Boi 3 - My Findings So Far

So far, I haven’t collected much more interesting information about festival and street food, but with Sanja Matsuri coming up that is bound to change.

 One thing I have noted though are the many unique flavours of these foods that are available in Japan. These flavours are very unlike anything that would be found in Canada. For example, dango, which is a popular street food in japan that made of mochi consisting of glutinous rice and usually served on a stick in a group of three, can be found in many different flavours. While speaking with one of the Japanese students in the I-House I was asked what kind of mochi I wanted to try, and as she listed the flavours I couldn’t help but want to try them all. The most popular dango flavour amongst the Japanese seems to be an-dango, which stands for azuki dango, and consists of a red bean paste. Red bean is a common and popular food flavour and is included in many different foods, even the other day at the opening ceremony I was eating a matcha flavoured cake and noticed there were red beans on the bottom. This is supposedly a very common flavour combination, which I was not previously aware of. Other types of dango include mitarashi dango, which is a sweet caramelized soy sauce, and hanami dingo which consist of three different coloured mochi, a green mochi which is tea flavoured, a plain white mochi, and a sakura (cherry blossom) pink mochi. I hope to try them all and return with my thoughts on how they taste, including which one is my favourite. 

One thing I have tried however are the infamous crepes in Harajuku. While strolling around in Harajuku with a friend, we saw countless crepe stand with lines that extended ridiculously long. After finding a reasonably sized one, we decided to order some, I chose to indulge in one that was filled with whipped cream, ice cream, strawberries, and topped with a chocolate brownie, it was delicious. 

Another thing to point out so far about the street food in Japan is how cheap it is! I find most foods only run to be a couple hundred yen, so a couple dollars Canadian. The crepe was about 600 yen, so 6 dollars, whereas a crepe from a mall in Calgary would likely cost you about 8 to 10 dollars, and that would just be a simple one, no brownies included. That may not seem like much but in the long run it definitely adds up. All and all while in Japan I’ve been spending significantly less when It comes to convenient foods, snacks and drinks than I would have in Canada. That’s all for now, I’ll be back with an update on some more delicious snacks soon!

-Sarah