Our tour took us to two areas of the Tokyo region - Shibuya, the home of the ultra-hip, ultra-chic and then to Kichijoji, a smaller town in the Tokyo Metro area that represents a more laid back lifestyle. Our leader, Noam, an American from San Diego who is married to a Japanese woman and has lived in Japan for 14 years, wanted to give us a taste of the high end Japan and the Japan of every day.
We also got a lot of food history in. It turns out that many of the foods we associate with Japan come from elsewhere or are relatively recent inventions.
We started off with sushi
We then went through the basement of a large famous department store
We found out that just about every major department store has a food that provides regular groceries, ready to eat food, and gift food. Who knew? No one told me this before going to Japan. This would have changed our eating in the country substantially. We found that this store had a huge sushi and sashimi selection.
Fresh wasabi root...very hard to find
In addition to the regular food, there was food for gifts
Gift giving is a big thing in Japan and they tend to use food as apartments are small and people don't want more things.
So let's say you have a need to by de-I a gift
How about some beautifully perfect, wonderfully packaged mangoes?
Very nice...only $162
What you say that you want to show de-I respect but has a tad lower sticker price
How about some perfect cherries?
A steal at $97
But no. You want to show de-I the respect he truly deserves
How about some melons?
$233 worth of melons buys you a lot of de-I appreciation.
Want to give some great looking sushi?
This sushi packaging one some kind of award for design
Beautiful cut up fruit cups
And a sponge cake whose roots are Portuguese
Then we took the train to Kichijoji
This mural is in the Shibuya Station. Looks Mexican doesn't it
Turns out that this was done by Japanese artist for a Mexican hotel that went belly up before it could be installed
In Kichijoji, this sign which means nothing in the context of our story
A key market street in the town
Here our goal is minced meat cutlets
Not croquettes
Not Beef cutlet on a stick or pork cutlet on a stick
No Minced Beef Cutlet
There was a long line
They were making them in droves and we stood in line for a while to get them
The finished product
Need some primo meat while you're waiting?
While our minced beef cutlet costs about $2, the meat above costs between $40 and $100 a pound
Enjoying Minced Beef Cutlet goodness
Then on to the artisanal rice cracker shop
Three generations now in the family
The current matriarch
The current maestro
At his work
Samples of their wares
A good luck piece over the door to the small workplace in back of the store
They buy this from a local temple each year
Next up
Takoyaki! Octopus Balls!
Who knew that Japan was a major player in the maintenance of octopus fertility?
Japan makes millions and millions of Takoyaki a year
Many of these never make it to the creatures but are shunted aside for food,
Takoyaki production line
Happy octopus ball making guy
Next it was off to a yakatori place
Food on a stick!
We tried all kinds of things including heart, liver and tongue
Boo no chicken skin available today :(
Our group looking very happy sitting traditionally on the floor
We weren't
Even the younger ones were in agony by the time we were done
Next off to a traditional Japanese drinking establishment
An Izakaya where you drink and eat small bits of food
One happy, one not
Mr. F (an Italian working in London) has taken a food challenge from me
Wife has not
Mmmmm guts
Stewed offal
It was actually really tasty and not chewy or off flavored
Bitter Melon on a stick
A bit...well bitter
As we were drinking and eating away, some candid shots
A customer across the way giving us a toast
It is so interesting to see the behavior of Japanese when they are letting their hair down whether as tourists on the train as we saw earlier or at an izakaya
The lovely Ms. K, an American from Chicago now working in London
After almost 7 hours of activity we took the train back to Shinjuku
3 comments:
I see what you did there, using lots of those forget photography tricks you just learned.
Also, I agree that those fruit cups are gorgeous. Can we expect beautiful food presentations in de-I cooking pictures on the future?
oh man I love food tours! You know we were totally aware of the food shops in the bottom of big shops. And I assumed you were too, only because it's also in other Asian countries. I feel we have let you down not having told you! We did our food shops during our short trip in Japan.
Wow! Looks like a fun food tour!! What a wonderful trip you had touring Japan!
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