Ordered by my daughter at a Japanese restaurant

I realize that “strangest food” is subjective, so some of these may not be so strange to you. Nevertheless, allow me to share a few of my stand-outs.

A couple of years ago, I wrote that a rural Japanese innkeeper had served me the most exotic food I have ever eaten. That was true, but life and meals moved on, and now it’s time for an update.

Whale

In my other article, I neglected to mention whale. Yes, I have eaten whale both raw and cooked. It was even served to my children in their school lunches once a year.

School lunches are considered a part of the children’s education. There is an emphasis on eating a variety of foods with a balanced nutritional content. Once a year or so, they serve traditional foods to continue awareness. Whale was one of those.

Anyway, whale is easy to find at fish markets. Some cuts are intended to be eaten raw and others to be cooked, its fat is used to create an umami-filled broth, and even its intestines are sliced and eaten — see the circular items pictured below. Nothing goes to waste.

Speaking of whale, my daughter was gifted rice crackers, some flavored with whale, some with octopus, and some with blowfish—another delicacy in Japan that I’ve eaten both cooked and raw.

But still, these foods are not that strange, nor is my next offering.

Yuba

If you have visited Kyoto, perhaps you’ve had macha (green tea) noodles with yuba. 

Yuba is a food that developed as part of shojin-ryori, Buddhist vegetarian cuisine. It is the film that forms when soy milk is boiled. It’s gently lifted off and used in many creative ways. Its subtle flavor makes it versatile, and it’s hard to miss if you’re in Kyoto, Nikkō, or Mount Kōya.

Fermented mackerel

Now we start to veer into the exotic with fermented mackerel, called heshiko. Its production is limited to a small village in Fukui Prefecture. Heshiko is centuries old, developed to be sent on the backs of porters to Kyoto and Nara. 

Mackerel caught in Wakasa Bay is cleaned, then packed in salt and rice bran and left to ferment for six months or more. 

Heshiko is so interesting it deserves its own article. More on that later.

Monkfish liver

Monkfish are odd-looking creatures. I did not know that one could eat their livers, but having done so, I do now. 

Tasty, but not something I would go out of my way to seek out.

Wasabi ice cream

We usually think of wasabi as a condiment for sushi, sashimi, or soba, but it can be used for other things, too, like ice cream. But it must be fresh, which is completely different than the imitation wasabi made from horseradish that is sold in tubes in supermarkets.

I have had it a few times, and it’s both mildly hot and sweet. Try it, if you get a chance.

Now on to the winner of this article’s strangest food.

The strangest food

This exotic food appeared on my stage last month.

It all started when my eldest son decided to fly across the globe to visit his mother in rural Japan. One whim led to another, and one day my son, one of my daughters who was also visiting, and I, found ourselves exploring a shrine to none other than Ninigi-no-Mikoto, the grandson of the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu Omikami, from whom all Japanese emperors descended.

Japanese shrines are usually at the top of long staircases, and this was no exception. We were starting to feel a bit peckish.

Google Maps led us to a nearby restaurant. It was closed. A very eager-to-help woman in the parking lot drew us a map to a chain sushi restaurant, but on the way, I wanted to check out a small one.

It looked good. Old. Traditional building. We went in.

Gold and uni

Oh, but wait! I completely forgot about gold leaf! I’ve eaten that numerous times.

And uni? Uni is sea urchin. But not all of the sea urchin — only the gonads are served in Japanese restaurants and called uni.

So there’s that, too. Sea urchin gonads.

Back to the restaurant.

As we walked in, my daughter got all excited by one of the dishes listed in Japanese on the wall behind the counter.

“It’s seasonal, and they only make it this way in Kagoshima!” she enthused.

She ordered it. My son and I — not quite as “Japanese” as my red-haired and freckled daughter — didn’t pay much attention.

We ordered sushi sets, which were fresh and delicious and came with miso soup and chawan mushi, small cups of savory egg custard.

Then the dish my daughter ordered was served.

Tempura, my favorite! 

It looked delicious. But what could it be?

Cod semen

It was fish semen tempura. 

My daughter ate with gusto, and she was nice enough to share some with her brother and me.

I dare say, tempura is must be better than how it’s usually served.

Boiled, with ponzu—citrus soy sauce.

Yum.

What strange or exotic food have you eaten, that you actually liked?

The post More Exotic than Crickets — the Strangest Food I’ve Ever Eaten first appeared on More Than Tokyo and is written by Diane Tincher.

Wild vegetables, or sansai, play an important role in Japanese cuisine

Washoku, Japanese cuisine, is a celebration of seasonal dishes, and sansai, 山菜, wild mountain vegetables, play a starring role. Elderly folks have told me of the long-held belief that whatever foods are in season are what our bodies require at that time of year for optimum health. Surely, that holds true for sansai.

On my late afternoon springtime walks, I can find lots of sansai, the same as you might be served at inns or local restaurants.

Join me, as I walk around my neighborhood.

Bamboo shoots

The first thing to catch my eye not 50 meters from my house is a bamboo shoot, although far past its time for harvest.

If you want to try one yourself, don’t make the same mistake we did. These fast-growing plants need to be cut from the ground at first sight of the tiny tip breaking through the soil. Otherwise, they are too tough to eat.

Once you dig up a shoot, peel off the outer layers, then boil the heart in water with salt or a little nuka rice bran to remove its astringency.

Bamboo shoots are a crunchy addition to rice dishes like chirashizushi and takikomi-gohan, and I chop and freeze some to use out of season. Like pretty much every other vegetable in Japan, they are often added to soups. I’ve also had them made into tempura, or boiled with root vegetables in soy sauce, sake, and sugar.

Called “green gold” in India because of their nutritious value, bamboo shoots are rich in fiber and low in calories, they are a good source of vitamins A, B6, and E, potassium, manganese, thiamine, and niacin.

Next, all I had to do was turn around, and I spied a field filled with horsetails.

Horsetails

In the spring, horsetails are the first sansai, and they pop up everywhere. Their little leafless sprouts have a cute Japanese name — tsukushi, 土筆, a paintbrush 筆, coming out of the ground 土.

People stop by the road to gather them and bring them home to blanch, then prepare with a miso/vinegar sauce, or scramble them with eggs, or perhaps pickle them to be eaten throughout the year.

Some people claim that horsetails can treat urinary tract infections, edema, kidney stones, and rheumatism. Others say they help skin conditions and can even aid hair and nail growth.

But I am not a practitioner of herbal medicine. I just enjoy a horsetail or two when served as part of a traditional Japanese meal.

I turn from the horsetails, walk down the hill, and come upon the third sansai of this walk.

Angelica

My favorite path meanders through rice fields and vegetable gardens. As I am walking, a man calls out to me from where he stands beside some very tall plants. He’s cutting the tips off fresh sprouts.

He tells me that these plants are not native to our area, but a friend in Nagano gifted them to him. He waxes eloquently about the deliciousness of tara no mi and insists I take some home and tempura them for dinner.

I did just that, and they were indeed delicious!

I later learned that tara no mi are angelica tips, a favorite among herbalists, and realized I’ve often been served it at inns in Nagano.

Angelica is used as a tonic for the nervous system, to treat digestive issues, respiratory infections, and menstrual cramps. This website claims it has anti-anxiety effects. I can’t say I’ve noticed any of these effects.

But my walk isn’t over. I follow the stream to another area of paddies, up a hill by greenhouses made of plastic sheeting, and down a disused path. Along the side, I spy our next sansai.

Butterbur buds

Butterbur has a long history of medicinal use.

The 1st century Greek, Pedanius Dioscorides, is said to have used a paste made from powdered butterbur to treat skin ulcers. In 17th century Germany, powdered butterbur root was used to treat sudden abdominal pain, asthma, and colds. In the 18th century, that same powder was used to treat plague victims.

Today, herbalists use butterbur to treat migraines, colds, hay fever, inflammation, and more.

Butterbur buds, or fuki no to, 蕗のとう, are almost as common as horsetails. They are best picked when they first appear, and the buds are still closed. They can be sauteed and mixed with miso paste or fried in tempura. Not only are they delicious, but they are full of vitamins, minerals, and fiber.

I think this next one is my favorite, but I wonder, is it really sansai? It seems to me to be cultivated.

Baby mustard greens

Baby mustard greens, or baby bok choy, is a tender, sweet leafy vegetable. The local elderly folk who keep gardens often put out bundles to sell, and that’s where I’ve gotten mine.

Like all sansai, they are best eaten fresh. Use them raw in salads, stir-fry with garlic, or add to soup.

They are low-calorie, full of fiber, and rich in vitamins A, C, and K, calcium, iron, potassium, and trace minerals. They also contain cancer-fighting antioxidants and prevent inflammation.

And I just thought they were a delicious spring treat!

As I walk through the rice fields, this last sansai is everywhere.

Chinese milk vetch

Chinese milk vetch covers most of the rice fields in my area each spring and, I’ve been told, is a boon to rice farmers. It has lovely Japanese names, rengeso, 蓮華草, lotus flower grass, or genge 紫雲英, purple clouds. When in full flower, the plants are turned under to provide needed nitrogen to the soil.

A field covered in purple Chinese milk vetch is a field that will produce a bountiful crop of rice, or so the farmers assure me.

Leaving the rice fields behind, I hike back up the hill to my house, refreshed and revitalized from my daily walk, taking in the beauty of nature.

I hope you can try some of these sansai if you haven’t yet. Do you have wild vegetables in your area?

The post Sansai—6 Helpful Herbs that Herald Spring first appeared on More Than Tokyo and is written by Diane Tincher.

Even after all my years in Japan, I can’t help but agree

Through my personal, informal survey of what visitors to Japan find the most stand out and memorable, I have compiled this list of Japan’s top 10 awesome characteristics.

#10 — Polite drivers

Speed limits are low. Car safety inspections are mandatory, as is registered proof of a private parking place for your vehicle. Cars are generally not allowed to park on the side of the street.

Penalties for drinking and driving are so severe that they rarely, if ever, happen. 

For example, if I were to get into my car after drinking even a tiny bit, and I were caught by the police, I would lose my license, and not only me but each licensed driver in my car would be severely fined and liable to be imprisoned for up to 3 years. 

It is a rare person, indeed, who dares to drive after drinking.

Elderly people and people who have been driving for less than one year are required to put special magnetic stickers on their cars to let other drivers know to watch out for them.

Cars stop for people if they see them approach a crosswalk. Pedestrians wait at red crossing lights, even if there are no cars on the road. And the blare of a car horn is rarely heard.

In short, people show courtesy and follow safety rules which help to keep safety standards high.

#9 — Temples, shrines, and nature

Because the indigenous Japanese religion, Shinto, reveres many natural objects as kami or deities, shrines are often found in places of natural beauty, like this one in Yufuin, Oita.

Buddhist temples are places where one can take time to appreciate beautiful works of art and architecture, like this 14th-century pagoda within an ancient forest on Mount Haguro.

Natural beauty fills the country from the otherworldly landscapes of the far northeastern island of Hokkaido all the way to the distant tropical islands of Okinawa just west of Taiwan.

#8 — Art and Culture

Katsushika Hokusai and his “Great Wave Off Kanagawa” is perhaps the most iconic and well-known piece of Japanese art, but there are scores of outstanding artists who have been creating breathtaking masterpieces for centuries, and all are worthy of your time and appreciation.

Aside from visual arts, the ancient practice of tea ceremony continues, glimpses of geisha can still be caught along the backstreets of Gion in Kyoto, and Kabuki and Noh theater continue as they have for generations.

Shinto festivals also offer a wonderful and lively look into customs that have endured for centuries. 

#7 — Politeness and kindness

Comments from recent first-time visitors to Japan.

“I was trying to find a restaurant and was completely lost. I had taken a screenshot of the front of the restaurant from google maps, so I went into a convenience store and showed it to a young couple. The young man recognized it and walked with me the two blocks to the restaurant, went in, and talked to the manager to be sure I could be served as it was near after-lunch closing time.” 

“I love to watch the train inspector and food trolley woman bow to the passengers before leaving the train car.”

#6 — Punctuality

Trains depart promptly as scheduled. If some unforeseen delay causes a train to be even 30 seconds late, people can get a paper from the train station explaining the delay which they can present to their overseer at work in case of tardiness.

If an event is going to start at 7 PM, it will start at 7 PM.

If I make an appointment with someone at 10 AM two months from now, it will happen at 10 AM two months from now.

#5 — Cleanliness

“Everything seems to be sparkling clean! The attention to detail is astounding!” a visitor exclaimed.

Each person in Japan is responsible to keep their area clean. Shopkeepers sweep the sidewalk in front of their shops each morning before opening. People keep the sidewalk in front of their houses clean. Residents gather to clean their neighborhood parks and streets in the early morning of one Sunday each month.

Students clean their classrooms and their school buildings. There are no janitors at Japanese public schools — the responsibility to keep the school clean falls on the shoulders of the students.

One recent visitor I was guiding on a tour went back to the ladies’ room at the highway rest stop to take a photo of the fresh-cut flowers near the sinks, saying, “We sure don’t see that kind of thing along the Jersey Turnpike!”

 #4 — Onsens

Japan is located on the ring of fire, and as such is a land rich in thermal springs. There are many natural onsens, or hot spring baths, both indoor and outdoor, perfect for de-stressing and relaxing after a busy day.

Onsens are often situated in beautiful locations where one can soak in both the health-giving mineral waters and the surrounding natural beauty.

#3 — Food

Great food is inexpensive and delicious. You can hardly go wrong when eating out in Japan. And there is no tipping.

Tokyo is home to the most Michelin-starred restaurants in the world — 212. But great food is available all throughout the country, with each region priding itself in its own specialties. It’s no wonder that Japanese cuisine, or Washoku, was chosen as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage.

#2 — Bullet trains

There are not enough superlatives to describe Japan’s Shinkansen bullet trains. These trains are smooth, fast, quiet, comfortable, and scrupulously clean.

You can book tickets online, and some areas offer discount tickets when purchased online. International visitors can use hugely discounted rail passes to explore the country.

The trains are on time, and on the more popular segments, are staffed by uniform-clad women pushing trolleys selling snacks, cold beer, and delicious ice cream.

There are trash receptacles near the doors, so you don’t need to carry your snack wrappers home with you.

These trains epitomize convenience and comfort.

#1 — Toilets

By far, the feature that is most commonly remarked upon by visitors to Japan is its toilets. 

These sparkling clean engineering miracles come with:

• heated seats with temperature selection
• three bidet types that can be adjusted for the temperature of the water and strength of the spray
• a button to produce courtesy sounds of rushing water and sometimes even birdsong
• deodorant function
• your choice of large or small flush, and often, automatic flush
• newer models come with sensor-activated lid opening and closing

Would that all toilets be Japanese toilets! — and you can buy them in the US, too!

That list includes four of the five things I love about Japan. 

Have you visited or do you live in Japan? What do you like about the country and culture? I’d love to hear!

*The link to Amazon is an affiliate link.

The post 10 Things Visitors to Japan Think are Completely Awesome first appeared on More Than Tokyo and is written by Diane Tincher.

A UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage

“We eat with our eyes”

Washoku, or Japanese cuisine, is famous the world over for its impeccable presentation and meticulous attention to detail. Japanese meals are beautiful, tasty, and healthful.

There is a Japanese expression, me de taberu, 目で食べる, “We eat with our eyes.” As you can imagine, this refers to the time we spend admiring the beauty of our meal before partaking. It is a crucial aspect of Washoku.

Another saying instructs us that each meal should include foods of five different colors, and every day one should eat 30 different types of food. One kaiseki, or formal course meal, has at least that many.

This positive outlook on food, trying to include many different types each day, is refreshingly different from guidelines we often hear that advise us to cut foods out of our diets.

This mentality surely plays a part in the vast variety, colorful bounty, and artistic presentation that make up a single Japanese meal.

Geography affects diet

Over 70% of Japan is covered by mountains, so anything like the vast farms and ranches of Europe and America would be unthinkable. Rice farming has been the nation’s livelihood since the wet field farming method was brought to Japan from Korea in the Yayoi period. (Depending on the area, the Yayoi period is considered to be from 900-400 BC until 300 AD.)

From that time, rice, or gohan, became the main component of the Japanese diet. Much like the word “bread” in English was used as a general term for food — “Give us this day our daily bread…” — even today gohan is used to mean both cooked rice and a meal.

Japan consists of over 14,000 islands, stretching from subarctic Hokkaido to subtropical Okinawa. Bountiful, varied, and seasonal supplies of fish, other sea creatures, and many types of seaweed play a supporting role in the traditional Japanese diet.

Due to the variety of ingredients available throughout the archipelago, each area has developed regional fare that varies according to what foods are in season. One stand-out dish is ramen, an import from China, of which each area boasts its unique version.

Each region also has its own local sake, fermented from rice and koji mold. In the southwest, shochu is distilled, most famously, from sweet potatoes, and in Okinawa, the 60–86 proof awamori is distilled from indica rice, imported from Thailand.

The concept of preparing meals from seasonal foods is deeply ingrained in the Japanese. It has long been believed that whatever foods are in season are what our bodies need to maintain health at that time. The huge Western-style supermarkets with produce shipped in from all over the world have not yet caught on here, at least not that I’ve seen.

Buddhism’s influence on Washoku

Buddhism was brought to Japan in the 6th century and initially spread among the aristocratic leaders of the Nara government. Because of the Buddhist belief in reincarnation, in 675 AD, Emperor Tenmu proclaimed a ban on eating mammals. No one wanted to inadvertently eat one of their ancestors!

Over 500 years later, Zen Buddhism began to spread among the samurai during the Kamakura era (1185–1333). Buddhist temples developed shojin-ryori, vegetarian cooking that uses various soy products such as tofu, natto, and yuba (the skin from gently boiled soymilk), wild and cultivated vegetables, and konnyaku  (a rubber-like food made from the corm of the konjac plant).

This vegetarian cooking style spread from Zen temples to the general public and became influential in the development of Washoku.

It was during this time that miso, developed as a luxury item during the Heian era (794-1185), became more common and was first used in soup.

Ichiju sansai — one soup, three sides

During the Muromachi era (1336-1573), farmers began making their own miso, used in soup, to flavor dishes, and as a preservative.

A new type of meal developed — rice, the basis of all meals, with one soup, three side dishes, and, sometimes, a small dish of pickles. This type of meal became the standard for traditional Washoku.

Today, children are served ichiju sansai for their school lunches, and many restaurants offer a “set menu” of ichiju sansai for lunch at affordable prices.

At the end of the Muromachi era, Portuguese missionaries brought fried food to Japan which developed into tempura. They also brought castella cakes and bread which both kept their Portuguese names, kasutera and pan.

Edo era specialization

During the 250 years of stability under the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1867), there were no wars and no foreign incursions. Merchants and peasants grew in prosperity and culture flourished.

Sushi developed as street food in Edo (Tokyo), and specialized restaurants sprung up all across the booming city.

In spite of the ban on eating meat, there were Edo markets that sold the meat of boar, deer, bear, dog, fox, wolf, weasel, and otter. These foods were euphemistically referred to as medicine using plant names. Deer was momiji (maple tree) or kōyō, wild boar was peony, bear was cherry blossom, and chicken was kashiwa meaning oak. To this day, chicken is still called kashiwa in certain areas of the country.

For years, the wealthy Ii (pronounced ee) family of Hikone, in Shiga Prefecture, sent beef preserved in miso to the shogun as a winter gift.

Today, there are an estimated 60,000 restaurants in Tokyo, most of which are small and sell just one type of dish — fried pork cutlets, beef bowl, curry, etc. You generally won’t be able to get soba noodle dishes at a ramen shop, nor ramen at a soba/udon shop. They’re both noodle soups, but they are very different.

In 2023, of those 60,000 Tokyo restaurants, 183 were Michelin-starred, far more than any other city in the world.

The Meiji era brings big changes

In the 1850s, Japan’s doors were opened and Western influence flooded in. Part of that influence was the practice of eating meat. Government leaders felt that including meat in the Japanese diet would help the population to be stronger and more robust. The young Emperor Meiji led the way by publicly eating meat to celebrate the New Year in 1872.

Beef and pork, though, with their strong taste and smell were not eagerly received by the Japanese, so dishes were developed to mask the smell. One of these was a “medicinal dish” that developed into sukiyaki, a one-pot dish where thin slices of beef or pork are simmered with a mix of dashi broth, soy sauce, sake, and sugar. The slices of meat are dipped in a beaten raw egg before eating.

Another popular meat dish, curry, was imported during the early years of the Meiji government. The American Professor Clark, famed for his role in leading the Hokkaido Agricultural University, is credited with suggesting that potatoes — a new product of Hokkaido — be added to curry for extra nourishment during a rice shortage, and the custom continues to this day.

After Japan’s alliance with Britain in 1902, curry eating became widespread. Japanese sailors adopted the British sailors’ practice of eating curry while at sea, then brought the savory dish back home.

Umami

We’ve all heard the basic flavors of sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami. But where did umami come from?

In 1907, the Japanese scientist Ikeda Kikunae was enjoying a bowl of tofu boiled in kombu kelp broth. While savoring this savory dish, he became convinced that there must be a fifth basic flavor, and he set out to prove it. The next year, he isolated glutamate crystals, a common amino acid, and gave it the name Aji no Moto, 味の素, or the essence of flavor.

Umami is an integral part of Washoku. Dashi, the umami-rich stock made either from kombu kelp or katsuobushi, dried bonito flakes, is the basis of innumerable delicious Japanese dishes.

UNESCO describes its choice of Washoku as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by writing that “it is associated with an essential spirit of respect for nature that is closely related to the sustainable use of natural resources… The practice favors the consumption of various natural, locally sourced ingredients such as rice, fish, vegetables, and edible wild plants.” 

Is it any wonder that Washoku is one of the Five Things I Love About Japan?

The post Washoku—Wonderful and Beautiful Japanese Cuisine first appeared on More Than Tokyo and is written by Diane Tincher.