The elegant sake flavor is reminiscent of a sweet flower. The flavor is rich, but it disappears in a breath when you swallow down the sake, like a fairy. “Sakunohana spec d” is one of the greatest sakes brewed by Sakunohana shuzo. It has rich flower-like flavor and a clear after taste.

“Spec d” is the code name of Nagano kobo D, which was a sake yeast developed by Nagano Prefecture General Industrial Technology Center in 2006. Sakunohana shuzo has been making sake with Nagano kobo since it was developed.

“Sakunohana spec d” is a junmai ginjo sake. Junmai sake is made of only rice, water and yeast, no distilled alcohol added. Sakunohana bottles only junmai and spec d sake in a blue bottle.

The ingredient rice is “Hitogokochi”, it is the local sake rice in Nagano prefecture. Sakunohana shuzo was established in 1892. Since then, they have kept their own rice fields. There are few sake breweries which have their own rice fields.

Mr. Takahashi, the president of Sakunohana shuzo has been sticking to the basics of brewing sake. He says, “Keep the basics with rationalized methods, it is the best way to make fine sake.”

Mr. Takahashi said “By drinking our sake, I hope more people will become interested in the Japanese rice culture.” Sakunohana spec d complements authentic Japanese dishes. You can enjoy Japanese food much more with this sake.

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Japanese summer is hot and humid. When you go out from your house, you sweat profusely.
But if you eat anmitsu, the heat of summer will vanish immediately!

Anmitsu is one of the most popular Japanese sweets in summer. It means bean jam, agar, and pieces of fruit served in syrup. You can eat it everywhere in Japanese cafes but I will introduce an especially delicious place in Tokyo this time.
Mihashi is a long-established sweet store which was founded in 1948. The main store is in Ueno, but there are another 6 stores in and around Tokyo. Although there are many sweet stores in Tokyo,　this one is famous for having a strong obsession for the ingredients. They always use Bean jam (adzuki beans) from Tokachi in Hokkaido. The brown sugar is from the south island 200km to the left of Okinawa.

The lightly coloured syrup between black syrup and white syrup. Agar is made from agar-agar blended in Miyake island, Hachijyou island, and Koudzu island.

Creamed anmitsu is 530 yen. Agar, syrup, red peas, bean jam, and oranges are topped with thick soft cream. It tastes very smooth. The Agar is chewy and fresh.
If you go there in the daytime of a weekend, maybe you have to have line up to eat it, but eating anmitsu in the hot summer must be very delicious!

(Translated by Humi)

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The ceramic coffee dripper looks a little curious. It is taller and slimmer than ordinary drippers and it was developed for tasty coffee, which has a clear and rich flavor.
The dripper has 3 features; The slim body, a big hole and steps.

The slim body makes the layer of ground coffee thick. The hot water flows more slowly through it than in ordinary coffee drippers. The big hole in the bottom helps the natural flow of the coffee, so the coffee gives the finest flavor of the coffee bean itself.
The steps prevent the hot water from flowing out through the wall of the dripper. The hot water is pushed back into the coffee grounds.

You can wash the coffee dripper easily with its smooth ceramic body and big hole. The dripper is employed by many cafes in Japan for tasty coffee and easy maintenance.

If you want to make better coffee, try the coffee dripper!

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Every Japanese knows Peko-chan. She has been one of the original characters in Fujiya (Famous confectionery in Japan) since she was born in 1950. The meaning of her name, ‘Peko’, is calfs.

Peko-chan yaki which is made in the shape of her face can only be bought in Kagurazaka, Tokyo in spite of there being a lot of Fujiya shops in Japan. The outside tastes savory but the inside is fluffy, soft and mellow.

Adzuki beans, chocolates, custard cream, and cheese are standard flavors. In addition, 2 more kinds of tastes are added. They change every month or every season and those sorts are rich in variety! For example, Black sesame bean jam, mangoes, pineapples, vegetables curry, and so on. You can buy them for a really reasonable price (about 1 dollar for 1 cake) so you can enjoy a lot of different kinds of tastes. If you buy some kinds of Peko-chan yaki, you can’t tell what their flavors are from their outward appearances so they wear ribbons marked with their flavors. They look very cute!

Poko-chan who is Peko-chan’s boyfriend has also been in appearance as doll yaki since 2006. There a few of him produced, so if you meet him, you are lucky!

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Have you ever eaten or seen TAIYAKI? It is Japanese confectionery and means fish-shaped pancakes stuffed with bean jam (ann).

Although we can eat “famed” fish (baking many taiyaki at once) in a lot of places, “natural” fish (baking them one by one) are very rare because workmen need to learn a special technique.

YANAGI-YA is one of the rare shops which bake natural taiyaki(140 JPY). Lots of people stand in a long line to buy them made by expert workmen even on the weekdays. This shop was established in 1916.

They use the highest ranked adzuki beans and the way of how to make bean jam hasn’t changed for 94 years! After baking taiyaki, many other shops cut down the parts left on the edge because they look unattractive but in the case of Yanagi-ya, they don’t do such things on purpose. They know, this part is the most delicious!!

(Translated by Humi)

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The shop streets around Tsukiji fish market are called “Jogai market”. It contains over 400 shops and restaurants, and is crowded with more tourists than inside Tsukiji market. The fresh fish from Tsukiji market and other ingredients such as dry food, meat, eggs, vegetables, pickles and kitchen tools are available here. You can buy everything to do with food. Of course, you can enjoy various restaurants here.

Firstly, I recommend a Kaisen don. “McMore” is a secret retro-diner which provides very yummy tuna sashimi. Somehow a game machine is embedded in the table in McMore. The unique furniture, delicious coffee and yummy tuna is curious, but it will provide good memories for you.

Next, you should have a ramen. “Inoue” is a famous ramen buffet restaurant which is always crowded. Its ramen is soy sauce based and non-fatty. They make a little lukewarm soup for busy dealers so they are able to eat it fast.

I want to try more restaurants in Tsukiji. My Tsukiji boom is never ending!

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Tsukiji is the city that never sleeps. It works for 24 hours as the kitchen of Tokyo, the metropolis.

If you want to enjoy Tsukiji fish market from the start, you should go to Tsukiji on the last train. The market opens about 3:00AM. There is an around-the-clock diner called “Jonathan’s” near the market, which is useful for waiting. You can see some fish trucks driving fast and screechily, it is exciting.

The bidding starts at 5:00 AM. The shops of the middle traders open at 7:00 AM and many fish dealers and cooks come to the market to buy fish. During this time, the market is the most crowded with people. Be careful not to disturb the dealers and enjoy the air of excitement.

If you want to have a cup of coffee for staying awake, “Coffee shop Aiyo (愛養)” is good. The cafe, next to Sushidai, opens at 3:30 AM. It is a very small cafe but popular among Tsukiji dealers. I love yum-yum toast and cute cup.

Other shops and restaurants open after 4:00 AM. “Mosuke dango” is a Japanese style sweets shop which opens at 5:00 AM. Try the delicious dango!

Or do you want to try real sushi? The famous sushi restaurants such as “Yamato sushi” or “Sushidai” are all crowded in the early morning. Hurry up and have a fresh and yummy sushi!

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Have you ever drunk nigori sake? Nigori sake is a white and opaque sake which is not filtered. It has a unique sweet rice flavor and sake maven love it.

Other nigori sake has an overrich sour smell which may not be liked by sake beginners. However, this Sasameyuki has no bad smell and has a balmy flavor like sweet yogurt. I think Sasameyuki is the finest nigori sake in Japan.

You will be surprised to drink it and it has an elegant and brisk flavor. Sasameyuki goes well with meat, or it is delicious with sweetened soda. It is best served chilled.

“Sasameyuki” means “light snow” in Japanese and it is the original title of “The Makioka Sisters”. You can enjoy the flavor like snow.

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Do you want to little stimulus in everyday life? If that “stimulus” were snacks and you could get them easily, do you think you would want to try them?

There are spicy snacks all over the world, but “Bokun Habanero” is special. This is not only hot and tastes just like potatoes but also tastes of vegetables. This snack strengthens the taste of tomates and a mellow mushroom flavor. By improving them, “delicious” and “spicy” could keep the best balance. Of course this is very hot and spicy, but you will never have had enough of them. Once you start to eat this snack, you won’t be able to quit!

If you aren’t satisfied with “Bokun Habanero”, there is another kind of spicy snack from the same company.

“The evilest tyrant Habanero” is in doubanjiang (it is a Chinese seasoning) which enriches the taste. And “Devil Jolokia” is very popular too. This is used in “Bhut Jolokia”. which was recognized as the most spicy cayenne pepper in the world in 2006. It’s a complicated mixed spice, black pepper, and the sour taste of tomatoes make exquisite harmony. They are for advanced people.
If you think Death Rain or Doritos flavor are not good enough, you should try to eat them and find your favorite snack!

(Written by Humi)

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Osechi ryori

We have some special new year food in Japan. There are wide variations among them in terms of recipe and styles, no one knows the whole variations. Though they have common rules and they all contain few fat and a lot of vitamin and mineral. They are all healthy food. I show you them in this post.

Osechi ryori

Osechi ryori is a typical new year food. It consists of over 10-20 kinds of dishes such as roast fish, boiled vegetables, black beans, herring roe, dried sardine, fish sausage (Kamaboko), and rolled egg (Datemaki).

Ozoni

Ozoni is also called “Zoni”. “Ozoni” is more formal.
It is a cup of soup contains rice cake (mochi). The soup is usually dashi or miso soup.

Kagami-mochi

Kagami-mochi is a decoration made of dried mochi. A dried mochi has good keeping quality, so Kagami-mochi is displayed about 10 days. Finally, Kagami-mochi is smashed into tiny pieces and eaten. It called “Kagami-biraki”.

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