Has Kyoto Prefecture’s super spicy food area still got the heat, or has it sizzled out?

A trip that was meant to be pleasantly nostalgic resulted in a big shock, but also came with a silver, spicy lining.  

Muko City in Kyoto Prefecture is a small city just to the west of Kyoto City. In 2009, Muko began a revitalization campaign by designating select eateries as part of an area dubbed Gekikara Shotengai, meaning “Super Spicy Shopping Market.” Our Japanese-language reporter with a fondness for wine lucky boxes and spicy food, Haruka Takagi, had visited the area during her student days 10 years ago and had a blast trying some of the spiciest food she had ever tasted. She hadn’t heard much about the area in recent years, though, and recently decided to pay it a visit.

In Haruka’s memory, there was a lively shopping complex called Life City next to the heart of Gekikara Shotengai and not far from Higashi-Muko Station, so that’s where she headed first. The atmosphere of the station felt the same as it did 10 years ago.

That didn’t mean nothing had changed, though. The retro-style cafe next to the station had closed and was replaced by a standing bar called Suiba. She thought a quick drink might actually be nice for people waiting for a train or bus, and the prices were definitely reasonable.

As Haruka headed straight out from the station, she caught sight of an intersection with a steady stream of cars but no traffic signal. There was also a Gyoza no Ohsho location that she recognized from her previous visit but hadn’t eaten at since she had opted for a Gekikara Shotengai spicy restaurant called Minmin instead.

From there she headed west, where Life City and Gekikara Shotengai were waiting for her.

…make that where they should have been waiting for her. She was rattled to her core. All she could find of the Gekikara Shotengai was one sign with the character for kara (辛) or “spicy.” Even more shocking, however, was that the spot where Life City had been was now a lonely-looking abandoned lot.

What the heck was going on here?! She kept walking, lost and befuddled. Where was the market? The banners? The signs proclaiming “Beware of gekikara (ultra spiciness)”?!

Did she make a wrong turn somewhere, or were her memories mistaken? She had come all this way to Muko City to find nothing. It was as if she had been tricked into believing some fake memories she had of this place.

As she kept circling the area between the station and where Life City should have been with an extremely puzzled expression, a male security guard who was directing traffic at the intersection approached her.

Guard: “Excuse me, are you looking for something?”

Haruka: “Isn’t the Gekikara Shotengai supposed to be around here?”

Guard: “Ah, that place. It’s not here anymore.”

Haruka: “Not…here…?!”

Guard: “That’s right. This area has changed a lot. See over there? A huge apartment complex was built and Life City was completely demolished. On the other side [east side] of the tracks there are still a few shops, but for the most part, Gekikara Shotengai no longer exists.”

Haruka thanked him and began to walk away, but the devastation of hearing that the spicy area no longer existed prevented her mouth from forming any other words. She’d figured it might be smaller than it was back in the peak of its popularity…but to learn that it was basically wiped off the map was too shocking. Searching on her phone, she also learned that Life City had closed in 2020 but wasn’t demolished until late 2023–so the structure of it had remained until recently.

While almost all of her motivation had now deflated, she still latched onto the nugget that the man had told her about there still being a few shops on the other side of the train tracks. She decided to pay that side a visit before going home. She trudged along, crossing the tracks, and within two minutes caught sight of something promising on a shopfront.

Yes, it really was there–at the Tonkotsu Himawari (“sunflower”) restaurant, there was a banner for Gekikara Shotengai!!

And that wasn’t all, because she also spotted Kirinen, a famous Chinese-style restaurant that had made countless people cry from its ultra spicy tantanmen and mapo tofu.

Thankfully, there was still spice to be found in this town after all.

While Haruka had been searching in vain earlier, both of the restaurants had finished their lunch service, but that didn’t matter to her at this point. Sure, it would have been nice to eat at one of them, but just being able to finally see the Gekikara Shotengai banners with her own eyes after that rollercoaster ride of emotions made coming all the way to Muko City worth it in the end. She wanted to cry in happiness.

Things took an even better turn as she headed back to Higashi-Muko Station and a familiar character came into view.

It was none other than Kalucky, the mascot character of Gekikara Shotengai with a pepper for a head. His name is a portmanteau of kara, meaning “spicy,” and the English word “lucky.”

A monument of Kalucky with slightly faded colors was still standing, too. He stood proudly as if to tell the world that yes, Muko City is still a city that seeks to champion super spicy things.

At this point Haruka was really was craving something spicy, so she pulled up Google maps and found a miraculous discovery about 15 minutes away by car in Kyoto City’s Fushimi Ward: a famous mapo tofu specialty restaurant called Karaimonya.

There was no way she was going to miss this opportunity so she grabbed a cab and headed over. A bowl of the famous mapo tofu cost 950 yen (US$6.40), plus, for an additional 100 yen, she was able to order it “extra spicy.”

▼ At Karaimonya, you choose your desired spiciness level and whether you’d like rice or noodles.

It turned out to be some of the darkest, most intense-looking mapo tofu sauce she had ever seen.

To sum up her first bite in five words: umami – hotness – depth – fragrance – NUMBNESS.

It was so incredibly spicy that Haruka’s taste buds seemed to be confusing the spice for actual temperature heat. Even while eating it with white rice, her body felt like it was growing warmer and warmer with each bite, with beads of sweat glistening from her pores. Her stomach felt like it was smoldering inside, but she didn’t care because it was just so darn delicious.

Filled with supreme spicy satisfaction, the earlier sadness of the day seemed off in a far, distant place.

While her trip wasn’t anything like the nostalgic walk down memory lane that she had expected, Haruka is still glad that she went. She also says that you should take this experience as a sign to revisit all of those beloved places in your memories while you still can.

Reference: Kyoto Muko City Gekikara Shotengai, Karaimonya, Himawari, Kirinen

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American Reddit post clams this soy sauce will change your life【Taste test】

Seiji prepares to have his life changed by a Shikoku soy sauce.

Like most people born and raised in Japan, our reporter Seiji Nakazawa has been using soy sauce as a condiment for his whole life. So it definitely piqued his interest when he was browsing English-language Reddit and came across a thread where an American woman said she’d bought a new brand of say sauce and declared “I’m not exaggerating when I say that it is life changing!”

The woman even included a photo of the bottle. With its label written entirely in Japanese, Seiji was quickly able to see that it was a bottle of soy sauce made by Yamaroku, a soy sauce company on the island of Shodoshima in Kagawa Prefecture in Japan’s Shikoku region.

Seiji had never tried Yamaroku soy sauce, or, honestly, even heard of it. Doing a little research, though, he learned that the company has a history that goes back roughly a century and a half. If its soy sauce really has life-changing levels of deliciousness, it would stand to make an especially big difference in Seiji’s life, considering how much soy sauce he, like most Japanese people, consumes.

And so Seiji bought a bottle. To clarify, Seiji ordered a bottle of Kikubishio soy sauce, which has pictures of chrysanthemums (kiku in Japanese) and a black stripe on the bottom left part of the label. Yamaroku also has a soy sauce variety called Tsurubishio with cranes (tsuru) and a red stripe on the label, but Kikubishio is the one the Reddit poster said was life-changing, while a mistakenly purchased bottle of Tsurubishio “taste[d] like normal American-issued soy sauces.”

▼ The black stripe on the Kikubishio bottle

Kikubishio can be ordered online through Amazon (here) and Rakuten Japan (here), and with shipping the 500-mililiter (16.9-ounce) bottle came to about 2,600 yen (US$17.70), with the shippig being about 660 yen of that. Compared to a similar-sized bottle of regular Kikkoman, Japan’s most common brand of mass-market soy sauce, Kkubishio is about six to seven times more expensive, but hey, if it changed Seiji’s life, it’d be worth the extra cost.

Opening the bottle, he poured the Kikubishio into a soy sauce dish.

It seemed a touch more aromatic than the average soy sauce. Taking a taste, Seiji found the flavor to be good too, but not anywhere near what he’d call life-changing. “It pretty much tasted like, well, soy sauce,” he says.

But Seiji will be the first person to admit that he’s not a soy sauce sommelier, so next he decided to do a side-by-side tasting of Kikubishio and regular Kikkoman soy sauce.

Once again, he grabbed a soy sauce dish and poured in some Kikkoman, and was shocked to see…

…just how different the colors were between the two brands!

Placed next to each other, the Kikkoman was bright and warm in color, while the Kikubishio was darkly opaque. However, Seiji didn’t come away from this impressed by the visual density of the Kikubishio so much as by the clarity of the Kikkoman. Honestly, when Seiji imagines soy sauce in his mind’s eye, he pictures a dark hue like the Kikubishio, so his surprise was about how different from that the Kikkoman looks when they’re viewed simultaneously.

Checking their scents, the Kikubishio did indeed have a relatively more pronounced bouquet. Tasting each, he found the Kikubishio to have, by comparison, the more refined aftertaste, one which, if he had to liken it to something, Seiji would say reminded him of wine.

The key clause there, though, is “if he had to liken it to something.” Really, though, the difference in taste between the two was fairly small, and miniscule in comparison to their difference in color.

But now it was time for the main event. As we mentioned at the start of this article, soy sauce is a condiment. It’s not really something that’s meant to be tasted or consumed all by itself, so the only was to see if Kikubishio is truly life-changing would be to use it as intended, as a seasoning.

This was also a good excuse for Seiji to put some sushi on the company expense account.

Seiji decided to go with a maguro (tuna) takeout set from popular revolving sushi chain Sushiro. Sushiro really knows their stuff when it comes to tuna, but they’re still an affordable chain, enough so that Seiji is very familiar with how their sushi tastes, which would let him judge how life-changing the Kikubishio itself is.

So Seiji ate a piece of sushi with the Kikubishio…

…and then another with the Kikkoman.

Remember how he couldn’t tell much of a difference in flavor when he tried the soy sauces by themselves? Well, after trying them with sushi, Seiji says:

“I could taste even less difference between them.”

Again, Seiji isn’t at all saying that Kikubishio is bad. He’s just saying that, to his taste buds, the basic Kikkoman tastes just as good, and at a fraction of the cost.

Seiji couldn’t help feeling just a little sad that his life hadn’t been changed by the Kikubishio, and also couldn’t help wondering how it could have made such a huge impression on the Reddit thread starter. Then he remembered the woman’s comment about how it tasted so much better than “normal American-issued soy sauces.” Seiji isn’t familiar with what the soy sauce that’s readily available in the United States tastes likes, so maybe Kikubishio really is on another level of deliciousness by that standard. For him, though, it’s not hard, or expensive, to find soy sauce that tastes that good in Japan. So while this didn’t turn out to be a life-changing experience for him, it showed him that maybe, in terms of soy sauce, he’s already been living the good life all along.

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“Red Wing Burger” is the newest crazy creation from Japan’s oldest hamburger chain【Taste test】

Dom Dom Burger goes big with a red wing burger for a red wing town.

Usually, you’d expect the fish sandwich option at a fast food restaurant to be the more sensible choice. Sure, the menu might have hamburgers with multiple patties, extra cheese, or other decadent extras, but the fish sandwich is generally a more low-key eating experience.

But that’s not the case right now at Dom Dom Hamburger.

Though it’s Japan’s oldest hamburger chain, Dom Dom tends to have a pretty low profile, by nature of not having all that many chains. The irony of the chain being often overlooked is that they sometimes come up with some crazy sandwiches that really stand out from the norm, and the latest is the Akaihane Burger, which is being offered exclusively at the Dom Dom branch in Ion Style Akabane, a shopping mall in Tokyo’s Kita Ward.

Akabane and Akaihane both translate as “red wings,” but the Akaihane Burger is actually a seafood sandwich, which is priced at 560 yen (US$3.80). That’s actually a little on the pricy side for a fried fish sandwich in Japan, but the extra cost is justified because…

…the Akaihane Burger is huge!

Oh, and just so you don’t get the mistaken idea that the Akaihane Burger achieves its dynamic appearance by using a tiny bun, here it is next to a Dom Dom fried chicken sandwich, which is the same circumference as a normal fast food burger.

The “Akaihane” name seems to be because the piece of fried whitefish is so large it looks like the wing of some great bird, an it’s slathered with tomato sauce. You also get some shredded cabbage for extra texture.

Lifting up the bun really hammers home how huge the sandwich is. Dom Dom says the fish is 25 centimeters (9.8 inches long, and while we didn’t bring a tape measure to check for ourselves, after eyeballing it we believe the official dimensions.

When eating the Akaihane Burger, it’s best to start at the more tapered end of the fish, so that the broader, heavier end can remain in place as an anchor to keep it from sliding out from the bun.

Biting into it, we learned that Dom Dom saved the shocking factor for the visuals here. The sandwich itself plays things straight with no crazy seasonings or hidden ingredients, although the combination of fried fish and tomato sauce is a little unorthodox.

But even if it doesn’t surprising the taste buds, the Akaihane Burger still makes them very happy, as this is a great tasting fried fish sandwich, and considering how filling it is, a pretty good value too.

We got our Akaihane Burger on March 16, the first day they went on sale. Dom Dom Hamburger says they’ll only be around “while supplies last,” and made no guarantee that they’d even be available for a second day, but luckily with Dom Dom’s penchant for crazy burger, we’ll see the return of the Akaihane Burger, or something similarly shocking and mouthwatering, sometime soon.

Restaurant information
Dom Dom Hamburger (Ion Style Akabane branch) / ドムドムハンバーガー(イオンスタイル赤羽店)
Address: Tokyo-to, Kita-ku, Kamiya 3-12-1, Ion Style Akabane 1st floor
東京都北区神谷3丁目12-1イオンスタイル赤羽1F
Open 9 a.m.-10 pm.
Website

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Beautiful Totoro diorama box flower sets offered for Mother’s Day, but look great all year long

Sure, you could buy these for your mom, but you could also buy them for yourself.

What with all the magical creatures Mei and Satsuki meet and the mysterious adventures they go on in My Neighbor Totoro, it’s sometimes easy to forget that the whole reason they’ve moved to the enchanted countryside is to be closer to the hospital where their mom is convalescing. That familial connection gets reinforced in the film’s final act, though, and so Ghibli specialty shop Donguro no Kyowakoku is releasing a new line of beautiful Totoro items just in time for Mother’s Day, although they’re really suitable for any Ghibli fan in your life (including yourself).

Though the tradition originated overseas, in Japan carnations are very strongly associated with Mother’s Day. Because of that, Donguri Kyowakoku is offering gift sets consisting of carnations and Totoro “diorama boxes.”

Now, you might be wondering why they’re called “diorama boxes” instead of just “planters” or “flower pots.” That’s because while they’ll hold flowers, they can also hold plenty of other things too.

Even if you don’t put anything inside, it’s still a joy to look at, thanks to all the little details and expressive facial features on the three differently sized Totoros.

In addition to the bucket-style diorama box shown above, there’s also one where the Totoro trio congregates around one of Mei’s rainboots.

▼ We can tell it’s Mei’s because her name (めい) is written on it in hiragana.

Oh, wait, did I say Totoro trio? This is actually a quartet, because in addition to the little white Totoro dozing where the wearer’s toes would go…

…there’s one climbing up the back, too.

The big gray Totoro is actually a completely separate figure who comes bundled with the set…

…and the beautifully rendered dewdrop on the tip of the medium blue Totoro’s umbrella leaf might just be the coolest touch of all.

Donguri Kyowakoku also has a carnation and diorama box set for fans of Kiki’s Delivery Service, graced by black cat Jiji and, ostensibly, one of his kittens who appears in the Hayao Miyazaki-directed anime’s ending credits.

Here, the container is fashioned after Kiki’s messenger bag, and you can spot her delivery service emblem on the back.

Each diorama box also comes with a postcard, which you can use to write a message to your mom or whoever else you’re giving it to.

▼ In the case of the Kiki’s one, you’ll probably want to make sure the recipient is familiar with the source material before giving her a card addressed to “Miss Witch,” especially if you’re giving it to your mom.

The boxes’ materials are listed as polyester resin, PVC, EVA, and iron. Size-wise, they’re around 18.5 centimeters (7.3 inches) across and 13 to 17 inches tall. Pricing for the sets, which includes the diorama box, carnations, and domestic shipping, is 10,780 yen (US$73) for the Mei boot and Jiji versions (available through the Donguri Kyowakoku online shop here and here), and 12,100 for the Totoro bucket (available here). And if you’re interested in just the boxes, not the flowers, Donguri Kyowakoku plans to start offering them by themselves sometime next month.

Source: Donguri Kyowakoku
Top image: Donguri Kyowakoku
Insert images: Donguri Kyowakoku (1, 2, 3)
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Can Starbucks Japan’s new Frappuccino and “cheer up” drink really change your mood?

Two drinks designed to improve your energy and mood at a pivotal time of year.

Just as the days seem to be flying by, so too are the limited-edition Starbucks drinks, as we find ourselves moving on to the seventh new Frappuccino of the year, not counting the uber-rare My Fruit³ variety.

This time, we have the Caramelly Milk Coffee Frappuccino, joined by a special beverage called the Pink Fruits Cheer Up, both of which are designed to buoy our spirits at a time when people are transitioning to new jobs, schools, and sometimes new places, as April is the start of the fiscal year.

Keen to find out if the drinks truly deliver on their promise to brighten the mood, our Starbucks expert and coffee lover K. Masami purchased both of them, and because coffee-based Frappuccinos are a rarity, she asked staff to recommend a customisation to increase its caffeine strength and flavour.

They recommended adding more of the Frappuccino coffee for 50 yen (US$0.34) so that’s what she did, also switching to soy milk for an extra 50 yen, seeing as dairy no longer agrees with Masami’s belly.

Normally, when Masami wants to increase the caffeine content she simply requests an extra espresso shot so she was surprised when staff told her it would be better to increase the amount of roasted coffee that was originally included with the drink to create a more harmonious taste.

This was something she’d never thought to do before, so she was thankful to learn this new hack, and when she received the drink, it looked just as caramelly as the one on the promotional poster.

Unlike a lot of limited-edition Frappuccinos, this one doesn’t have a whole lot of pulp, chocolate or cookie pieces blended into the drink or in the topping, giving it a much simpler look. However, it’s this simplicity that makes it so good, as the milky coffee remains central to the flavour profile, while the white chocolate and vanilla sauce add richness and sweetness and the butterscotch sauce on the side of the cup creates a slightly bitter, caramelly contrast.

For a caffeine hound like Masami, the coffee flavour was on point so she highly recommends adding extra coffee for more of a physical and mental lift, if that’s what you’re after. The balance of flavours was so comforting it made her feel like she was being hugged from the inside out, leaving her with a sense of happiness that would put her in good stead for the rest of the day.

▼ So what about the Pink Fruits Cheer Up?

This drink is so vibrant it makes you happy just by looking at it, and the fruity white grape, lemon, and rosehip juice within the drink makes it the polar opposite to the creamy Frappuccino.

The gradated, textured look of the drink comes from the jelly pieces, made with pink fruit juice — a blend of acerola, pink grapefruit, cranberry, and apple — that adds bursts of tart acidity to the beverage. Like the Frappuccino, this drink contains caffeine extracted from green coffee and polyphenols extracted from cacao for extra energy, although it’s undetectable in the flavour profile.

This fruity drink is a refreshing one made to such a high standard and with such a unique blend of  ingredients that Masami predicts it will be the best new Starbucks drink of 2024.

That’s a bold claim from Masami, who knows her stuff when it comes to Starbucks drinks, so be sure to try them while they’re available until 9 April. They really do have the power to lift your mood and give you a boost of energy to take on any challenges that may come your way!

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Legendary Melon Bread by Tokyo Banana returns after 20-year absence【Taste Test】

It has awakened.

Tokyo Banana is the go-to souvenir snack when visiting the Japanese metropolis. Its simple design of sponge cake around a banana-flavored custard is surprisingly delicious. I’m not even all that crazy about bananas but love these things. They’re just that good.

Its popularity has earned it collabs with other juggernaut brands like Pokémon and KitKat, but those little cakes aren’t all Tokyo Banana is known for. Legend has it there exists a melon bread so tasty, it only graces us with its presence every 20 years. It is the Legendary Melon Bread (Densetsu No Melonpan).

Legendary Melon Bread is currently exclusively sold at the outbound Ebina Service Area between Kanagawa and Tokyo for the first time in 20 years, but for the month of March only, it’s also being sold at the Tokyo Banana store in Tokyo Station.

▼ It’s fitting since Tokyo Banana is also home to their Legendary Curry Bread.

Mr. Sato headed over to investigate but had his work cut out for him as these sweet buns have been selling out fast every day. They’re only sold two times a day at noon and 4 p.m., so he arrived at 11:30 a.m. only to find there was already a long line-up. This wasn’t even the first day they went on sale and must be what it’s like here every day.

A sign on the counter pointed out that there was a limit of three boxes per customer. Mr. Sato was also given a numbered ticket that further explained one box cost 1,188 yen (US$8) and had three Legendary Melon Breads inside. Even arriving 30 minutes early he barely made the cutoff, so he’d recommends anyone else to get there at least an hour ahead of time.

Our reporter had made it though, and happily received his adorable box specially designed for Legendary Melon Bread.

An ordinary melon bread is usually a bun with a bit of a donut texture topped with a layer of lightly baked cookie dough. Legendary Melon Bread, however, uses a chocolate Danish pastry base made from the finest wheat Canada has to offer.

It also has a rather thick layer of cookie-like crust that appears to be in the shape of a heart.

Melon bread often has a filling too and in this case, Tokyo Banana’s signature banana custard was used.

Mr. Sato was expecting the thick cookie layer to be crispier than other melon breads, but it turned out to be surprisingly soft. Although he prefers them more on the crispy side, he was won over by the classic taste of Tokyo Banana’s cream as it blended smoothly with the chocolate bread.

Honestly, “legendary” might be a bit of a stretch, but you can’t blame them for having pride in the product. Still, it was definitely tasty enough that Mr. Sato could understand why people were lining up for these baked goods. If you’re in Tokyo Station and want some too, just remember to get there as early as possible.

Store information
Tokyo Bananas / 東京ばな奈s (トウキョーバナナ―ズ)
Address: Tokyo-to, Chiyoda-ku, Marunouchi 1-9-1 (immediately after exiting the Yaesu central ticket gate of JR Tokyo Station)
東京都千代田区丸の内1丁目9-1 (JR東京駅八重洲中央改札口を出てすぐ)
Open: 9:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m.
*Legendary Melon Bread is limited from 1 to 31 March and sold twice a day at noon and 4:00 p.m.

SASTAR 2
Expasa Ebina (Outbound) / EXPASA海老名 (下り)
Kanagawa-ken, Ebina-shi, Oyaminami 5-2-1
神奈川県海老名市大谷南5丁目2-1
Open 24 hours a day
*Legendary Melon Bread is sold twice a day at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

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