DAY 13 – Friday 7th April 2023 (Our last full day in Japan 🙁 )

I’ve been on a few food walking tours over the years. It’s my very favourite thing to do. Barcelona still stands out as the best, but Athens with the Perry’s last year was right up there, and Prague was pretty damn good too.

Our Culinary Backstreets tour of Kichijoji is now added to my short-list of favourite days ever. The Culinary Backstreets company really know how to do a food tour. Long enough that you get to understand about the area in detail; fabulous, well-educated guides who know the district and local culture inside out; and free-flowing amazingly delicious food.

In a city as big as Toyko, with nearly 37 million people, you can’t really understand the food and its underlying culture across the whole area in a six-hour tour. Culinary Backstreets therefore choose a smaller district within the bigger city that they think best encapsulated the people, architecture, history and, of course, food. The Kichijoji area often tops Tokyo’s most desirable place to live list, apparently mostly because the large and lovely Inokashira Park is just minutes away from Kichijoji Station. Kichijoji was easy to get to and we caught the Chuo line there, meeting Phoebe, our delightful guide at the station around 10 minutes before the allotted time of 11.30am.

Joining us on the tour were four Hawaiian’s, all with Japanese heritage, who like us were coming to the end of a two-week trip to Japan.

Phoebe started the tour introducing us to the area by explaining why the company chose the location and gave us a little background on herself. Phoebe is English but moved to Japan around nine years ago to forge her career in food media. As a journalist and TV presenter, she was a fabulous communicator, describing the locations we visited in an animated and humorous fashion. Not often do I meet someone as obsessed with food as I am, but I think Phoebe might make that grade!

Our first stop was a sushi bar. We needed to go there first, because as the lunchtime rush starts at midday, we wouldn’t have a hope of securing a table for six at this acclaimed eatery. Phoebe ordered us a selection of sushi, all of which was beautifully presented and incredibly fresh and tasty. Scallop and then tuna belly sushi (inari) to start, then Tamago (rolled omelette) and one with a lightly seared Bonito, teaching us how to dip the sushi ever so slightly, topping down, into the soy sauce.

As we walked to our second stop, Phoebe continued to describe life for her and those she knew in Tokyo. She was incredibly passionate about Japan; was well travelled across most of the 47 prefectures and able to really give us a sense of the complex culture. She gave us an idea of what the Japanese people prioritise, although did point out her concerns about their ‘work is life’ attitude.

Dave tried a little of the sushi but was pleased with Phoebe’s promise of the next step containing ‘meatballs’. We shared a large Wagyu-beef-based crumbed rissole-like meatball between Dave and I. It was rich, extremely tasty and the filling mixed with a lot of caramelised onions. Wagyu beef is known for its marbled appearance and its high fat content, which made them extremely tender, moist and flavoursome.

I’m wondering if any of my readers have tried puffer fish? Our next stop involved a restaurant specialising in puffer fish, feared for its highly toxic liver and therefore risk to life :() . Japanese Chefs need to train for two years to get a licence to prepare this delicacy… so I’m glad we were going to somewhere reputable to try it! We had a sashimi of the fish flesh to start with, followed by deep fried puffer fish skin. I can’t say either was particularly nice, but good to have it ticked off! One thing I particularly learned here was the importance of texture to eating for Japanese people. Phoebe considers that texture is just as important as flavour – which makes total sense to me now and something I am really going to try to learn from.

The sake they served us with the puffer fish was pretty impressive, containing some pieces of dried puffer fish fin, which was then heated and set on fire with a lighter at the table!

We all survived, which was good because there was still so much to see and taste! I was surprised when we entered a convenience store, but when it was explained that apparently there are around 50,000 of them across the country, and with the added ability to grocery shop, do your banking, pay bills and get ready-to-eat food there, I can see why. Phoebe encouraged us to buy a drink and snack each, Dave choosing a juice and some Kit Kat balls and I chose a lemon sparkling water and a banana mini Kit Kat. We walked to the nearby park where we tried our snacks, plus some pork Gyozo that Phoebe had bought when we walked through the supermarket (which was part of a large department store attached to the railway station) earlier.

Random photos from the supermarket and along the streets where we walked:

I assume many of you have tried the puffed rice crackers that I often refer to as Japanese rice snacks. I guess rice crackers in Australia are a type of them. Phoebe introduced us to the most delightful mother and daughter whose family had been hand making these rice snacks in the same premises for three generations. We ventured out the back of the tiny shop to see the crackers being made, which was a fascinating and an incredibly time-consuming and manual process. We tasted both savoury and sweet varieties and it was lovely to hear from both women about the food that they are so passionate about – which is lucky because they have done this all of their lives at least six days a week!

Now you might think we were getting full by this stage, but the spacing between the tastings and the walking kept the pace even and I was actually ready to eat more when we arrived at my favourite spot on the tour – the Miso shop! The elderly man who runs this place comes from a family of Miso producers, but now on-sells about 50 different types of Miso that he buys directly from producers around Japan. The business is also a small cafe – serving a few different Miso-based recipes for lunch each day. We got a great explanation from the owner (with Phoebe sometimes translating) on all thing’s Miso… how it is produced, the health benefits, how the fermentation works, how to store it and of course how to use and eat/drink it.

We tasted nine varieties of Miso, from the lighter white style to a dark spicy variety. I found this absolutely fascinating, and I will be trying to source some good Miso pastes when we return to Australia. We each chose our own favourite paste, and the owner made an individual soup for us with that particular type. He also gave us some tastes of other things: Miso made into a dressing and drizzled over beans and lettuce; Miso-baked cheesecake; Miso-roasted walnuts (OMG yum!) and a Miso sauce on top of fried crumbed pork. We even got to try his 30-day fermented garlic – which he had layered with mesh then covered in Miso to infuse the flavour until it turned soft and black. Wow!

It was now time for something sweet… and after a walk through some shops and backstreets we arrived at a stall selling fish shaped desserts called Taiyaki. Given the eye-catching fish shape, you might be forgiven for assuming it is a savoury seafood snack, but taiyaki is actually similar to a waffle, and filled with a soft, sweet filling! Dave chose a sweet potato filling, and I chose red bean. Both were delicious served freshly made and hot.

It was now nearly 5pm and time for our final stop at a small Izakaya. An Izakaya is essentially a bar serving drinks and snacks. Here we had a drink or two each and tried some delicious items cooked on sticks on a small grill right in front of us. The shitake mushrooms were particularly good, the chicken yakatori was Dave’s favourite and I also really liked the charred leek and the pork belly varieties. What a fabulous way to finish the tour and sitting at the bar having a chat to Phoebe and the rest of the group about food (and other things) as the sun went down was simply delightful.

Light rain was falling as we caught the train and then walked from the station back to the hotel. What an absolutely cracking day and one I won’t forget for a while!