (I think in the old Statler Hilton Hotel). A high-class Suntory restaurant opened in 1976-7 on Newbury street across from Charlie's Saloon (which was next to Erewhon). Other Japanese restaurants opened up over the years, many of them Korean and Chinese owned. I don't get back to Boston that often anymore, but I have visited the Japanese restaurant court in Porter Square several times and know one of the restaurant operators there. Is anyone familiar with the old Tenmi macrobiotic restaurant in Shibuya (which used to be located next to the train tracks)?