Japanese Food Bites: Indulging in the Taste of Summer

Waking up at a crisp 7 AM, we are on our way to Ochanomizu university for biology and creative writing, in bio we learned about plants, and in creative writing we did a peer review on our restaurant reviews. 

After class we were on our way to the miso factory, which was pretty close by. I was in group 2, so I went to a cafe first to wait for group 1 to finish. I got a hot matcha with a delicate cream design on the top in the shape of a heart. It had a great matcha flavor, and the foam melted in your mouth.

Upon arrival at the miso factory, we were greeted by an older man by the name of Tsujita in a robe with writing on each side, representing the hundreds of years of history his business represents. We had to put hair nets on for food safety reasons, and it was time to head inside. We enter a room with three containers on the table, and a wooden board of koji in the center. Tsujita began to explain how the process works, and the history of the large wooden barrels. 

We were led into the room where the koji is grown, and it was as small as a sauna. It takes around 36 hours for the koji to grow and the room can get as hot as 100 degrees F. We saw the workers doing the process of inspection of the miso, plucking out imperfections as easy as plucking a eyebrow hair. Tsujita leads us back into the first room and lets us try 4 different types of miso, ranging from light to dark. I personally really liked the second flavor, it was light and a bit salty. The darkest flavor was too strong, but some people really enjoyed it.

After the miso factory we head back to the hotel, and 2 hours later I get ready to head to mocha cat cafe with Emily, Doris, Laurel, Faith, and Claudia, a few minutes walk from the hotel. We get inside and are greeted by workers telling us to get pairs of slides and put our stuff in lockers. We get drinks and head inside to greet the cats. There are so many different types of breeds it is hard to keep track. Cats with short legs, big cats, small cats, calico, striped, you name it, the cat was there. Everyone is so excited and starts to slowly walk around in order to not scare the cats. We spot a treat vending machine and use it as leverage for the cats love. They also had frozen cat treats, and the cats went crazy for those. The cat that was my favorite was a ragdoll, and it felt as soft as a cloud. 

We were pretty hungry after the cat cafe and I had been eyeing this pasta place inside the mall for a while, so I recommended we head over there. They all agreed so we did and it did not dissapoint. Unfortunately we had to split up 4 and 2, but it ended up being okay. It was on the 8th floor of a small and was set up next to other restaurants so it was almost a pop up looking set up. It had a white banner that had a woman on it that said Tokyo pasta. The tables were white and had nice tan chairs that were quiet when they slid out. I was at a table with Emily, Claudia and Doris and we were so excited to order. We all ended up getting meals that come with dinner, a drink and a dessert and it was around $19 each. I ordered miso pasta with edamame and it was so delicious. It tasted creamy, the noodles were just the right texture, and I loved the pairing with the edamame. The desert I got was hojita pudding and it was my first time trying anything hojita related, I really enjoyed the texture and it tasted similar to matcha but a bit more nutty. The service was pretty good, but you can tell they were definitely busy. I liked how they took out trays away right after we finished so we had nothing on our table by the time dessert came out.

(This is from Claudia’s POV because I forgot to take a photo LOL)

A fun end to the night was trying the onsen for the first time, which was very interesting. It was very relaxing and I liked the set up with the wooden stools and the window with the plants inside to look at while you’re in the onsen, but overall it takes a lot to get used to. 11 of us played games on the 2nd floor, varying from card games to phone games and it was very fun! Overall a very fun day and I look forward to writing my next blog.