On my third day in Japan, I headed out on an authentic Japanese street food tour of Sunamachi Ginza in Tokyo! There, I tried lots of traditional Japanese foods with my new friend Hiro from Tokyo by Food. Come along with us as I eat my way through Sunamachi Ginza!
Sunamachi Ginza is a 670-meter-long shopping district that’s filled with lots of different types of street food and family-run businesses and is a fantastic place to go to experience a slice of local Japanese life, as many tourists don’t come here. It was established roughly 60 or 70 years ago and is known as a hidden gem in Tokyo for foodies. I couldn’t wait to eat!
First up on my street food tour of Sunamachi Ginza, we headed straight to a stall selling a variety of tempura. I started with a fried tempura fritter that contained shrimp, onion, and other vegetables. The fritter was crunchy and juicy and had a delicious sauce on it! It was also super sweet and was one of the best tempuras I’ve ever had! Best of all, it only cost 120 Yen, or $1 U.S.
Next, we went to a famous shop for a dish called inarizushi, which is a ball of sushi rice that contains soy sauce and is stuffed into deep-fried tofu. This shop makes over 400 inarizushi by hand per day! It was very sweet on the outside and absolutely delicious. I wouldn’t have even known the outside was tofu, and it had a sort of honey flavor to it. They’re filling, so I suggest sharing them if you’re planning on eating more foods! You get three inarizushi for 150 Yen, or $1.35 U.S.
We passed by lots of secondhand shops and delicatessens on our way to a miso shop. Miso is a fermented soybean paste that is a very popular ingredient in Japanese cuisine. We tried a few kinds; they had the consistency of mashed potatoes, but had pure miso flavor. They were great! I loved the one that fermented for three years!
Next, we got a deep-fried tuna minced cutlet with a delicious sauce from another stall. The cutlet was soft and kind of mushy on the inside and crunchy on the outside. I loved the texture, and it was a little sweet as well! The onions throughout with the soft, minced tuna, was fantastic.
After that, we got some oden, which is a traditional Japanese hot pot dish that contains lots of different items, including a spicy cod fish cake and daikon radish. So, it’s a very popular dish during the winter. The fish cake was moist and juicy and also contained carrots and onions. The daikon was so soft and had absorbed a lot of the broth it had been cooked in. It was almost like a miso soup!
At our next stop, we tried some yakitori. Of the seven varieties, I got the pork neck and chicken thigh with spring onion. The pork neck had a really nice, smoky flavor from the charcoal and was very juicy. It was my first time having pork neck and I loved it! The chicken thigh was also juicy with a nice, teriyaki-like sauce on it. The spring onion was crunchy and delicious as well!
Then, I moved on to sake, which was super dry and a little sweet. Drinking it on the street, surrounded by locals, was amazing!
Next, I tried taiyaki, a fish-shaped cake stuffed with red bean paste. I tried the crunchy outer portion as an appetizer, and then I moved on to the main dish. It was hot and crunchy on the outside, and tasted like a waffle. It was so hot that it warmed me up on this cold afternoon in Tokyo!
Our final stop was a tea shop that sells a variety of high-quality green tea. I made some myself. It was beautiful and delicious. It was very different from other green teas I’ve had in my life!
Wow, I loved everything on this food tour of Sunamachi Ginza! If you’d like to book a tour with Tokyo by Food, click here!
If you liked coming on my street food tour of Sunamachi Ginza, please give it a thumbs up and leave me a comment. Also, please subscribe to my YouTube channel and I will see you in the next travel food adventure!
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