The Toyko Summer Olympics were supposed to have happened in 2020 but, as we all know, a pandemic got in the way. Now they’re rescheduled for July 23-August 8, 2021. Writer Betsa Marsh helps us prepare with this primer on Japanese food. Put it to good use, whether you’re planning ahead to attend the Games, or just want to be more in-the-know about the authentic foods of the Tōhoku region in Northern Japan.

Fresh oysters and seaweed are plucked from Matsushima Bay to restaurants throughout Tohoku. Betsa Marsh photo.

With sushi restaurants spreading wasabi wisdom across America, Japanese food seems more accessible than ever. But it’s different on the ground in Japan, when you’re faced with dozens of dishes and not a word of English. Then the scope of this ancient food tradition comes racing at you, and you begin to understand why Japanese cuisine joined UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage List in 2013.

Tōhoku Region Food: Rustic means closer to the roots

It’s a 90-minute ride on the bullet train from Tokyo north to Sendai, capital of Tōhoku province. Then, a bus ride farther north into the countryside.

Out the window, I admire large, precise gardens blooming behind nearly every home. These are people who love their vegetables and Akiusha Farmhouse Restaurant gives travelers a chance to taste them fresh out of the soil.

Vegans and vegetarians can zero in on the salad greens, arrayed on vast bark-edged wooden planks. Calorie counters will appreciate the oil-free shiso herb dressing, blended of soy sauce, vinegar, sake, plum, spice and shiso leaf, a member of the mint family with herby richness.

Japanese love participatory dining, and shabu-shabu is one of their faves: a hot pot of oil ready for dropping in slivers of beef. The story goes that the beef swishing through the broth sounds like “shabu-shabu.”

At Akiusha, the vegetarian version has vegetable broth bubbling, awaiting ribbons of orange and white carrots for the dunking. Akiusha does meat, too, roasting chicken and potatoes and carving pork slices with a sautéed spinach topper. Diners can nab chairs in the 160-year-old wooden farmhouse, or step down onto the tatami mats and cross their legs at low tables in zashiki style. Just be sure to remove your shoes before touching the tatami.

Share a worker’s lunch northern Japan

For generations, men worked as woodcutters in the Aizu area of Tōhoku. The women would pack hearty meals in round cypress steamers called wappa-meshi, sending their fellows off with a sampler of fish, rice and mushrooms.

At the venerable Takino Restaurant in Aizu, travelers lift their own lids to discover a thin slice of steamed salmon and mushrooms over rice. The worker’s lunchbox has been expanded to fill an entire placemat, with herring, seaweed-dried tofu, mushroom rice and horsemeat with burdock plant—plus an intimidating five-year-old carrot to give us energy. Look for the darling square wooden cup—that’s your sake. Once you realize you’ll start your meal with a five-year-old carrot, it might be a good idea to sip the sake first to get in the wappa-meshi frame of mind.

At Takino Restaurant, it’s time to try a traditional woodcutter’s lunch from a round cypress steamer called a wappa-meshi. Inside, salmon snuggles with mushrooms from the nearby Aizu forests. The placemat expands with a five-year-old carrot for energy, herring and tofu, plus a darling square wooden cup of sake. Betsa Marsh photo.

Dart down an alley to a tiny dive

Truly, it’s not as seedy as it sounds. Sendai offers a popular pub crawl in mid-century alleys that radiate off a modern shopping mall.

Locals can point you to Yokocho, for instance, a narrow alley lined with food counters and upstairs rooms barely 10 feet across. Pals head out for drinks and nibbles at dive after dive. One spot specializes in oysters just snagged from Matsushima Bay, another simmers fish and vegetables in a tabletop hot pot. Just be sure to follow local custom and let a friend pour your drink, then you’ll return the favor.

After oysters and beer at Iroha Yokocho bar, it’s off to grilled yakitori at Ishikawa. It’s time to huddle on counter stools as the chef rolls out skewers of soy sauce-basted chicken thighs and spring onion, followed by individual spears of chicken hearts, gizzards, and crispy skin. Dip into a bit of cabbage with salted kelp, and definitely cue up some Kirin beer.

This yakatori master grills every part of the chicken at Ishikawa bar on the Sendai dive hop. Betsa Marsh photo.

Let’s wind up at Nambu Iroha, a simmering hot-pot tavern that pours sake. The bar owner, the okani-san, serves each drinker from an oversized sake bottle, pouring to the last drop. The opening of a new bottle—kuchi ake–is auspicious, and everyone in our vest-pocket pub oohs and applauds with the good news. Let’s all shout Kanpai!

Relax with refined kaiseki

Once you’ve settled into the rhythm of Japanese dining, consider the splurge of kaiseki haute cuisine.

The multi-course banquet might roll from small dishes of sashimi and salads to beef you cook on your personal brazier. Selecting each ingredient for freshness and seasonal appeal, chefs build the flavors and pace the flow. No one comes to kaiseki for a quick bite.

This is commitment dining in every sense, with leisurely conversation to your left and right and interlacing commentary on each course. It’s also a commitment in the travel budget, with some kaiseki at Tōhoku hotels starting at $75 per diner and climbing fast.

Now is the time for local knowledge: poll your tour guides and people you’ve met for their top kaiseki picks. Everyone will have one.

A lavish kaiseki feast can flow through 12 to 20 courses, with the menu categorized by cooking method. Each ingredient is selected for seasonal freshness and appeal, and served in small portions on specially chosen china. Betsa Marsh photo.

Suspend your disbelief

The Japanese concept of dessert leans toward a perfect slice of fruit or a bit of matcha sorbet. They don’t worship at the altar of sugar, fat and chocolate like Westerners do, so if I’m craving chocolate torte, I need to head to Vienna.

Japanese jellies end the meal with suspense—fruit suspended in vegetarian agar jelly. It’s a light finale to an extravagant kaiseki feast.

But like the Victorians who loved their aspics, Japanese seem to relish fruit dessert suspended in clear jellies. Gravity means nothing to the blueberries, tiny cubes of kiwi and the balls of pineapple that hang in mid-gel. It seems almost cruel to slide your spoon into the jelly, but those jewel-tone bites are just too tempting to pass up.

When you go to the Tohoku Region: 

Get more information information on Japan on their website. And for more information on Tohoko, look here. For more information on getting around, check out the East Japan Railway Company.

— Story and photos by Betsa Marsh

Hungry for more? Try making some delicious Japanese desserts at home with this popular cookbook. Get inspired for a trip to Japan with a tour of this Friendship garden. See where else Betsa has traveled in this series about the Baltics.

Pin these to your favorite Pinterest Board so you can plan ahead for your trip to the Tohoku Region in Northern Japan.