31 Japanese STREET FOODS Across Japan!! TOKYO Oden, OSAKA Sushi, KYOTO Mochi + FUKUOKA Ramen

Use my code CHOPSTICKTRAVEL10 and link: https://bit.ly/lukemartinBKMar22 to get 10% off (save up to $47!) your own authentic Japanese subscription box from Bokksu! Don’t miss out on this amazing snack-journey through Japan!

JAPAN is often regarded as the top food destination of all, and I can say without a doubt that most of the best meals of my life were in this country. This is the ULTIMATE Japanese food tour video from Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, Okinawa, Fukuoka and more!!! The TOP 31 MUST TRY foods in Japan on your next visit!!

The food in Japan varies region to region. Join me on a journey across the country stopping in Japan’s foodie hotspots to taste the regional Japanese delicacies. Thank you for watching and if you enjoyed this video, make sure to LIKE and subscribe so that you never miss an episode of Chopstick Travel.

Video Chapters:
0:00-0:34 Intro
0:35-1:57 Grilled Scallop
1:58-2:57 Mochi
2:58-4:34 Fugu
4:35-4:46 Kobe Beef
4:47-7:15 Tuna Cheeck
7:16-8:59 Bokksu
9:00-10:38 Parrotfish Sashimi
10:39-12:07 Spam Onigiri
12:08-13:33 Takoyaki
13:34-14:59 Ramen
15:00-16:29 Oyster
16:30-18:24 Okonomiyaki
18:25-19:57 Unagi
19:58-21:17 Soba
21:18-22:20 Uni
22:21-23:03 Highball
23:04-24:30 Otoro
24:31-26:03 Donut
26:04-27:10 Sake
27:11-28:20 Fish Cake
28:21-30:16 Oden
30:17-31:17 Eel Butter
31:18-32:27 Taiyaki
32:28-33:42 Yakitori
33:43-35:13 Tempura
35:14-36:33 Whiskey
36:34-37:50 Doteyaki
37:51-39:09 Kakigori
39:10-40:34 Kushikatsu
40:35-42:01 Sashimi don
42:02-42:16 Outro

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I’m Luke Martin, food lover and world traveller! I make videos about local, authentic and unique foods from across the globe. I particularly like to sample street food across Asia. I’ve eaten my way across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, parts of Africa, North America and the list is still growing! My mission is to create content that is entertaining, informative, honest and fun! I love what I do and I’m always grateful for your support! Thank you and see you on the next episode!

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This video was sponsored by Bokksu

What’s up guys today i have another compilation style video for you this time from japan undoubtedly one of the greatest food destinations in the entire world japan is one country that i have missed dearly since the beginning of the pandemic so in this episode i’m going to

Take you to try 31 of the top foods you must try on your next trip to japan okay our next snack today is a grilled scallop it looks absolutely delicious they are grilling these right over charcoal and they put a little slab of butter in and some salt and pepper

And a little bit of soy sauce as well you can see it’s kind of just bathing in its own juices there so we’ve got the the meaty parts of the scallop here and then also other part of the scalp so let me try one of these meaty parts by itself here first

It is extremely tender it’s a little bit salty and a little bit of spice from that pepper too but really you can taste that butter that butter is what’s comprising all that juice here almost finished with our scallop it is just completely soaking in that butter soy

Sauce juice mixture we’ve only got this piece here and the meat from the middle so i’m gonna eat both those together and then chase that with some of the juice let’s try that kind of salty buttery and delicious wow hey So we just watched the show that was amazing they’re so fast and this is a special type of mochi it’s green but not because of matcha i think it’s maybe he has something called mugwort or something i can’t remember i’m gonna try it filled with fresh red beans and still

Warm from them pounding it’s really good Oh so you can see that it’s paper paper thin i’ve never seen sashimi slice so thin i can barely pick it up with my chopsticks and there we have it i’m gonna actually take one of these green onions and maybe kind of wrap it up and then we

Also have a ponzu sauce here that i’ll dip it in there’s a couple things in here some chili and some daikon radish and let’s try the infamous fubu sashimi the meat has a very interesting texture to it it’s got a lean almost crunch to it but at the same time because it’s

Thinly sliced so thinly sliced it’s very easy to chew so you can taste that texture or feel that texture the flavor slightly sweet i think i have to try one with less of the ponzu sauce so let me go in and try one of the overnight rehydrated pieces look how

Thin that is just this very tiny dip of the ponzu this time so i can taste that natural flavor Foreign He recommended i put a piece of garlic on top and a little bit of salt and pepper right there so let’s just try that without sauce by itself first here It’s extremely juicy it has a really amazing natural beef flavor extremely aromatic wow and super tender tender is an understatement oh man that’s better than i expected the reason you come to this izakaya is for this dish here this is their most famous most popular dish and seriously

One of the most interesting things i’ve ever seen prepared so this is broiled tuna so he is blow torching this with a flame thrower you could say and he is cooking these massive chunks of tuna and then tops them with chives and he is grabbing them with his bare hand and

Dunking his hand in cold water and flipping these it is one of the most incredible feats of cooking i have ever seen in my life and it smells so good so smoky there’s smoke filling the entire izakaya well pouring it onto the street i guess i should say but let’s try this

I’ve been waiting so long to try this dish oh my gosh wow it’s like beef it’s like the kobe beef we ate the other day it is ridiculously tender so ridiculously smoky too and really nice with those chives they give it kind of a fresh touch but wow you can taste just

Like pure smoke and that is big chunks of tuna cheek wow incredible today’s episode is sponsored by baksu this is an awesome curated japanese snack box sent straight from japan to your doorstep and it’s packed full of unique japanese treats that you can try with your friends and family boxu even

Works exclusively with japanese candy makers that have been in business for over a hundred plus years to bring you some really unique candies and japanese treats it’s just a lot of fun to break open your bok su and see what this month’s box has to offer there’s always

All kinds of different flavors and snacks you can try inside and one of my favorite thing about japanese candies or treats is the packaging it’s always so kawaii cute really unique packaging this is a ho coco pastry called manju it’s stuffed with purple yam and it comes from tokyo let’s try it

Oh wow that’s soft whoa look at that color There are so many different things inside the baksu like this ume shiso flavored rice crackers so pickled plum and perilla leaf flavored rice crackers or these spicy heart-shaped senbei for the valentine’s day special boxu or this is really cool this onpan from a place in hokkaido called honma which has been

Selling these anpans for over a hundred years like i said it’s just a lot of fun every month it’s changing full of unique japanese snacks that you can share with your friends and family you can use my code chopstick travel 10 and my link to get 10 off your japanese snack box

Subscription from boxu and you can start your snack journey across japan at home [Applause] So So we bought our sashimi downstairs and we actually bought another fish to get deep fried and then we also ordered up another dish but just check out the sashimi here this is absolutely incredible so they serve it to you in this boat you can see it’s like this

Plastic kind of boat we’ve got this is a snub-nosed parrot fish with sashimi just raw and then i love the presentation that they have it set up here kind of stylishly i’m going to try the sashimi the parrotfish sashimi which is also a specialty here in okinawa this beautiful

Blue and orange and vibrant colored fish uh absolutely raw so actually let me just grab a piece of wasabi here grab a little bit of wasabi oh grab my sashimi a little bit of soy sauce let’s try that my first bite this time of sashimi in japan wow

It has amazing texture it’s soft but it’s kind of firm at the same time the skin part or the exterior of the fish is quite firm but the flesh is very soft we’ve got our breakfast today and that is this here we’ve got a onigiri which

Is a rice ball but this is a very special type of onigiri we waited at a very popular shop for about 30 minutes or so and they are just making tons of these so in okinawa there’s actually a us military base kadena air base and there is something like 20 000 americans

Stationed there so there’s a pretty big american influence here in okinawa and you can actually see that in some of its food including this onigiri here so if you look here you can actually see there’s a fat piece of spam on the inside of this so it’s very simple it’s

Just spam a kind of omelette egg scrambled egg and then wrapped up in some rice and some seaweed on the outside it’s gonna be my first time trying it’s almost like a kind of hamburger wow oh wow that’s really good that is surprisingly delicious the spam is actually really

Good it’s nice and salty and it kind of helps contrast all that heavy rice and the egg it’s very simple but it’s actually full of flavor it’s quite hearty with all those ingredients in there that egg that big slab of spam and then tons of rice but honestly i was a

Little bit deterred at first because there’s spam in it and i’m not a big spam fan but it’s really good just gives it the saltiness that it really needs we have our takoyaki and what it is is something that is extremely famous here in osaka and it’s sort of like a octopus

Batter ball so first they fill this special kind of skillet filled with batter and then they put a big chunk of octopus in the middle of the batter and then form that batter into a ball very skillfully and it’s really kind of mesmerizing to watch them make it and

Then this kind is topped with all different sorts of things so we’ve got some brown sauce and also a mayonnaise and tons of green onions and also these bonito flakes which kind of look like they’re moving or they’re alive but they’re actually just little thin slices

Of dried fish so let’s try one of these out you can see it’s almost just like a little bag because it’s barely cooked uh on the inside just on the outside crispy but then the whole inside is like liquid and there’s a chunk of octopus so let’s

Try one of these out i hope i don’t burn myself So the batter as i mentioned is very undercooked on the inside it’s still really creamy and there’s a nice firm chunk of sort of chewy octopus on the inside i really love the octopus it’s kind of tangy from the mayonnaise and the sauce that they put on the top and a

Little hint of green onion those are super addicting okay we have our ramen we are inside the restaurant this just smells absolutely incredible and the tonkatsu ramen here in fukuoka was created here in fukuoka and it’s characterized by a very thick creamy broth so the restaurant did

Actually have an english menu in it recommend you just try the broth and the noodles before adding anything else so just check out this bowl here it’s absolutely beautiful we ordered up the chashu roast pork version so lots of pieces of pork around the outside a couple little green onions and then some

Wood ear mushrooms so just check that out look at how creamy that broth is wow okay let me try the brother wow wow that is extremely creamy it’s like milk almost very very very thick and there’s a very thin layer of oil on the top as well let’s try these noodles next

They’re soft on the outside but very firm on the inside and they do an amazing job at retaining the broth on the outside the broth is where the flavor is coming from here that is boiled for countless hours okay we just waited at a stall that’s selling some fresh oysters and also uni

Um sea urchin but we ordered up two of the medium sized oysters the guy is shucking the oysters up fresh right out front oh i suppose these are medium size even though they look absolutely massive to me i’m gonna start with some of this lemon juice here try not to put too much

Oh that might have been a little bit too much that’s okay and also tabasco be a little bit generous with tabasco and i don’t know this may or may not be a one biter yeah let’s try to say this just looks so so good all right that was extremely fresh and delicious

Certainly a big one biter but it has just such an amazing kind of natural ocean flavor and then very sour from that lemon juice and a little bit spicy and acidic from the tabasco sauce i put on wow that was an incredible single bite We are sitting down now in the okonomo yaki restaurant and this place is called bukutero it’s super cool we had to wait in a little bit of a line just put your name down when you first get here and we are sitting by our side and they’re

Going to serve our okonomiyaki which is a savory japanese pancake so we ordered the pork kind and this is just kind of looks like a sloppy mess but it really smells incredible so there is an egg in there tons of bean sprouts tons of cabbage and then a little bit of

Batter as well and then it’s topped with a sweet kind of like a worcestershire sauce and then tons of mayonnaise you can see squiggled on there and then also some shredded seaweed flakes so let me kind of break this up with the spatula here sometimes people refer to it as a

Japanese pizza the way that you have to eat it kind of cutting it into these triangles but it smells just so aromatic and delicious so there i’ve broken off a piece so let’s grab this piece right here and try that oh that is phenomenal there is a lot of

Sauce going on there so it’s a little bit sweet from that dark sauce but a little bit kind of tangy from the mayonnaise you can taste the seaweed flakes coming through as well and i got a little piece of pork in there but overall the texture is very kind of sloppy it’s really

Interesting it’s almost like a stew that you’ve fried into a salad it’s really interesting but delicious and super addicting Um Next up was the grilled unagi so after the charcoal was done heating up he used this really red-hot looking charcoal to grill the unagi very smoky and you can actually see the eel shrinking in size it’s on a couple little skewers to allow him to keep flipping it but maybe he

Only grilled it for six or seven minutes and then it’s put into a steamer for about 10 to 15 minutes depending on the thickness and the size of the heel Let me try this eel There’s just like butter it just melts in your mouth okay we’ve ordered up our soba as you just saw from the vending machine and she made it up this is such a cool stall right on the side of the road and check this bowl of soba out so sometimes soba

Will refer to the buckwheat noodles here in okinawa okinawan soba is not buckwheat noodles it’s just a regular wheat noodle almost thicker like a udon not quite but a little bit thicker than soba i got the san maniku soba which is the braised pork belly so you can see

Those huge slabs of pork belly and i believe these are some sort of a fish cake and then just topped with some green onions and it looks absolutely beautiful so let’s dig in next up i’m going to try a piece of pork belly check that out that is an absolute

Massive slab of breezed pork let’s try that very light flavor again just porky it’s almost a little bit like sweet almost kind of honey flavor to it we have uh overflowing rolls of tons of uni sea urchin and that is just gonna be one of the most beautiful things i’ve ever seen

I think there’s some sushi rolls underneath there but i can’t even really tell so let me try to grab this without destroying it too much here okay there we go oh oh yeah those are sticking together pretty good oh i’m losing my uni okay let’s try it like that

Oh that is really good actually oh man that might be the best uni i’ve ever had wow describing uni as creamy is such an understatement it is so so smooth and it’s really rich sometimes it’s salty but this time it’s not so salty and sometimes you kind of get a

Little bit of a metallic taste which i can taste a little bit here but not as much as some of the ones i’ve had before that is some seriously fresh uni sea urchin high ball has come whiskey and soda water wilkinson soda water let’s make this up pour our soda water in there

I don’t know exactly what kind of whiskey they’re using probably centauri whiskey and cheers oh yeah that’s a little bit strong we usually get the ginger ale or lemon high ball but they just had straight high ball that’s really good though and uh good way to cool off it’s very hot here in

Okinawa we’re in the covered shopping arcade but the izakaya is sort of set back in an alley and i love these style bars here in japan we are sitting down now at the sushi sashimi shop we ordered up some ottoro which is the belly of the tuna this tuna

Presumably you can see that i’m sitting right next to which is really really cool a unique feature about this shop and just check out this tuna that looks absolutely beautiful so this is the fattiest version that you can get i’m just gonna move this little flower and i’m gonna try this piece

Okay that literally took less than five seconds to completely liquefy in my mouth it is so oily and fatty that just the heat from inside your mouth completely disintegrates it that is some high quality sushi wow look at the layers of fat on there and that is a thick cut i actually prefer

When the sushi is not super uniformly cut this is kind of just whatever cut and it is really really delicious so last piece big big piece of sushi I know i’ve mentioned a lot of famous products from okinawa like the bitter melon goya or also the umi budo the sea grapes but another very famous product is their brown sugar so we’ve got two of these famous donuts here with the brown sugar flavor they look really good they’re big

Kind of not donuts they don’t have a hole in the middle but they’re like a timbit from tim hortons in canada but extra large so let’s try this out Oh man oh that’s wonderful it’s almost like spongy on the inside it’s very firm and kind of dense but at the same time there’s lots of pockets of air it’s not overly sweet i kind of think it has a toffee flavor it’s really good the outside is crispy but the

Inside is super spongy and delicious this was only 60 cents or 60 yen so really really good price and really really good donut oh man So we are in the sake kind of dungeon almost like a bunker and it’s just filled with sake bottles and you can do a tasting down here so we’ve got three bottles here this one is a dry kind this is the traditional sake flavor this one is aged 21 years

Got the first one here this is the dry kind from gifu it’s actually not as strong as i thought it might be it’s actually very smooth so we have our second glass here this one is from nikata and this is like the traditional sake flavor it has almost like a fruitiness to it

Kind of smells almost like citrusy yeah that’s really good and then the last one because of its aging it’s got a little bit of a kind of yellow brownish tinge to it oh that’s nice too that one’s a little bit kind of warm and it almost tastes like woody

So we just picked up our first little snack of the day they didn’t have any of the menchikatsu the meat cutlets prepared yet but they did have this one which is like a fish cake it looks like there’s some potatoes in there some onions maybe some carrots and it’s this

Really cool little local shop they’re frying up all kinds of things in this huge bat of oil and this is hot and fresh out of the fryer so let me give this a try oh yeah don’t underestimate these things they are packed with flavor it is definitely

A little bit oily and greasy for breakfast but there’s a sweetness from that fish cake there’s definitely some sugar mixed into that fish cake batter there’s some crunchy bits in there there’s potatoes nice soft carrot oh man that’s actually really good and i love the little bit hint of like onion flavor

In there too it’s not actually very crispy it’s kind of soft almost like a baked potato [Applause] So we are at our next spot and we are trying something that i love and that is oden japanese hot pot so it is all the ingredients are here and they are simmering away in a stock of dashi which is dried bonito flakes and dried kelp

And then some soy sauce some sake lots of different ingredients it’s actually a secret recipe so we don’t know exactly but it smells amazing so we’ve ordered up a couple different things and the first that i have here is this and that is the daikon radish a massive piece of

Daikon radish and it is not very easy to find good oden in tokyo or oden at all so i’m going to try this out and it just smells incredible Oh that is so soft it’s almost like a like a baked potato that is ridiculously soft and it has soaked up all that broth phenomenally it’s a little bit you can taste like some soy soy sauce saltiness and a little bit kind of of that dried bonito fishiness too oh man that is

Awesome we’re at a restaurant right now called jinin sushi and we are the first ones in line so we’re the first ones here sitting counter we are here to try their famous eel butter let’s try that out and it’s wrapped in a little piece of seaweed that’s gotta be the coolest

Looking piece of sushi i’ve ever seen it honestly tastes like when you roast a marshmallow on a bonfire and then that butter just soaks in to that eel and completely disintegrates in your mouth the the butter is melting so i have to eat my second piece now Okay so we have our taiyaki the fish shaped japanese pastry quite unique it’s simple though it’s just stuffed with red bean we got it from this really cool corner shop here you can get red bean you can get custard so we got red bean i think that’s the most traditional let me try

I’m gonna go for a little bit of the tail and a little bit of the belly Wow there’s a lot of red bean in there that is super super crispy on the outside it’s got a little smoky flavor that red bean is sweet bean flavor i actually like the tail part because it’s like a little cracker look at that oh man that’s actually a perfect little snack

Our yakitori has arrived the grilled skewers we have all the different parts of the chicken check this out so the first one here this one is my favorite this is the minced chicken called tsukune and it’s kind of like a chicken ball next up is chicken thigh this is

Chicken skin this is thigh with leek this is the chicken throat this one chicken butt this one is chicken breast wrapped in a shiso leaf with a little bit of wasabi on top and then chicken heart and it smells so smoky the room started filling up with smoke as he was

Finishing these up so let’s dig into this so i’m going to start with the sukune i’m going to dip it in a little bit of this mustard on the side That is extremely soft minced chicken really smoky there’s a little bit of a sweet sauce on the outside wow that is so soft and tender i’m gonna save a little bit for spring next up i’m going to try the chicken throat i don’t think i’ve ever tried

Throat before but i’ve got a little bit of chili powder on the side dip it in a little bit of this it’s very cartilaginous So we are sitting down now we ordered from a vending machine kind of touch screen vending machine and they have a couple different options we went with a set menu it comes with a miso soup rice and then the tempura dawn i’m not exactly sure what’s going to be

In it so he’s frying them up fresh in this huge vat once again of oil a little greasy breakfast today but that’s okay so let’s see what we get so our tempura has arrived you can see we’ve got a selection of different things the first one here is this is

Lotus root and the next one my all-time favorite is just shrimp this one sweet potato i think back here this is maybe a piece of squid it’s kind of hard to identify hiding in back here i’ve got a huge chunk of pumpkin and then also one more underneath and that is a piece

Of fish so i’m just going to go in right away try out the sweet potato and it’s served with this amazing ponzu sauce with grated daikon radish inside you can see those kind of chunks of daikon radish and oh this is gonna be so good look at

That golden crispy skin let’s give that a try oh yum that is awesome So we’re sitting down in the whiskey bar we’re on the second floor here and the bartender just created one of the most interesting uh preparations of a drink i’ve ever seen so first he actually took this ice block and formed it using only a knife in his hands into a perfect

Sphere so it’s like a perfect ball of ice you can see so we’ve got whiskey on the rocks this is a japanese whiskey this is the bottle here the company’s name is nika and the distillery’s name is yuichi so it’s a single malt whiskey

And we have it on the rock on the rock only one let me try it oh yeah it smells like really deep rich Oh yeah yeah it’s like very smoky almost a little bit maybe like vanilla oh yeah that is good and nice and cold okay okay which is something i’ve never actually tried so it’s on these sticks and they’ve been simmering in miso this is beef tendon just simmering away in that

Beautiful miso paste this looks really good this is a specialty of osaka so let me try this out first So the texture is really chewy very gelatinous and then it’s smothered in that kind of creamy miso and it’s actually got a sweetness to it a little bit of kind of fermented soybean flavor but really it’s all about that texture nice and chewy So we have ordered our shaved ice check this out here it is a small mountain of ice and then we ordered the azuki bean the red bean kind so you can see underneath there those azuki beans are hiding and let’s just try this get some ice this is another one of those little

Mom-and-pop style shops here in okinawa Oh that’s nice that is not too sweet whatsoever super cold refreshing those beans are extremely soft they have them soaking in big buckets back there i guess that’s to make them nice and tender like they are oh man that’s awesome definitely not too sweet that is just right and i couldn’t picture

Anything more i would want today on a hot day in okinawa final thoughts well that was absolutely delicious such a good way to cool off on a hot day especially here in okinawa where is super hot i really love the concept of the vending machine and that was absolutely

Delicious i can’t even finish it i’m so cold Our kushikatsu has arrived you can see that golden crispy deep-fried batter so we have all different kinds of things let me try to remember what they all are this first one here this is lotus root next up is deep fried onion this one here is just the norma kushikatsu which

Is beef next up is cheese something that’s very sinfully delicious deep fried cheese this is a chicken breast and then this one is chicken thigh and then last but not least we have shitake mushrooms so the key here though is in the sauce it’s all about the sauce so on

Every table you’ll see that we have a little kind of metal canister with ponzu sauce which is a citrus-based sauce it’s very kind of watered down and there’s a golden rule which is you can only dip once so it is very inappropriate to dip more than once that’s why you also have

On your table a bit of cabbage leaves so if you actually need to dip more than once you just use the cabbage to scoop the sauce and then pour it on your kushikatsu so i’m gonna start with the beef let’s give it a quick dip in that

Ponzu sauce get it nice and smothered all right let’s try Wow there is nothing healthy about that but it is certainly delicious all right our sashimi dawn or sashimi bowl has arrived and this looks absolutely beautiful so let me walk you through this bowl here so we got the mango the number one on their menu which is

The tuna cut it looks like kind of a medium fatty not too lean piece some cucumbers in there some pickled cabbage nice chunk of wasabi there’s a shisho leaf under there some shredded egg and shredded nori and then this is the umi budo which is the sea grapes famous okinawan sea grapes

Which we tried yesterday this looks absolutely beautiful so let’s dig in okay i’m gonna go for a piece of sashimi here no wasabi some rice some green onions egg seaweed Oh so fresh wow that tuna has an amazing texture super fresh super soft no chewy bits whatsoever and those chives on top have a really strong onion flavor that’s where most of the flavoring is coming from but that tuna is just like butter in my mouth so let me try

Some of the umibudo the sea grapes here these are awesome we tried them yesterday Oh man it’s like an explosion of flavor in your mouth a little bit salty and a little bit almost seafoody too thanks for watching the top 31 street foods to try in japan leave a comment down below and let me know what country you’d like to see me do next and make

Sure if you haven’t already subscribed hit the bell icon so you’re notified and i’ll see you guys on the next episode of chopstick travel bye