1. Cook rice. Mix hot cooked rice with 4 T sushi vinegar and then cool.
2. Peel tomatoes, remove seeds and drain off the juice. Chop roughly, then place in a small pan with the granulated sugar and light color soy sauce. Stir over medium-low heat until its consistency is similar to marinara tomato sauce. Allow to cool.
3. Mix bay shrimp with lemon juice. Set aside.
4. In a bowl, mix the mayonnaise, wasabi paste and soy sauce.
5. Cut avocado in half, remove pit and skin. Cut each half into four lengthwise slices and then into small squares, each 1 cm / 1/2 in. Gently coat completely with the blended mayo-wasabi-soy sauce.
6. To prevent the sushi rice from sticking to the cocktail glasses, mix 2 T sushi vinegar and 4 T water, and add 1/2 t vinegar-water to the bottom of each glass. Rotate to coat well; discard excess.
7. To serve, spoon 2 T sushi rice into each cocktail glass.*** Sprinkle dried nori seaweed strips onto the rice, then add avocado mixture and cocktail shrimp, topped finally with a drizzle of tomato-soy sauce.

* The recipe uses only a portion of this rice; however, to cook properly, this quantity of rice is necessary.
** The sushi vinegar in this recipe is lighter and milder than usual sushi vinegar.
*** Adjust amount of rice according to size of serving ware.

Recipe by Michiko Yamamoto

1 C (U.S. cup) = approx. 240 ml; 1 T = 15 ml; 1 t = 5 ml