About food in Japan

New shopping spot in Shinjuku NewoMan

Here we introduce a new shopping spot in Shinjuku, NewoMan by LUMINE.

The shopping complex opened late March 2016 just above JR Shinjuku station(south side).

The building includes also a large bus terminal and Tokyo tourist information center in addition to the shopping floors.

How to access to the bus terminal, please check ULR below.

https://www.highwaybus.com/html/gp/foreign/en/access/

 

Well as for food related information, especially the collection of food boutique INSIDE JR Shinjuku station is wonderful.

From JR train platforms, please follow the sign of "New South Exit" or "NEWoMan", remain inside the ticket gate(Eki-Naka area).

In the commercial area, from bakerly, onigiri(rice ball), fried food to both Japanese and Western sweets are available with excellent choices.

 

Our recommendations as they are rarely found in other locations are ...

Wa’s sandwich  - providing volumy sanwiches with some Japanese flavor and ingredients

https://www.newoman.jp/shop/shop_details.php?id=86

 

Sushi-ya no Hanare - food courner by a sushi restaurant offering, for example, onigiri(rice ball) with uni (sea urchin) and rarely-found original recipe rice products.

 

Liquor Select 360 degree - even though the area is very small, the selection variation is vast.

The beer and sake collection covers across Japan.

It will be good to choose one as your night cap before going back to your accommodation.

 

 

 

M.LE BIHAN - French style bakerly

If you miss European(more exactly French) style breads, while traveling in Japan.

For more information about the French bakerly, Japanese site  http://www.lebihan.jp/

The excellent quality of breads will satisfy you. Some Japanese original kind of bread is also available as below photo.

 

More and more food boutiques are available, so take enough time to explorer light meal and/or sweets!

Again, don't forget that they are INSIDE station ticket gate (Eki-Naka).

 

NeWoMan shopping complex floor plan is here.

 

Update about Kumamoto, Kyushu

Update about Kumamoto in Kyushu, which is the area affected by the latest big earthquakes

Many of you may know several big earthquakes hit Kumamoto and a part of Oita prefectures (in southern part of Japan) on 14-17April 2016.
In some parts, life infrastructure and transportation service have been still affected and damaged by the shake.

If you consider traveling in Kyushu region near future, please check the latest information on the websites below.

JNTO(Japan National Tourism Organization)
http://www.jnto.go.jp/eq/kumamoto.html

Japanguide.com
http://www.japan-guide.com/news/0035.html

If you are planning to travel in other parts of Japan such as Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Hokkaido, Okinawa etc, please do not worry, as our life and businees go on as usual and all people are happy to welcome you.

If you like to help the affected area in some ways, purchase a product(s) with "Kumamon" symbol.
The black bear mark means "the product from Kumamoto prefecture."

   
 

You could find some of them at supermarkets, convenience stores etc in many parts of Japan.

We much appreciate your continuous warm support and attention to Japan.

 

 

Kura Cafe in Koedo Kurari, the last and largest spot to get souvenir of Kawagoe, Saitama

This is our last post of Kawagoe introduction series, then, we introduce you that the last and (maybe) the largest shopping spot to discover local products for souvenir for Kawagoe town.

Koedo Kurari (小江戸　蔵里)　is a large shopping and dining house focusing on local products of Kawagoe.

It is on the way between the old town district and two train stations.

It will be useful even when you forget purchasing some products in the old town or when you would like to take a break before leaving Kawagoe by train.

The building both exterior and interior looks like Kura (traditional style storage), even though the inside is modern space with a big gift shop, restaurant, cafe etc.

Espcially we recommend Kura Cafe existing in a corner of the shopping area.

The space looks good with wooden furniture in the mixture style of modern and traditional element.

 

As for menu, if you look for sweets, please try sweet potato pudding, made from the town's local specialty ingredient.

Alternatively, the cafe also provides lunch set meal or local brand beer (Koedo), green tea etc.

 

Please find our other posts about Kawagoe, if you have not visited them.

 Kawagoe(川越), an old town easily accessible from Tokyo

Lunch spot in Kawagoe, Kasho Umon tea room

Kashiya Yokocho (菓子屋横丁) must-visit spot for food lovers in Kawagoe

History with sweet potato - Kameya Eisen sweets maker, Kawagoe

 

 

Shop name: Kura cafe at Koedo Kurari (小江戸　蔵里)

Address: 1-10-1 Shintomi-cho, Kawagoe city, Saitama

Official site (Japanese version only): http://www.machikawa.co.jp/

 

 

 

 

 

History with sweet potato - Kameya Eisen sweets maker, Kawagoe

From some posts made on the last year, please let us add a couple of spots especially "for sweets lovers" to visit in Kawagoe.

 

Kameya Eisen is an established sweets maker with over a century long history in Kawagoe, Saitame prefecture(30 minutes train ride from Tokyo).

In the middle of main street of Kawagoe old town, the exterior looks nice, reflecting the history of the house.

On the ground floor, the sweets shop offers variety of their traditional delicacies, as we can imagine.

 

 

For food lovers, please do not leave without visiting the upper floor!

The second floor space is open as a small exhibition hall and it introduces us the history of sweet potato product with the maker. The exhibition tells us how much the product has been appreciated by people for a century and how it had been produced in ancient time.

 

 

One of the interesting displays is "excursion travel tickets" from Tokyo to Kawagoe.

In a series of tickets, one is for "a bucket of sweet potato" offered

as local specialty souvenir to tourists visiting Kawagoe!!

 

 

For more information about spots in Kawagoe, please visit other pages,

 Kawagoe(川越), an old town easily accessible from Tokyo

Lunch spot in Kawagoe, Kasho Umon tea room

Kashiya Yokocho (菓子屋横丁) must-visit spot for food lovers in Kawagoe

 

Spot name: Kameya Eisen

Address: 5-6 Saiwai-cho, Kawagoe City, Saitama

Open: 10h-17h 

Official website (Japanese version only):  http://www.kawagoe.com/kameyaeisen/information.html

 

 

 

Aeon Mall Narita, the last stop fully to get Japanese products before leaving

We believe many of you leave from Japan by taking a flight from Narita airport.

If you have a few hours in Narita and wish to do shopping something more than airport boutiques before leaving, Aeon Mall Narita must be the best place. 

It has units for major Japanese brands, shops such as Sanrio, Daiso(100yen shop), cosmetic DHC, FANCL, MUJI, they are available in the shopping mall.

In addition at the large supermarket, you can find some sweets and food products of course.

 

Japanese souvenir sweets 

 

 

Even though you are not interested in shopping, the mall will be a good place as the last chance to enjoy tasting nice meals at reasonable prices. The food court offers ramen, seafood, takoyaki balls as well as McDonalds, 31 ice cream etc.

 

 

 

 

Omelette with rice from Pomme's curry

Fried chicken(karaage) from Kyushu Danji

 

If you need breakfast for next morning, drop by the high quality bakery Mont-thabor from Azabu Juban on the ground floor.

 

 

 

 

 

Shop name: Aeon Mall Narita

Website: http://narita-aeonmall.com/static/detail/translation-en

Shuttle bus available to/from Narita train station and Narita Airport

Access information http://narita-aeonmall.com.e.vd.hp.transer.com/static/detail/access-transport

 

 

 

About this blog

Dear dearest readers,

This blog won't be updated as often as we have done since 2008 due to the owner's current business situation. Although it may be updated less than once a month, we will post when we find any interesting information for food lovers.

Alternatively we will also keep posting interesting "short" information and nice photos on our SNS account below.

Please keep following us in  a way(s) you like!!

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/aboutfoodinjapan

Twitter: @aboutfoodjapan  https://twitter.com/aboutfoodjapan

Instagram: about_food_japan  https://instagram.com/about_food_japan/

Pinterest: About Food in Japan  https://www.pinterest.com/aboutfoodjapan/

 

Thank you for your understanding and have a good stay in Japan!

 

Tomoko

Blog owner

 

 

 

 

Exhibition: 47 different types of noodle across Japan

Following our last post about the nice Udon noodle restaurant in Kyoto,

today we bring an interesting exhibition related local "noodle".

It's already on the middle of the exhibition period but it remains a month till the end of the exhibition, 25th October 2015. It must be a good news for food lovers coming to Tokyo soon or next month October 2015.

Surely you know Ramen and may be head about Udon or Soba traditional Japanese noodle. They are commonly available across Japan but at the same time, many local versions of noodle exist across Japan.

This interesting exhibition has selected each one unique noodle from all 47 prefectures in Japan.

Some of them are known even out of the origin prefecture but others are not well known even among Japanese people. It will be an interesting opportunty to discover unique and various types of noodle meal from different prefectures.

 

 

 

 

Here is a couple of examples of the 47 products.

Goshiki Somen (5 colors thin wheat noodle) from Ehime prefecture in Shikoku region

Normal somen is in white like the one far-left. Others are colored with some specific ingredients such as matcha green tea powder, plum, egg or black wheat.

Daimon Somen from Toyama prefecture in Hokuriku region

It looks like a normal type?
The uniqueness of the noodle is "length" over 1 meter.
It is instructed that we have to break the dried noodle cluster into two pieces before we put it into boild water. Otherwise we could have a problem to take it as it is too long to eat.
It requires hands of two people to make such long Daimon Somen.
So traditionally the noodle is made by a married couple as their home business in the region.



If you would, these noodles are available for sale but unfortunately not always stocks are available.
Some are produced only for limited numbers and are popular among the exhibition visitors.


Exhibition name: 47 Men(麺、noodle) MARKET
Period: until 25th October 2015
Open hour: 11h00-19h30(last entrance time)
Venue: d47 Museum, 8th floow Hikarie Shibuya
Address: 2-21-1 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Enftrance: free
Website (Japanese): http://www.hikarie8.com/d47museum/2015/07/47-market-47-.shtml

Omen(おめん), an elegant Udon noodle restaurant, Kyoto

Omen(おめん), a udon noodle restaurant, has 3 units in central Kyoto.

I visited one of these in Shijo Pontocho（四条先斗町）. The restaurant is located in Pontocho area, where many restaurants attract local guests. It is also just at a stone's throw from Kamogawa river side.
As it is along the busy Shijo street,the location won't be so difficult to be found even for those visit Kyoto for the first time.

 

The restaurant's interior is like a typical traditional Udon restaurant in Japan but how Omen is different from such typical ones is that it has more ladies diners rather than gentlemen. We believe that makes the restaurant more elegant atmosphere than typical udon or soba noodle restaurants.

 

 
Why Omen is popular among local ladies? Another uniqueness of Omen is the ingredient of noodle. It is made from Japanese wheat only, no imported one used.
Japan hugely relies on imported flour because of the lower price.
The noodle is also no additive, no MSG used.
You might find its tender and natural taste of Omen's noodle.

On a day of mid-summer, I took their seasonal lunch set with a  few pieces of tempura Hamo (鱧)(a kind of pike conger). The white fish is summer icon local specialty of Kyoto.

 

By the way, where the restaurant's name comes from?
For us, it sounds like a "mask" in Japanese. But we found that it is a dialect word in a region of East Japan and the word represents "men(麺 noodle)" with respect.


All 3 units of Omen are located in areas where many tourists are likely to visit; Ginkakuji, Kiyomizu in addition to Shijo we visited.

Check also our other posts if you would like to know more about Udon noodle. (Click each title to access to these posts.)

If you do not know "udon" noodle, we recommend you check this post first.

 Udon (うどん), Japanese traditional wheat noodle

Recommendable restaurants in Tokyo to try udon noodle
Udon (うどん) - Tsurutontan, Roppongi (つるとんたん, 六本木)

Where to enjoy Udon in a casual way

Inaniwa Udon (稲庭うどん), Ginza Sato Yosuke(銀座　佐藤養助)

Ideal but reasonable Udon restaurant, Sangokuichi(三国一) - Shinjuku Tokyo

Shop name: Omen
Official website(Japanese only) : http://www.omen.co.jp/ 

<Shijo Pontocho>
Address: Shijo Dori, Ponotocho Nishi Iru, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto

<Ginkakuji Honten (main restaurant)>
Address: Ginkakuji, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto

<Kodaiji> near Kiyomizu Temple
Address: 358 XXXX, Kodaiji Dori Shimokawara Higashi Iru, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto

Free shuttle bus from Narita Airport to 3 resort & tourist destinations in Chiba

If you are looking for somewhere to experience something different from Tokyo but still within close distance to it at reasonable cost during this summer, it may be a good news for you.

Free shuttle bus services from/to Narita Airport to 3 resort & tourist destinations in Chiba are

available 4 times a day for each destination,

during the limited period from today until the end of September 2015

offered as a trial opportunity by the local government Chiba prefecture.

 

For those who do not know about Chiba prefecture, the land is east side, just next to Tokyo. You might have ever been there without knowing. Narita Airport, Tokyo Disneyland and Makuhari Messe International convention center all 3 are located in Chiba prefecture actually not in Tokyo exactly.

The north/west part is considered as the outskirt of Tokyo while the south and east parts are rather "resort" and "tourist" destinations for locals. Between the 2 routes Choshi and Kamogawa, on the east edge of Chiba prefecture, it is the longest beach  in Japan, the 66km long called "Kujukuri beach". The south part is "Boso peninsula" sandwiched with Tokyo Bay and Pacific Ocean.

For more information about the free shuttle bus service, check the brochure from

here.(Reservation is required by the previous day but when a seat is available, it is possible to take a bus.)

 

Here we introduce some spots where we can visit by the free shuttle bus.

 

<Destination route: Tateyama(館山)>

From Bus Stop No.T6 Tateyama Station

Tateyama Castel

Gake-Kannon (Deity on a cliff)

is one of the most recommendable spots in the area.

Seaside of Tateyama

 

 

Chikura, seaside resort, at the tip of Boso peninsula

 

From Bus Stop No.T5 Tomiura Biwakurabu(Biwa club)

Soft cream with Biwa, the local specialty fruits

available at Biwa Club(commercial complex).

 

 

<Destination route: Kamogawa(鴨川)>

From Bus Stop No. K4 to K8

On the route, it is accessible to the longest beach in Japan.

Some accommodations along the coast side offer hot springs as well as fresh seafood meals for dinner.

For example of that, check the guide of Shirako town in English.

Shirako Town Guide: http://www.shirako.net/en/index.html

 

Local version "bouillabaisse"

(seafood in tomato soup) available at Shirako town

at No.K7 Nakazato Beach.

 

 

From Bus Stop No.K12 Katsuura

Morning food market has 400 years history and is said as one of the top 3 morning markets in Japan.

Check our past blog post about those morning markets.

Information about Katsuura market is at the bottom of the page.

Asaichi (朝市 Morning market) –Wajima (輪島), Ishikawa Prefecture (石川県)

For more information about tourist spots and necessary information about Chiba prefecture including above routes, check their tourist information website.

Chiba, Japan Travel Guide

http://japan-chiba-guide.com/en/index.html

Facebook page(English)  https://www.facebook.com/Japan.Tourism.Chiba

 

For more information about the free shuttle bus service to these destinations,

check the brochure from here.

 

Where to get a bento box, Bento&co Kyoto

Some of you may be already familiar with the Japanese word "bento".
Bento represents "box meal" in Japanese, such as those we can find at a convenience store, what a mother makes as lunch for kids or what we prepare for a party outside.

For some people, bento box might be an item on the list to get in Japan. Or you can put it just now!
Today we feature a shop which is the best suitable for such people.
Japanese style lunch box are sold at department stores, variety goods stores etc across Japan.
But there was no shop specialized in just bento box before Bento&co came.

Bento&co is originally an online shop offering various bento box and related items for shipping abroad.
The company, run by a French man, now has an offline unit in central Kyoto.

It is located in the area between Kawaramachi and Kyoto Shiyakushomae(Kyoto City Hall) on Rokkaku dori(street), not far from Nishiki Ichiba where we introduced on the previous post.

It looks like this. Bento&co store is on the ground floor and the upper floor is their office.

In addition to wide choices of bento box and related goods, it offers some original-designed items as well.

 

 

For those who are not planning to visit Kyoto soon, don't worry! Even anywhere you are based, Bento&co has "online" shop as well.
The online shop is available in 3 languages, English, French and Japanese.
http://en.bentoandco.com/

 

 

post card I got at Bento&co

Nice alrenative of a shop card

Check also our other posts mentioned about "bento" found in Japan as well as Paris!!

Makunouchi Bento (幕の内弁当) - at the National Theatre (国立劇場)

Ekiben(駅弁　station lunch box)

Bento(弁当）- launched for G8 Summit celebration
 
Bento arranged in Paris style, Nanashi - Paris


Shop name: Bento&co
Address: 117 Yaoya-cho, Rokkaku Dori FuyachoHigashi Iru, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto
Official website link for the store in Kyoto: http://en.bentoandco.com/pages/bento-co-shop-in-kyoto