Event # 6
Inspiration tour
Japan
April, May 2014
About
In April 2014 one of our big dreams became true with our first visit to the North East Asian island nation Nippon-kuko, the State of Japan.
During 3 weeks we traveled between Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and the Ehime Prefecture located on the island of Shikoku, one of the 4 main islands of Japan.
Our mission was to explore, get inspired and extend our knowledge about Japanese cooking culture and our highly preferred alcoholic beverage, Japanese sake.
We felt very quickly in love with the country, its people and its food. Japan is beautiful, people are extremely helpful, you feel safe and the food is amazing!
During these 3 weeks we experienced, learned and met so many great people.
It’s hard only to point out a few, but to give a couple of examples from this great adventure we can mention the outstanding Tsukiji market in Tokyo, visits to sake breweries in the Ehime Prefecture, various portions of beautiful hot ramen together with Ko Kimura, who is not only a phenomenal gastronomic guide, but also one of the most influential and talented DJs in Japan.
We also had the pleasure to meet Gen Yamamato an extraordinary mixologist and owner of an eight-seat bar in Tokyo. We visited the Harmony coffee shop where the friendly owner/roaster/barista, manually separates each green coffee bean into 5 different categories after color, size and shape before roasting the beans in his customized coffee roaster.
Sebastian spent an afternoon with an extremely talented fisherman who thought him how to kill fishes with the greatest respect and less harm to the animal as possible.
And finally a very special encounter with a very special chef called Mathuda, the owner of a restaurant called Hichi-Raku located in Matsuyama the capital city of the Ehime Prefecture. Mathuda cooked one of the most touching and memorable meals we have ever had. From a self designed tank placed half inside half outside his restaurant he grabs everything from lobsters and eels to Scorpion fishes with his bare hands a brings it to his open kitchen where he kills it with the precision of the most skilled samurai warrior. He is an extraordinary chef with some extraordinary skills and some really tasty food.
There are a lot more experiences and people who deserve to be mentioned but we would have to write a good sized book to fit in all of them.
Japan blew our minds away and we are looking most forward to the day we will be back. Japan holds a very special place in our hearts and is one of our big sources of inspiration to our work.
Our biggest and greatest thanks to our very good friend and chef Shojiro Ochi from restaurant Somodo in Barcelona for all your help planning and realizing this dream.