Everything I ate in Japan, part I

Plus a recipe for cold soft tofu with miso-peanut dressing

Tokyo, June 2024

This week’s post is not about preserving, but it is about getting to know a culture through its food.

It’s about all the little things that we observe and experience in other cultures when we eat with an open heart and mind. There is nothing quite like international travel to change our perspectives and allow us to see with fresh eyes. We question some things and appreciate others we’ve long taken for granted. Travelling is a practice of flexibility, endurance, and perseverance.

But maybe the most important aspect of traveling is the great humbling required of the self-aware tourist. We recognize travel as a privilege not available to many due to lack of funds, time, or freedom. Many times the people we visit are not allowed the freedom of movement to visit our country freely. Air travel, in particular, is detrimental to the environment, and tourism everywhere has a negative effect on local culture. We often flatten the uniqueness and spoil the beauty of special places by our very presence. We acknowledge all of this and do our best to walk softly, to study and follow local customs, to fade into the background as well as any two big white people can in Japan.

This is our mini travelogue/ food diary of our trip. When at all possible, we follow the lead of the locals. We eat where they eat (when welcomed) and support the businesses that make a place unique. We are food lovers and adventurous eaters, but generally avoid fine dining and high end places. We do our best to conform to the culture and not demand that it conform to us. Since one of us is only 13, a lot of the charming little bars and izakayas were also off limits for us. Still there was just a mind boggling amount of stellar food in Tokyo. Here’s a peek at some of what we experienced.

Tonkatsu Maisen in Shibuya

Katsu Chronicles