Tokyo's answer to Okonomiyaki - Monjayaki!

Most regular readers will be familiar with my love of Okonomiyaki (the Hiroshima variety especially).  Tokyo, not to be outdone has it's own version that is called Monjayaki.

Monjayaki (or monja as it is commonly known) started life as a kids snack in the early 19th century, but it looked a lot different to how it looks today.  In the beginning it resembled a rolled up crepe with some simple toppings.  In the 20th century, the current day monjayaki was developed around the Tsukishima area of Tokyo.  There is a street near Tsukishima station nicknamed Monja Dori or Monja Street (it's real name is Nishinaka Dori) that is lined with over 70 monjayaki restaurants.  There is even a  monjayaki souvenir and tourist office located at one end of the street.

So, how does monjayaki differ from okonomiyaki?  Mostly in appearance.  A lot of the ingredients are the same, but okonomiyaki is more like a pancake whereas monjayaki looks like.........well, maybe the nicest way to put it is it looks like a sloppy pancake.  Others are not so kind when describing what it looks like..........

I have a friend, Masa (who introduced me to sumo food, chanko nabe last year) who lives at Kachidoki, right next to Tsukishima, and I had been meaning to catch up with him for monjayaki for quite a while.  Last weekend we finally organised to do it, so myself and two other friends from work caught the train to Tsukishima to meet Masa.

We set off down Monja Dori to the restaurant Masa had chosen (owned by the father of a friend of Masa's son).

Monjayaki restaurants, like most Osaka style okonomiyaki restaurants, have a hotplate in the middle of your table to cook your food.  We let the experts (the restaurant staff) cook ours for us.  The ingredients come to your table piled up in a bowl.

At first the meat is put onto the hotplate and cooked.

Next, the rest of the dry ingredients are added.

They are tossed around on the hotplate until partially cooked.

After that, a hole is created in the middle of it all,

into which the wet ingredients are poured.

This is then mixed around until the liquid starts to thicken.

At this point, it is then all mixed together.

The final product looks like this.......

You then scrape up a small bit of the monjayaki with small spatulas and enjoy!  As the monjayaki stays on the hotplate, it thickens even more and the last part is the part that has stuck to the hotplate.  It is nice and crispy and crunchy!

Monjayaki

goes very well with this!

This night we also had some regular Osaka style okonomiyaki.

Tokyo is the gourmet capital of the world with 267 Michelin star restaurants (more than any other country), but monjayaki proves that gourmet doesn't have to look gourmet.  While there may be no monjayaki restaurants with Michelin stars and it might not look the most appetising, it is truly unpretentious and delicious!  I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who wants a unique and different dining experience!

Thanks again for reading, I hope you enjoyed reading about monjayaki, and I hope you do try it when you have the chance!  See you next time.

Iconic Japan - Lake Kawaguchi and Mount Fuji

Around this time last year I put up a post about New Year's Day in Japan and mentioned that I had missed a big family Christmas that year.  One of my brothers, Matty, decided that he would come to Japan this year to spend Christmas and New Year here.  It was to be a little bit of a shock to the system as Christmas in Australia is in summer time and summer time it is not at the moment in Japan!

It was not Matty's first time in Japan as he had come with me on a trip to Japan 3 1/2 years ago along with 2 good friends, Mark and Warren.  One of the places that we went to during that trip was Lake Kawaguchi and this time he was keen to go back for a winter time visit.

Lake Kawaguchi (or Kawaguchiko) is located almost 100 km west of Tokyo.  It is one of five lakes that circle Mount Fuji on it's north side and has been (and still is) considered a place for religious bathing pilgrimages.

Mount Fuji, itself, needs no real introduction, but for those of you who don't know, here is a little background information on Fujisan.  It is Japan's highest mountain and stands at 3,776m in altitude.  In 2013, Mount Fuji and the surrounding area (including Lake Kawaguchi) were added as a Cultural site to the World Heritage List.  It is an active volcano which last erupted in 1707.  In 2011, after the devastating Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, more attention was paid to the possibility of an eruption of Mount Fuji.  Mathematical simulations found that if Fuji did erupt, areas nearby would be covered by 50cm of volcanic ash, while as far away as Tokyo would be covered by 10cm of ash.  Disaster management plans have since been revisited and revised to cope with what would prove to be a massive disaster in the event it did happen.

Meeting Matty early (well, early for me) in the morning we started our train ride out to Kawaguchiko.  Kawaguchiko can be reached from Tokyo by a combination of the Chuo Line and the Fujikyu Line from Otsuki in between 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

We got to Takao station and realised that the application I had used to meticulously piece together all 4 legs of our journey had been out on the second leg by a couple of minutes and thus we missed our connection.  Next train, 40 minutes later......  Oh well, neither of us had had breakfast by this stage so we left the station and went searching for some of Takao's finest local fare.  Mere metres from the station we found what we were after.......

A little later, our cravings were satisfied and we got back to the station and onto the train just before the doors shut and it departed.

The trip up to Kawaguchiko takes you through many sleepy rural towns and as the train sped past I had the feeling that I wanted to come back one day and just spend a day or 2 wandering around a couple of them.

By this stage, my travel partner was starting to get a bit tired and took the opportunity to rest his eyelids.

We arrived at Otsuki soon after and went to change trains for the last leg to Kawaguchiko.  Now, when you change to the Fujikyu Line to go to Kawaguchiko, the information displayed in English is not too clear on what to do.  The staff there do speak English but were too busy to help with getting tickets.  Basically, when you go to change trains, you need to buy a separate ticket for the last leg.  There are 2 ticket machines and one ticket window.  My advice, go to the ticket window.  I didn't.  I bought my ticket from the machine and went through the gate and made my way to the train.  Now, there is a local train and an express train.  I found out too late that the difference in price is only 300 yen and that ticket is bought at the ticket window, not the ticket machine.  The difference between the local and the express.......huge!  The express stops 5 times while the local stops 18 times!  Unless you have time to kill, the express is recommended.  We didn't really have that much time as we were attempting the trip there and back to Tokyo on the same day.  We had a little time before our train left so I wandered around the platform to take a few photos.

Japan is well known for it's train systems that run incredibly on time.  In fact I have been known to get a little grumpy when the train I am waiting for is more than a couple of minutes late.  This particular train ran in both directions on only one track.  There were a few points where the track split into two tracks for the trains to pass each other, so the trains had to keep a tight schedule.  Taking this into account, I was amazed at how low tech the driver's controls were.

And the stations.....  Living in Tokyo, I am used to seeing huge stations that house any number of shops and restaurants.  Nothing like that here!

I settled into the current leg of the trip and began to enjoy the countryside.  I, myself, grew up in country towns, so I could really appreciate the tranquility of the towns that we were passing by.

Suddenly a gentleman sitting across from us pointed out of the window and said to us (in English) "Look, we can see Mount Fuji".  Sure enough, there it was.

It's quite difficult to describe the feelings I had looking at Fuji.  If you ask people from all around the world what they think of when they think of Japan, most people would say sushi, geisha, samurai, ninja and Mount Fuji.  The moment I first looked at Fuji, the breath caught in my throat and I couldn't breathe the rest of the way in for a few moments.  To see something so iconic, so famous and so majestic does take your breath away.  The white cap on top, the sun shining off of it's slopes and the white misty cloud of snow being blown from the top of the mountain was something to behold!  Both Matty and myself commented that Fuji seemed much bigger and closer than when we saw it the first time (from the same location!).

Before too long we had arrived at Kawaguchiko station.  There was one place that I wanted to go to get a good view of Fuji and that required going to the other side of the lake, so we headed off in that direction.

Lake Kawaguchi is very popular with people who love fishing and there were a fair number out on the water as we walked around to the other side.

Eventually we arrived at our destination, Kachkachi Yama Ropeway.

There was a lineup waiting for tickets to get on the gondola and make their way to the top so we joined the queue and amused ourselves looking at the different animals that were all around the place.  I don't know what they represented or what the pictures were all about, but it was entertaining and helped us kill the 20 minutes or so waiting to get to the ticket office.

The view from the ropeway were incredible!

It only took 3 minutes to reach the top and from there, the view was simply stunning.  Many people ask me if I have ever climbed Mount Fuji and I always tell them that the image of Fuji that I want to maintain is this one.....

Beautiful.  So we sat down, cracked open a drink and just soaked up the occasion.

All too soon, the sun was starting to set and we realised we would have to make a move to make sure we caught the last gondola down.

We were the first onto the gondola and Matty (who is not so good with high places) immediately (much to my surprise) went to the front of the car as he wanted to take some video footage of the ride back down.  To his credit, he maintained a stoically brave expression all the way down.

We reached the bottom and started making our way back to the train station for the trip home.  As we left the ropeway, we did see more of those curious little animals.  I have no idea, again, what they were doing.....

Making our way back to Tokyo, Matty said that he was so happy to have been able to go back to Kawaguchiko and take in the beauty of Mount Fuji again.  If you ever make it to Japan, or if you are in Japan, I think you should make every effort to see Fuji.  The pictures here don't go anywhere near showing the splendour of Mount Fuji.  For the full experience, you really have to see it for yourself.

Sorry for the wait for this next post, I took a bit of a break for the festive season.  I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy and safe New Year.  Thanks for reading, and see you again soon.