Japan, A Fiasco in Foreign Foods

Japan, A Fiasco in Foreign Foods


Arrival

We boarded our flights from Istanbul at around midday on Sunday after going through the Istanbul underground system, it was a little confusing as to where we needed to go as neither of us had too much of a clue about any of the Turkish (this really should have been a sign of things to come). Our first flight was good and about four hours long where both of us watched a film before we landed. Upon landing in Abu Dhabi, our transfer stop, we got out the plane and wandered through the halls, the airport is huge there. Eventually around 22:00 we moved towards our gate and got onto the bus. Stepping out of the terminal was an interesting step, it was like stepping into a preheated oven. Scarily the temperature at 22:00 was still around 40 degrees.

The plane journey from there on in was fine, we mainly slept for it and then had a chicken pie for breakfast\lunch as the time in Tokyo was about midday when we were landing. Andrew ended up being pulled aside once landing as clearly he looks like a terrorist. It turns out that the Japanese were a little suspicious that he had come from Turkey rather than England. Eventually this was all cleared up and we left the terminal and made our way into the heart of Tokyo. 

Our accommodation in Tokyo is located in the heart of Taito which is the historic area of Tokyo. It was raining when we arrived, and almost everyday since then. So we trudged through the streets in the rain before a man came running out of his hotel with an umbrella for us which was very kind. Eventually after some confusion we found our accommodation which was rather hard to find.


Food

Food has been a true experience here, our first day we decided that we would go to the local shop which is a seven-eleven. It's quite difficult to find out what we were eating (as neither of us speaks Japanese) but I think it was rice and pork, but it was very nice. 

Kit Kat Ginza
Kit Kat Chocolatory in Ginza

Kit-Kats

Kit-Kats are really interesting here, there are over two hundred different flavours and we have tried to eat our fair share of the Kit-Kats we can find. The reason that the Kit-Kat is so well loved here is because it is associated with 'Kitto Katsu' which means 'you will surely win' and is given to people for good luck. We have so far tried green tea, raspberry and a Cranberry and Almond Kit-Kat. There are many more to choose from but we are also aware that we could get vary fat... 

Another interesting thing they have around here is Kit-Kat Chocolatories where they make artisanal Kit-Kats with special and unique flavours, we decided to visit one. They seem to imply that they will be vast shops filled with all kinds of chocolates but in reality they are quite small and the samples, despite being larger than England's sample of Kit-Kats were actually quite small. 

Tokyo Fish Market
Fish Head In Tsukiji Market

Fish

As Japan is an island and Tokyo is located next to the sea there is a massive fish market known as the Tsukiji fish market. We headed down here to have a look at the wares and it was fascinating to walk through all the smells and sights of all the different fish. It was here that Andrew tried his first Oyster (video is available here). To be honest the taste was a little bit like eating sea water jelly, I can't say it was the most pleasant thing I've tried, but it wasn't as revolting as I expected it to be.

While here we also tried a traditional Japanese sweet known as mochi which is made from rice. The rice is pounded repeatedly into a paste before flavour is added and it is turned into the shape you want, here is a video to see mochi making in action. The mochi that we tried was mango and coconut and had a really nice flavour, but was very gelatinous. The best way to describe it is a bit like turkish delight for those with false teeth.

The other fish dish we tried actually contains no fish at all, it is something called Taiyaki and is a bit like a filled waffle in the shape of a fish. We tried an apple one and a sweet potato one. The apple one was not too dissimilar to a McDonald's apple pie. The sweet potato Taiyaki was ok, but much like the apple somewhat mushy. It seems here that they really go for mushy flavours. We have also tried pancakes that we thought were strawberry but ended up being Azuki. A rather mushy paste made out of sweetened red beans. Though the flavour sounds like it would be bad, the flavour was acceptable but neither of us were big fans of the texture. 

Olivia with Taiyaki

Local Japanese foods

The experience of dining out in Tokyo is unique because you end up with a very tactile menu. The restaurants here have windows containing plastic food displays which replicate the potential meals that you could eat. Some of the restaurants here also work in a similar way to giant vending machines. You push a few buttons and stick your money in and out comes a ticket for you to collect your food. 

Eating out in Tokyo is really cheap (dependant on where you go) and is comparable with eating from a shop. We have so far made complete fools of ourselves by  eating with chopsticks. We have so far eaten some delicious pork ramen from a street vendor and some beef donburi from a fast food chain called Matsuya. Both times we fumbled through our food, presumably looking like children who have just discovered new cutlery. I don't really understand how sumo wrestlers do it, if I had to eat with chopsticks for every meal I'd probably lose weight rather than gain it...

Menu in Tokyo
Menu in Tokyo

What next?

Although we are enjoying most of the food here, it is always an experience. Although we might think we know what we're ordering, sometimes what it looks like in the picture is not always the case, such as the strawberry pancakes that turned out to be red bean paste. 

We have been in Japan for about six days so far and have a further four. So what we planned to do was write one post about the food, as Japan is truly a culinary experience. Then our next post is going to be something about the sights which are equally interesting. 

In the mean time we are likely to sleep lots as we are still suffering from a little jet lag and probably eat some more donburi. You can see some of the places we have seen such as the Origami museum, the various temples and the ungodly amount of Kit-Kats here on our instagram

until next time


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