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Tokyo: Oishi!
Reader Suzy Pope won our 'Cities' online writing competition with this mouthwatering tale of Tokyo street food...
The tick and fizzle of battered prawns gently frying set my stomach rumbling. Squat shop fronts lined the narrow Sunamachi street in Tokyo’s Ginza District. Lanterns and streamers hung from every lamp post. A mushroom parade of umbrellas ruffled in hurried apology as lone cyclists slowly picked their way through the crowd – bicycle bells are too rude for Tokyo, so every front wheel that gently noses into the back of your leg is a surprise.
“This is the Tempura King,” our guide, Miyu, explained. A stocky man in a white chef uniform stood proudly behind a stand bursting with golden battered morsels in all shapes and sizes. The neat black kanji script that displayed the names and prices looked more like poetry than price tags.
“Please, have anything you like,” Miyu said, her head dipping in a slight bow.
Sunamachi is a shopping street teeming with 100-yen shops, all selling the same plungers, coat-hangers and greeting cards. Kitchenware spills out of shopfronts, and fresh fruit and vegetables are stacked high.
This street is not on anyone’s bucket list. There’s no historical lure here, such as in the commercial area around the Imperial Palace; there are no bright neon lights like those found at Akihabara. There is, however, food. Street food. And people. Ordinary people doing ordinary things, such as shopping for toilet plungers.
I bit into the crisp tempura. “Good?” Miyu asked. I nodded. “Then you should say ‘oishi’, it means yummy.”
This story is from the March 2017 edition of Wanderlust Travel Magazine.
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This story is from the March 2017 edition of Wanderlust Travel Magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
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