MLB

Tanaka’s 1st taste of New York? Grocery store sushi

New Yankees ace Masahiro Tanaka splurged a lot more on his flight to New York than his first meal in the Big Apple — sushi from a local supermarket.

“Actually, it was pretty good,’’ Tanaka, 25, said after a press conference at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday, telling the YES Network, through a translator, he also likes pizza.

The pitcher — who just signed a seven-year, $155 million contract with the Bronx Bombers — bought the store sushi after plunking down $195,000 to rent an entire 787 Boeing jet to fly him here from Japan.

Mai Satoda arrives at Teterboro Airport with husband Masahiro Tanaka.David McGlynn

The only other passengers with him aboard the aircraft, which can hold up to 186 fliers, were his pretty pop-star wife Mai Satoda, a couple of aides — and his beloved brown toy poodle, Haru. The pooch’s name means “Sunshine’’ or “Spring.”

Asked about the ostentatious flight,Tanaka told The Post on Tuesday, “I just wanted to get here in the best condition possible.

“Basically, I was sleeping throughout that flight to New York.”

Tanaka, whose wife was not at the presser, added Satoda, 29, “is very excited to be here.

“We were able to go out and look at a few possible apartments that we can live in in the future,” he said.

The couple currently is staying at the Mandarin Oriental on Columbus Circle, where they should be able to do better than store-bought food. The hotel houses Masa, one of the best, and most expensive, Japanese sushi restaurants in the city. It charges its tony diners $450 apiece per meal.

A real-estate broker who has had Yankees players as clients said new team members usually wind up initially renting pads on the Upper West or Upper East Side to be close to the FDR or West Side highways to get to the stadium more easily.

“He’ll need something in a full-service luxury building with a gym and underground parking that is furnished and a short-term rental for the season,’’ the broker said.

The couple then will decide whether they want to buy, the source said.

When Tanaka was first brought out to the podium to speak to reporters at Tuesday’s packed appearance, he was handed a No. 19 uniform shirt and Yankees hat, both of which he promptly donned.

“Hello, my name is Masahiro Tanaka. I’m very happy to be a Yankee,’’ the pitcher said in halting English, bowing.

Struggling with his English, he then switched to a translator.

He said he was told the city “could be very harsh at times’’ but he wants to just “see where I can get to with my ability.

“When I first came to New York, which was in high school, actually that day, the weather was pretty bad, it was quite cloudy, but now, there is a lot of sunshine, and I have a very good impression of the city of New York,’’ Tanaka said.

The pitcher said he talked to countryman and former Yankee Hideki Matsui “briefly’’ by phone about what to expect in New York.

“He just basically told me how good this city was,” Tanaka said.