Japanese Food Bites: Indulging in the Taste of Summer

After starting my morning with yet another bowl of rice and beef curry for breakfast, I headed off to class at Ochanomizu, making (what I expect to be a very routine stop) at 7/11 before class. We continued with our biology studies and talked a lot about neurons, which honestly was really interesting, but I would be lying if I said my mind was fully there. Ever since arriving in Japan, one of the first things I said I wanted to do was visit the University of Tokyo, so knowing we were finally going there later that day was all I could think about.

After class, we met up with the Ochanomizu girls, and all took the train together to the University of Tokyo festival. The second we got there; I was honestly shocked by how massive everything was. Not just the campus itself, but the festival too. There were students everywhere yelling to advertise their food stalls, some even dressed in costume. There was smoke filling the air, colorful signs hanging everywhere, and huge crowds of both students and the public moving through. It felt chaotic in the best way possible.

I was already ravenous before we had left for the festival, so the first thing I did was find food. My first meal was of course a potato. It was this fried spiraled potato on a stick covered in this salty seasoning that tasted kind of like curry powder but slightly sweet too. I have never had a flavor like that, but it was honestly so good.

As we kept moving through the festival, everyone slowly got separated in the crowds until it ended up just being me, Niki, Amelia, and Nano wandering around together. Nano was so fun to talk to and answered all of our questions about the festival, Tokyo, and the foods we kept finding.

At one point while wandering around Niki got this tiny mochi pie dessert thing that. It was very small and I would describe it as looking like a mini pie but instead of having traditional filling, there was a mochi placed on top of it and a pinch of cinnamon. It was described to us as being lemon flavored, so I was expecting a strong lemon curd taste, but that was not the case. It had this thick crispy crust with a strong cinnamon flavor and the mochi, instead of having a traditional filling, had more layers of mochi inside it with cream resting between each layer. The lemon flavor was very mute, there was only a hint of it, but overall, it tasted so good. The cream was super light which made the dessert not feel so heavy, which is common for traditional pie. I have never really tasted anything quite like it. Even Nano said she had never seen mochi served like that before.

Later, I also got a Japanese hot dog. The hot dog honestly tasted more like a Polish sausage, and the ketchup was way less sweet than ketchup back home, which surprised me more than it probably should have.

After walking around for hours, we met back up with the rest of the group and headed to Tokyo Tower. I was talking to Grace at the end and on the way to the tower who is also blogging about the festival, and it was funny hearing how different our experiences were even though we were at the same place. Grace and Leif somehow found this beautiful park area with a waterfall hidden at the festival, which I was honestly so jealous of. She also ended up eating completely different foods than I did! But anyways, getting to see Tokyo from above was actually insane. I knew the city was big but I did not fully understand just how endless it feels until looking out from the tower and seeing buildings disappear into the distance, it was surreal. 

By the end of the night, we were exhausted, sweaty and starving. We ended up following Professor Young’s rec and went to Kura Sushi where we waited forever (like 45 mins). By the time we got to the table we were so hungry we immediately started ordering anything that looked good and eating as fast as possible.

One of my biggest takeaways from the day was realizing how much there still is to discover in Tokyo. The festival felt like one of those experiences that most tourists would never even know about, and it ended up being one of my favorite days so far. I’ve also been trying to try at least one new food every day while I’m here, and this day definitely helped me continue that goal.