2-24-1 Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan
Web: Tokyu Food Show
Phone: 03.3477.3111
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Desserts Drinks Favorites Japanese Markets
As we write these words, we're in your future: Japan is 14 hours ahead on the clock, such that its today is your tomorrow, so when we leave here, we will actually arrive back home two hours before we departed Tokyo. Sure, it may just be due to the International Date Line, but Japan has been perceived for decades as just a little ahead of the United States in certain regards - technology, culture, food - and though not too far to catch up with, perhaps beyond our will to do so. When it comes to snack foods, Japan clearly has us beat: from the specifics of its sweet and savory snacks to the ways that it distributes them to customers, we have a lot to learn and hopefully take away from what's going on all across Japan these days.
What's Japan Snacking On? Since they've been widely imported into American stores, you probably know Japanese brand names like Pocky and Pretz already - stick-like cookies and crackers coated partially or entirely in sugary or salty flavors. You might even be familiar with Japanese chocolates such as the amusingly named Crunky (a higher-crisped Nestle Crunch) to the cube-shaped, melting Meltykiss, or lip-smacking umami-glazed rice crackers and green tea-dusted, cracker-coated peanuts.
But there are lots and lots of other snacks that you probably haven't heard of unless you've visited the country yourself, and many are improved versions of Western desserts. Mister Donut, a cousin of Dunkin' Donuts, sells some outrageous variations on classic favorites, such as the glutinous, honey-filled Pon De Ring, the cog-like Cookie Cruller, and the custard/fruit-filled Flocky Shu series. A custard cream puff vendor called Beard Papa's specializes in fist-sized choux pastries, but created a humorously smaller, chocolate sauce-topped version resembling the octopus ball dish takoyaki (choco-takoyaki, anyone?). Baumkuchen, circular Prussian/German cakes baked on spits, were all over the place on this visit, created with distinct layers of different flavors. And then there are the beverages - boatloads of crazy flavors, ranging from the newly introduced, weird drink "Grapefruits, Vinegar, and Milk" to red azuki-bean flavored Pepsi and Curry-Flavored Ramune soda. The crazy flavors might turn you off, but they illustrate just how open even the country's soft drink vendors are to experimentation.
Vending Machines. Japanese beverage companies such as Suntory can afford to experiment because they don't need to worry about stocking all of their products in stores. Vending machines are ubiquitous in the country, and are most commonly found filled with beverages - cold and hot alike, in cans -sometimes sitting in lines of four or five machines on street corners or in subway stations. Look long enough and you'll notice that a long time favorite of ours called Boss Coffee - yes, coffee here is worth drinking out of cans - is sold in 25 varieties, some common, and others found only in nicer areas. One can of Boss was being sold in a series with miniature Hummer collectible cars attached to their tops. And Boss is only one of many different brands of coffee sold here, catering to all sorts of preferences; soft drinks, sports drinks, teas, and healthier drinks are equally or more numerous. Candy vending machines, once common, have basically disappeared, but in rural areas, farmers sell produce through vending machines, and depending on the neighborhood, cigarettes and alcohol can be found in machines, too. The wisdom of this form of distribution is obvious: there's no need for a cashier, a cash register, or a full storefront. Place the machine in a location where people are walking or sitting and they'll buy stuff. Additionally, Japanese restaurants commonly use vending machines to have customers pay for their meals in advance, reducing confusion over what was ordered and eliminating the need for servers to handle cash. It just makes sense.
Convenience Stores. Picture the last 7-Eleven you visited. Now imagine what it would look like if the employees cared about their jobs and management included items that might actually lure people away from restaurants once in a while - basically, the opposite of the movie Clerks. In Japan, 7-Eleven is just one of a number of excellent convenience store chains, alongside competitors Family Mart, Lawson, Sunkus, and AM/PM; rather than warmed over hot dogs and soupy Slushees, their hot steamed buns filled with curry, pizza, Chinese meats, and sweets are big draws, while "ready to eat or heat" dishes - yakisoba, sushi, even katsu curry - and pastries are restocked throughout the day due to high demand. A $1-$1.50 steamed curry bun is almost invariably on our list of first snacks whenever we arrive in Japan; a higher-end convenience store called Natural Lawson now serves the enticing and delicious Thai Green Curry Bun shown here. In the U.S., these places are stores of last resort; in Japan, they're frequently great little places to grab a snack, or even a budget-priced meal.
Tiny Snack Shops. In the United States, there must be a stigma or some other reason that independent businesses rarely operate out of spaces carved out of a department store's first floor, basement, or top floor. Yet in Japan, the mini-store within a store or public transportation center is common and seemingly quite liberating for vendors: the aforementioned cream puff shop Beard Papa's, for instance, includes convenient locations in train stations in Osaka and Tokyo, operating near so many other little vendors that we lost count. The top floors of department stores host small or in some cases full-sized versions of major international and regional restaurants, offering customers something to eat and perhaps another reason to shop on the lower floors.
And most amazingly, the Tokyu Food Show basement floor of the Tokyu department store in Shibuya aggregates a varied collection of upscale gourmet food vendors the likes of which we've never seen before or since. Multiple bakeries, patisseries, snack shops and wine cellars co-exist alongside one another and a full-fledged supermarket, which offers some of the most attractively presented fish and produce in the world. Affordable tomatoes are in one area, with $35 melons in another, and sliced ready-to-eat seared ahi tuna sits in containers near whole silver-scaled fish of various types, meant to be cooked and integrated into nice meals. Walk just outside the Food Show and you'll find a Dean & Deluca two or three doors down from a Starbucks, both part of the same building, and competing with coffee and tea shops inside the area. No single store could offer the variety and quality that is achieved by letting multiple specialist stores run slightly competing departments in the same physical space.
At least for visitors such as us, and seemingly on the residents of Japan, the impact of these snack options on daily life is profound. Massive crowds fill the Tokyu Food Show at lunch and dinner times, assembling gourmet meals from small snacks scattered across a single store. Coffee shops feel especially overpriced in light of delicious canned alternatives. Crackers, cookies, pastries, and candies are so unlimited in diversity that there's a feeling that you can find anything if you know where to look. Best of all for foodies, it's fun just to hunt around: we've never felt legitimately excited just to shop for food before, but that feeling is inescapable in an environment like this one. As we're headed back to the United States now, we'll be wrapping up the topic of Japan with a huge new photo gallery and final article (Leftovers) shortly.
