Pretty Good Number One: An American Family Eats Tokyo (18 page)

We gathered around the low grill tables, sharing food with friends (and reuniting with Tokyo Swayze, who obviously didn’t remember us). I realized that I still knew very little about Akira and Emi, except that they like good food, tea, and us. And really, what more do I need to know?

Kentucky Christmas and a happy new year

Perhaps you’ve heard tales of odd Christmas traditions in faraway lands. In Sweden, families gather around the TV to watch a 1958 Donald Duck cartoon. In Austria, Santa’s bad-cop partner Krampus fills his sack with naughty kids.

In Japan, where Christians are few but Christmas is a popular secular holiday, the core tradition is spelled K-F-C.

Yes,
that
KFC. Some people preorder their bucket of chicken weeks in advance, and KFC branches set up stands out front and post big signs reading KENTUCKY CHRISTMAS. Naturally, we partook. It was the same as KFC anywhere. We also ate Christmas cake, sponge cake with whipped cream and out-of-season strawberries. No, Christmas is not Japan’s finest culinary hour, but the nation makes up for it with exuberant electric light displays, called illuminations. Any December evening, in any part of Tokyo, you might stumble upon a massive cube of colored lights, or dripping electronic icicles, or animated cartoon characters and mascots. This is all more tasteful and less Vegas than I’m making it sound.

Our friend Hikari, meanwhile, had a question about a certain American Christmas tradition. “It is true,” he asked, “that on Christmas, people give each other presents, and then they return the presents the next day for money?” Well, when you put it
that
way. Giving holiday gifts to children in Japan is easy, Hikari explained: on New Year’s day you give the child cash inside a decorated envelope called a
pochibukuro.
Naturally, Iris insisted on our observing this tradition, and she promptly took her money to the toy store and bought a noise-making toy dog, the kind of thing her parents would never buy for her. In honor of its origin, Iris named the dog Pochi.

On New Year’s Eve, we curled up in the living room to watch
Kōhaku,
the annual song battle show which has been airing since 1959.
Kōhaku
(or “Red and White Song Battle”) was probably a distant inspiration for any number of recent Western reality shows. It consists of a showdown between the red team (female singers) and white team (male singers), most of whom dress in costumes that look like a Pantone catalog exploded. It features beloved stars of the 60s and 70s singing their greatest hits interspersed with young pop and rock acts.

The performers are mostly but not exclusively Japanese; Cyndi Lauper and Paul Simon performed in the 80s. One of the biggest acts for the last few years is one of the biggest acts, period: AKB48 is a girl group with
eighty-nine members.
They perform daily at their theater in Akihabara (the AKB of the name) and regularly tour Asia and the world simultaneously. Like an amoeba, AKB48 can divide and recombine as necessary. Their songs are the purest bubblegum. Inspired, Iris and I decided to found STL48. The band will star Iris and 47 of her classmates, singing songs from Les Miz.

Once we’d overdosed on pop songs, we headed out to our local temple, Arai Yakushi. New Year’s is the most important holiday in Japan, and everyone told us we had to do
hatsumōde,
visiting a temple or shrine at midnight.

I expected a solemn religious observance. Instead, we arrived at 11:30 to find a party, with a lineup stretching out the temple gate and rowdy food stalls serving up Indian-style yakitori, miniature okonomiyaki, and Laurie’s favorite, buttered potatoes. The potato man emerged from a cloud of steam with a baked potato, which he split and slathered liberally with butter. Laurie pronounced it perfect, even though she didn’t put on any of the optional kimchi.

We cheered the new year and watched a bonfire consume last year’s good-luck charms. Then, in the opening minutes of 2014, we walked home through the animated midnight streets of Nakano, and I mused sleepily about my relationship with Japan.

I have to admit something to the readers of the Japanese edition of this book: I thought I could spend a month in Tokyo, write a short and silly book, and slip out undetected. I never imagined anyone in Japan other than a few English-speaking expats would read about our Tokyo summer. I apologize for my misunderstandings and generalizations, for saying, “In Japan, they do X,” when what I mean is, “In Japan, I saw someone do X.”

And I imagined that I might follow this book up by spending a summer in Taipei eating dumplings, or Montreal eating bagels, or Stockholm eating whatever it is they eat in Sweden. But I doubt that will ever happen. Not long after the publication of
Pretty Good Number One,
I spent a weekend in Hong Kong. I ate crispy roast eel and dim sum and spicy pickled turnips, rode the Star Ferry across Victoria Harbor at night while the city glittered in the background, and joined a group of locals for their weekly hot pot get-together. Hong Kong has astonishing food and crackles with multicultural energy. On paper, I should probably like it even better than Tokyo.

But love can’t be constructed from a list of ingredients. Tokyo and I smile at each other. We make each other laugh. I’m already thinking about my family’s next trip and the delights, challenges, temperature extremes, and inedible doughnuts that await.
Mamonaku, Tokyo.

—Seattle, February 2014

New Year's eve in Nakano

These books about Japanese food,
culture, language, and travel were indispensable on my journey from knowing nothing about Tokyo to knowing a teeny tiny bit about it.

First, a few books I think everyone heading to Tokyo should read or bring along:

Kariya, Tetsu and Akira Hanasaki.
Oishinbo.
Seven volumes in the
A La Carte
series, published in English by VIZ Media, 2009–2010. There is no greater introduction to the vast world of Japanese cuisine than this eccentric comic series. Begin with the first volume,
Japanese Cuisine,
and see if you aren’t hooked.

Tokyo City Atlas.
Kodansha, 2012. Even if you bring a smartphone, you’ll want to carry this slim book of maps; often one will step up where the other fails.

Robinson, Mark.
Izakaya.
Kodansha, 2008. Eating and drinking at an izakaya is one of the most exuberant food experiences you can have, up there with Spanish tapas and Thai street food.
Izakaya
takes you inside eight great Tokyo izakaya, with recipes, but it’s also a history, how-to, and culture guide, with beautiful photos.

Sakamoto, Yukari.
Food Sake Tokyo.
Little Bookroom, 2010. I can’t gush enough about this guidebook, which led us to literally dozens of great meals and shops. It’s a restaurant guide that also covers department store food shopping, outdoor markets, noodle chains, teahouses, and Tsukiji fish market. If it’s in Tokyo and worth eating, it’s in this book. The author keeps the book up to date on her blog,
foodsaketokyo.wordpress.com
.

And the rest:

Akio, Irene.
T is for Tokyo.
Global Directions/Things Asian Press, 2010. A cute children’s A-to-Z picture book about Tokyo, with a surprise ending.

Anderson, Tim.
Tune in Tokyo: The Gaijin Diaries.
AmazonEncore, 2011. Anderson’s hilarious self-published memoir is more about the author than about Tokyo, but it sure is funny.

Andoh, Elizabeth.
Washoku: Recipes from the Japanese Home Kitchen.
Ten Speed Press, 2005.

Bourdain, Anthony.
A Cook’s Tour.
Harper Perennial, 2002. This is going to sound dumb, but I never really understood that Tokyo was a serious food destination before reading the chapter “Tokyo Redux” in this book.

Bunting, Chris.
Drinking Japan.
Tuttle, 2011. An illustrated travel guide to beer, sake, and shōchū establishments throughout Japan.

Carey, Peter.
Wrong About Japan.
Vintage, 2006. A father takes his teenage son on a comic book-inspired trip to Tokyo.

Chavouet, Florent.
Tokyo on Foot.
Tuttle, 2011. A lavishly hand-illustrated walk through Tokyo neighborhoods by a French artist.

Davidson, Cathy.
36 Views of Mount Fuji.
Duke University Press, 2006.

Dept. Hikari.
Sushi: Its Unknown Varieties and History.
Mofu Publishing, 2013. Features the story of how conveyor-belt sushi chains used robotics and computer technology to achieve high quality, low prices, and an insanely great customer experience. You'll also learn about unusual types of regional sushi to add to your bucket list.

Dept., Hikari.
Yōshoku and Chūka: The Japanized Western and Chinese Dishes.
Mofu Publishing, 2013. Explores the tasty world of Western-inspired Japanese food, from hamburg steak to the spaghetti that horrifies visiting Italians. Beautifully written and full of unexpected and appetizing tidbits.

Dibble, Craig.
Real Life Japanese Food.
Unicom, 2002. This weird and hard-to-find book (it’s not on Amazon, as far as I can tell) is a Japanese language course centered entirely around food. Highly recommended if you can turn one up.

Dunlop, Fuchsia.
Every Grain of Rice.
W.W. Norton, 2013. Includes a great recipe for smacked cucumber salad, similar to the one we ate at the crispy soup dumpling restaurant in Nakano.

García, Héctor.
A Geek in Japan.
Tuttle, 2011. An illustrated introduction to geeky pursuits in Japan, especially manga, anime, and electronics.

Gibson, William.
Pattern Recognition.
Putnam, 2005. I don’t think there’s any writer I envy more than Gibson, whose descriptions of street-level Shibuya in this novel will be painfully nostalgic to anyone who has been there.

Gibson, William.
Distrust That Particular Flavor.
Putnam, 2012. Includes a couple of short nonfiction essays about Tokyo.

Grescoe, Taras.
Straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile.
Times Books, 2012. Includes an astonishing chapter about the scale and operation of the Tokyo train system.

Heisig, James.
Remembering the Kanji, Volume 1.
University of Hawaii Press, 2011. Probably the best way to learn kanji as an adult. Guaranteed to drive you crazy nevertheless.

Iyer, Pico.
The Lady and the Monk.
Vintage, 1992. A sentimental account of a year spent falling in love with Kyoto and a woman. Iyer went looking for a quiet and contemplative Japan very different from mine, and found it, but we share an appreciation for the way Japan can make an adult feel like a happy baby.

Kaneko, Amy.
Let’s Cook Japanese Food.
Chronicle, 2007. If you’ve never cooked Japanese food at home before, I’d start with this simple and very Westernized book, then move on to a cookbook by Andoh, Kurihara, Tsuji, or Kobayashi.

Kashiba, Shiro.
Shiro: Wit, Wisdom and Recipes from a Sushi Pioneer.
Chin Music Press, 2011. As much memoir as cookbook, very much worth reading even if you have no plans to make sushi at home.

Kawabata, Yasunari.
The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa.
University of California Press, 2005. A bizarre picaresque novel set in Roaring Twenties Asakusa. I’ve always wanted to throw around the term “picaresque”; goal achieved.

Kerr, Alex.
Lost Japan.
Lonely Planet, 2009. And
Dogs and Demons.
Hill and Wang, 2002. This pair of controversial books by Kerr, a Westerner who has lived in Japan most of his life, explore the dark side of Japanese society. Worth reading for several reasons: Kerr is a great writer; he has some amazing stories; and he is so negative about Japan that you’ll get the impression that the entire country is corrupt, despondent, and cemented over. Then, when you visit, your expectations can’t help but be exceeded.

Kobayashi, Kentaro.
Donburi Mania.
Vertical, 2009. A delightful little cookbook of rice bowl dishes. I was planning to email the author and ask if we could meet up in Tokyo; it turns out he’s a celebrity chef whose face I kept seeing on posters at bookstores.

Kurihara, Harumi.
Harumi’s Japanese Home Cooking.
HP Trade, 2007.

Matsushima, Kimiko.
Ramen, Udon, Soba.
Amazon Digital Services, 2012. A short, inexpensive electronic cookbook full of very authentic Japanese noodle recipes.

Nguyen, Andrea.
Asian Tofu.
Ten Speed Press, 2012.

Ono, Tadashi and Harris Salat.
Japanese Hot Pots.
Ten Speed Press, 2009.

Peters, Mark.
Japan Dreams.
CreateSpace, 2010. While researching this book, I had all of my prejudices about self-publishing shattered.
Japan Dreams
is beautifully written, weird, sexy, and full of smart observations. Highly recommended.

Pond, Karen.
Getting Genki in Japan.
Tuttle, 2012. A comic memoir in the Erma Bombeck mold by an American woman trying to figure out how Tokyo works.

Presser, Brandon.
Lonely Planet: Tokyo Encounter.
Lonely Planet, 2012. A good choice for a small, general-purpose guidebook.

Reid, T.R.
Confucius Lives Next Door.
Vintage, 2000. Reid tries to construct a thesis about Asian societies that has something to do with Confucianism. I never really understood the argument, but there are lots of great stories about Tokyo and other Asian cities in here.

Renn, Diana.
Tokyo Heist.
Viking Juvenile, 2012. A young adult mystery set in Seattle and Tokyo. Includes the great line, “I’m being grounded? For going to Asakusa?”

Reynolds, Betty.
Squeamish about Sushi.
Tuttle, 2006. And
Clueless in Tokyo.
Tuttle, 1997. A pair of illustrated guides to things you’ll see in Tokyo on your plate and otherwise. Reynolds has a colorful watercolor style that is very easy to like.

Samuels, Debra.
My Japanese Table.
Tuttle, 2011.

Satterwhite, Robb.
What’s What in Japanese Restaurants.
Kodansha, 2011. If you’re nervous about stepping into the kind of Tokyo restaurants I visited, get this book, which walks you through the different types of restaurants you’ll find, how to navigate them, and what you’ll find on the menu (in Japanese, English, and romanized Japanese).

Seidensticker, Edward.
Tokyo: From Edo to Shōwa.
Tuttle, 2010. An opinionated and readable history of Tokyo.

Steinberger, Amy.
Japan Ai
(
日本愛
). Go! Comi, 2007. A fun, brief, illustrated memoir about an American woman taking her first trip to Japan.

Tsuji, Shizuo.
Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art.
Kodansha, 2005. First published in 1980, this is still the best English-language Japanese cookbook you can buy.

Williamson, Kate.
A Year in Japan.
Princeton Architectural Press, 2006. Another swoony Kyoto memoir, this one lovingly illustrated. Worth it just for Williamson’s visual catalogs of tenugui and socks. Incidentally, the author’s other memoir,
At a Crossroads,
has nothing to do with Japan but is one of my all-time favorite books.

And a handful of movies:

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.
2006. Seriously, this movie is so great.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi.
2011.

Lost in Translation.
2003.

Walk Don’t Run.
1966. This screwball comedy set at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics was Cary Grant’s final film. Pretty funny, and filmed on location in Shimbashi.