The 2019 Michelin Guide will go on sale this week and it again confirms that Tokyo is a foodie’s dream place to be, with the highest number of starred restaurants out of any city in the world.

Tokyo has 230 Michelin starred establishments, 13 of which have the 3 star top rating, reserved for only the finest restaurants, one of these, French restaurant L’Osier in Chuo-ku has been newly promoted this year and joins the others on this elite list.

Michelin stars are awarded for maintaining the highest standards of cooking, creativity and consistency and this is reviewed every year, stars can be taken away if these criteria are not met year on year. Michelin reviewers (commonly called “inspectors”) are anonymous; they do not identify themselves, and their meals and expenses are paid for by Michelin, never by a restaurant being reviewed.

MICHELIN Guide Tokyo 2019 Selection Summary
13 three star restaurants (1 new)
52 two star restaurants (3 new)
165 one star restaurants (29 new)
254 Bib Gourmand restaurants (44 new)
2 Ryokans and 33 hotels (2 new)

This edition also marks a milestone for four establishments that have held three stars in every edition, Kanda (Japanese, in Minato-ku); Quintessence (French cuisine in Shinagawa-ku); Joël Robuchon (French cuisine in Meguro-ku); and Sukiyabashi Jiro Honten (sushi in Chuo-ku).

One of this editions firsts is the inclusion of an onigiri restaurant called Onigiri Asakusa Yadoroku. Onigiri in case you are unaware is white rice formed into triangular or cylindrical shapes, usually with a type of filling and wrapped in nori (seaweed). People often eat onigiri bought from a convenience store or made at home so for this place to reach Michelin star level they must be doing something extra special with the finest ingrediants.

On the restaurants website they say Onigiri Asakusa Yadoroku has been serving onigiri since 1954 when white rice was a luxury item. Our long-time patrons include grandparents who visit with their children and grandchildren. We hope you too will visit Yadoroku and enjoy our special onigiri made from carefully selected ingredients. We are located behind Senso-ji Temple in Asakusa.

We select rice from across Japan best suited for each season. We use only local Edo-mae seaweed, famous for its rich flavour, to wrap our onigiri. Fillings are carefully chosen from all over the country. We also feature seasonal fillings.

Check out their site for yourselves and next time you are in Tokyo maybe pay them a visit, if you can get in, as their popularity will surely rise.

http://www.onigiriyadoroku.com/english.html

Masatoshi Hamada and Hitoshi Masumoto make up probably the most famous and prolific comedy duo in Japan, together they are known as Downtown.

They are most famous for their manzai acts as well as hosting a number of variety shows and television specials.

Many of you won’t be familiar with the term manzai, it is a Japanese style of stand-up comedy that is very popular. It consists of two performers, a tsukkomi (Hamada), or straight man and a boke (Masumoto), the funny guy. The two performers play off of each other and deliver fast paced jokes and puns. The tsukkomi often butts in and corrects the boke and it’s common for the boke to receive a smack round the head, Hamada is well known for this.

Downtown are the most respected and admired manzai acts among their younger piers and other comedy acts.

They met at school growing up in Amagasaki, Hyogo where they both joined the schools broadcasting club and often joked about becoming a comedy duo. Once they went to high school they went to different schools but remained in touch.

After graduating Matsumoto convinced Hamada to join him as a comedian and in 1983 they made their major debut as Downtown (a name chosen from a magazine).

Their early years were tough, sometimes, not even being able to give free tickets away but despite the hardships, they gradually increased their fan-base and status and in April 1987 (four years after their debut) they began hosting a local television show called Yoji Desu Yōda (“It’s Four O’Clock”) which immediately raised them to idol-like popularity in the region, and since then they never looked back.

There next step was to move to Tokyo and after a few low ranking TV shows they hit their big break again with variety show ‘Downtown no Gaki no Tsukai ya Arahende!!’

It is notable that Downtown never had a mentor (it was common for younger comedians to be “trained” by older, more experienced comedians). It is thought that this was what made Downtown so unorthodox and popular as their style was different from the mainstream.

Another important aspect of Downtown’s comedy is their willingness to make themselves the butt of the joke. While many popular manzai comedians become elevated to the level where poking fun at them is out of the question, Downtown has always taken ridiculous roles in shows, even after becoming popular.

This is particularly evident in the show ‘Gaki No Tsukai’ where they endure countless physical and mental punishments, such as their punishment games. Generally, these roles are reserved for younger, less popular comedians, but Matsumoto and Hamada relish these roles even after becoming part of the elite of Japanese entertainment.

Downtown has not performed Manzai since 1991 but the duo are still together and are regarded as the greatest of the genre.

Despite their talent and performances together they are actually not that close in their personal lives and they don’t even have each other’s phone numbers, they travel to studios separately and never visit each other’s houses. This does not mean, however, they do not get along outside of work. Though they do not consider each other to be friends, their deep business relationship and respect for each other is evident.

There are lots and lots of YouTube videos of the pair with subtitles so you should really check them out if you are into Japanese gameshows and comedy. I especially like the show ‘Gaki No Tsuaki’ where they are joined by other fellow comedians. There is a link below and this will lead to many other videos.

Also if you want to learn more there is a really good Netflix drama based on a Manga called Hibana: Spark which follows the ups and downs of a young up and coming Manzai act and is similar to the Downtown story.

Kohaku Uta Gassen is an annual New Year’s Eve television special produced by Japanese public broadcaster NHK. It is broadcast live simultaneously on television and radio, nationally and internationally by the NHK network.

The program divides the most popular music artists of the year into competing teams of red and white. The “red” team or akagumi is composed of all female artists (or groups with female vocals), while the “white” team or shirogumi is all male (or groups with male vocals). At the end of the show, judges and the audience vote to decide which group performed better.

Only the most successful singing acts in the Japanese entertainment industry can perform. In addition to the actual music performances, the costumes, hair-styles, makeup, dancing, and lighting are important. Even today, a performance on Kōhaku is said to be a big highlight in a singer’s career because of the show’s wide reach.

It is such a tradition for Japanese and the hall (NHK Hall at Shibuya) has only 3600 seats, so every year it is very difficult to get a ticket…

The 69th Kohaku Uta Gassen will be held on the 31st December 2018.

The chosen artists are as below.

Red Team:
aiko (13)
AIMYON (debut)
Ikimonogakari (10)
Sayuri Ishikawa (41)
AKB48 (11)
Midori Oka (2)
Keyakizaka46 (3)
Fuyumi Sakamoto (30)
Aya Shimazu (5)
Superfly (3)
DAOKO (debut)
Yoshimi Tendo (23)
TWICE (2)
Kana Nishino (9)
Nogizaka46 (4)
Perfume (11)
Seiko Matsuda (22)
Yumi Matsutoya (3)
MISIA (3)
Kaori Mizumori (16)
Little Glee Monster (2)

White Team:
Arashi (10)
Hiroshi Itsuki (48)
EXILE (12)
Kanjani8 (7)
King & Prince (debut)
Hiromi Go (31)
Suchmos (debut)
Sandaime J Soul Brothers (7)
Jyunretsu (debut)
SEKAI NO OWARI (5)
SEXY ZONE (6)
DA PUMP (6)
Kiyoshi Hikawa (19)
Masaharu Fukuyama (11)
Hey! Say! JUMP (2)
Gen Hoshino (4)
Daichi Miura (2)
Hiroshi Miyama (4)
Keisuke Yamauchi (4)
Yuzu (9)
YOSHIKI feat HYDE (debut)

*https://www.nhk.or.jp/kouhaku/artist/

*The number in brackets indicates how many times they have appeared at Kohaku.

If you’re looking for fried chicken in Japan look no further than Sekai no Yamachan!

Nagoya’s famous fried chicken wings, now one of its most popular foods, started out as an idea at a restaurant way back in 1965, which had piles and piles of discarded chicken wings that nobody thought to use. These were reimagined into a mouth-watering new dish, which made it to the restaurant’s menu, and thus the wings were born.

Then on 14 June 1981, Yamachan opened his own little 13-seat, 13m² stall in Shinsakae, selling the very same amazing wings you get to eat today.

Located all over the country and also a few stores dotted around the rest of Asia I visited one of the stores in Osaka.

After an hour or so playing around in the games centre working up an appetite we went over the road and up some stairs to a large but quite a simple looking place and took a seat. The first thing I noticed pinned to the side of our booth was the shops guide on how to eat chicken wings correctly which made me laugh as it actually really works.

First things first a jug of Asahi was put on order then a look at the menu, straight away eyes on the chicken, the thing the shop is famous for.

The wings are sold per portion from 1 portion (5 wings) all the way up to 10 (50 wings). Just from the picture in the menu you can tell you are going be in for a treat.

We started off by just ordering the 5 wings and some extra side dishes that they have on offer in the izakaya style menu. This proved to be a mistake.

The mistake being 5 wings between 2 people is nowhere near enough. The wings are so tasty, before the last wing was even thought about, the buzzer was pressed and another 15 wings were on the way, all the time I was regretting that I had wasted valuable stomach space on the other dishes we had ordered, not to say these where bad by any means, everything was tasty but the wings were next level tasty.

Wings and beer I was in heaven. It didn’t take long for the metal bucket for the chicken bones was filled to the top after a couple

The wings are seasoned with salt and a fiery pepper kick and that’s what gives them their unique flavour. They are by far the best fried chicken wings I have eaten and Sekai no Yamachan is now one of the top priorities on my list of places to eat when I visit Japan.

Please, Please, Please open a store in New Zealand Yamachan!!! Or at least send me the secret recipe!

A lot of people may not heard of awamori, I hadn’t until I visited Okinawa last year, but once you discover it you will see why it is the Okinawan ‘go-to’ alcoholic beverage.

Awamori is indigenous to Okinawa and dates back over 500 years during the days of the Ryukyu kingdom and originates from the Thai drink Lao Khao. The Okinawans refined the distillation process, incorporating techniques from nearby countries, making it more suitable for the subtropical climate and incorporating the unique local black koji mould. From the 15th to 19th century, awamori was sent as a tribute to Okinawa’s powerful neighbours, China and Japan.

The drink is produced at around 48 distilleries each with their own individual flavours. Unlike sake on the mainland, Awamori is not the direct product of brewing but of distillation (like shochu). It is made from Indica rice which is imported from Thailand as local production of the rice wouldn’t be able to cope with the demand.

It is typically 30-45% alcohol but some types can be stronger 60%+ although export brands tend to be around 25%. It is also sugar free and has no amino acid and also very low calories with the biggest bonus being that it doesn’t cause bad hangovers like a lot of strong alcoholic beverages.

Traditionally Awamori is aged in clay pots to improve its flavour and mellowness and like a lot of alcoholic spirits the general price increases as it ages. Awamori that has been aged for more than 3 years or more is called kusu and has a smother taste which helps it go down really well.

The most popular way to drink awamori is with water and ice and it is typically served accompanied by a container containing ice and a carafe of water although it is also drunk neat and can be used in cocktails. Personally I prefer to drink it neat.

If you’re feeling brave or believe in ancient superstitions you can purchase a type of awamori called Habu-Shu which contains a habu snake. A habu snake is able to mate for as long as 26 hours, which causes some to believe that a drink of Habu-Shu may help sexual dysfunction in men. A common superstition is that these strengths are passed on to those who drink it.

Coming to a convenience store near you (well if you live in Japan) from this Monday 15^th October is one of the best collaborations in a while, everyone’s favourite potato chip brand, Pringles teaming up with noodle brand Super cup to release two limited release products.

Pringles Sour Cream and Onion-flavoured instant fried noodles and Pringles Jalapeno and Onion instant cup ramen.

Product makers say the Sour Cream and Onion Yakisoba has the same combination of onions and garlic, sour cream and cheese, which can be topped up with a seasoning sachet.

The Jalapeno and Onion Super Cup has a strong flavour of potato and onion. The sachet of jalapeno seasoning means you can choose your spice level for those that can’t handle the heat.

The product came about to celebrate Pringles 50^th anniversary as well as Super Cups 30th birthday!

I really hope my local Japan Mart are able to get hold of some stock cos it sounds like something I defiantly want to try.

Published sometime between 1829 and 1833 was Katsushika Hokusai’s most famous work, the woodblock print, The Great Wave off Kanagawa. Which was the first print in his series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji.

It is probably the most recognisable works of Japanese art in the world and original impressions of the print are in many western collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne and in Claude Monet’s home in France, among many other collections.

The image depicts an enormous wave threatening boats off the coast of the town of Kanagawa (the present-day city of Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture) with Mount Fuji sat in the centre, which could easily be mistaken as part of the water if you weren’t aware of the scenes location.

In the scene there are three oshiokuri-bune, fast boats that are used to transport live fish. There are eight rowers per boat, clinging to their oars. There are two more passengers in the front of each boat, bringing the total number of human figures in the image to thirty. Using the boats as reference, the wave must be between 10 and 12 meters tall.

Given that the series was very popular when it was produced, printing continued until the woodblocks started to show significant wear. It is likely that the original woodblocks printed around 5,000 copies. Given that many impressions have been lost, in wars, earthquakes, fires and other natural disasters, few early impressions survive in which the lines of the woodblocks were still sharp at the time of printing. The remaining prints and subsequent reproductions vary considerably in quality and condition. This gradual degradation is why museums will brag about their prints being “early” issues.

Later impressions typically have a darker grey sky, and can be identified by a break in the line of the wave behind the boat on the right.

Though thousands were printed, it’s estimated only hundreds of The Great Wave off Kanagawa remain. A specimen’s state determines its value. The first state from Nishimuraya Yohachi publishing featured a distinctive blue outline, while the second had a black outline. The former is said to fetch $40,000 to $60,000, while the latter would command half that. Even a good replica could score a collector a few grand.

Heikegani is a species of crab which is native to Japan whose shell resembles a human face. According to Japanese folklore these small crabs contain the souls of the fallen samurai warriors from the Battle of Dan-no-ura in 1185AD which took place in Japan’s inland sea, where the crabs are found.

This crucial battle was a cultural and political turning point in Japanese history, Minamoto Yoritomo became the first Shogun, or military ruler, of Japan.  Dan-no-ura marked the beginning of seven centuries, in which Japan was ruled by warriors and Shoguns instead of Emperors and aristocrats.

The ruling Taira clan (Heike), was led by their child-Emperor, Antoku, and his grandmother, Tokiko Taira. The Heike had ruled Japan for many decades, but now, massively outnumbered, they were defeated at the hands of the Minamoto.

For the losing Heike samurai, surrendering to the enemy was never an option so those that were not slain in battle, committed suicide by drowning themselves along with their emperor. Their bodies became food for the heikegani crabs who lay in wait on the sea floor.

According to the Japanese legend, the souls of the Heike samurais were reincarnated into the Heikegani crabs who ate their remains, their angry faces now shown on the shells of the crabs. To this day, it is said that the Heikegani crabs roam the depths of the oceans around Japan, searching for the lost heirlooms of their empire.

The locals refuse to eat the crabs that are marked with faces (not all are), throwing them back into the sea.

If you have seen the 2011 documentary movie ‘Jiro Dreams of Sushi’ you would defiantly know of Jiro Ono the owner of the 3 Michelin starred Sukiyabashi Jiro in Tokyo. He is credited as being the greatest sushi chef on the planet and his restaurant is recognised as the place to go for the best sushi.

At the age of 92, his dedication towards making the best sushi is rock solid. Having started working in a restaurant at the age of seven, till date Ono leaves no stone unturned in his attempts to better his craft. Even after seven decades of professional cooking, Ono maintains his daily routine—rising early in the morning and doing the exact same thing as he did yesterday and the day before.

Jiro Ono was born on October 27, 1925 in the city of Tenryu (present-day Hamamatsu) in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan and at the young age of seven, he started working at a local restaurant. Two years later, he left home for Tokyo to study as an apprentice.

In 1951, Jiro finally became a qualified sushi chef and he eventually opened his own restaurant in Ginza, Tokyo in 1965.

Despite being small and located out the way in an underground corridor near a Tokyo subway station, Sukiyabashi Jiro has rightfully earned its place on the culinary map. It seats not more than ten people and reservations of which are needed to be made at least 2-3 months in advance.

The shops appretices and even Jiro’s son must spend 10 years learning to use their knives before they’re allowed to cook even eggs. The goal? To become a shokunin, a skilled craftsman, someone who does the same exact thing every day to the highest possible level in the neverending pursuit of perfection.

At Ono’s Sukiyabashi Jiro, there is no menu as the dishes are selected by Ono himself and it depends what is available that day at the local fish market. A standard meal, roughly covering 20 courses, won’t come cheap though at the restaurant, the experiance costs anywhere from $300 to $400 per person. Some people have also said the meal can sometimes be as short as 30 minutes so it works out around $10 a minute!

Over the course of his lifetime, Ono’s Sukiyabashi Jiro has become the finest and the greatest sushi restaurant in the world. It has three Michelin stars to its credit and a long list of loyal fans including current PM of Japan Shinzo Abe, former USA President Barack Obama, world-renowned chefs Joel Robuchon of Taillevent and Ferran Adria of El Bulli, and Hollywood bigwigs Tom Cruise and Hugh Jackman.