News On Japan
Food
November 11th marks “Sake Day,” a date chosen because the kanji for salmon (鮭) contains the characters for “eleven” side by side. Although Japan’s wild salmon catch has fallen due to rising sea temperatures and shifting ocean currents, the popularity of farmed salmon is growing rapidly across the country, including in Fukuoka.
Image of Farmed Salmon Gains Popularity Across Japan

A wave of hit ramen shops and bakeries across Kansai owes much of its pulling power to little-seen specialists who tailor ingredients to each store’s recipe, with a Kyoto noodle maker growing annual sales from 70 million yen to 1.3 billion yen by supplying made-to-order noodles and a Kobe bean-paste producer developing more than 500 varieties of anko.

This ex-sumo fighter fought in high level sumo for over 15 years and then found his calling making hamburgers. His strength has apparently carried on to his delicious hamburgers, hidden away in the suburbs of Tokyo! (Japanese Food Craftsman)

The main thing to do at Tsukiji and Toyosu is to enjoy the street food. (SAMURAI JUNJIRO Channel)

In the small hours, when most of the city is asleep and the last trains have already rolled into depots, a different shift begins as “midnight workers” keep daily life stitched together—from a leak surveyor crouched on a silent road in Yokohama to a one-man neighborhood Chinese kitchen in Tokyo that serves until dawn and a Shimbashi bento shop that turns out more than 700 box lunches a day.

At Hotomeki Market Ichitaro in Iizuka, Fukuoka, the day starts long before sunrise. Five master craftsmen wield their knives with astonishing speed, processing hundreds of fish before most people wake up. Charcoal fires roar, salt dances through the air, and over 12,000 skewers of yakitori are sold in a single day. (Japanese Kitchen Tour)

Rocket development firm Future Space Transport Systems and travel agency Nippon Travel announced on October 28th their joint goal of commercializing space travel in the 2040s. As humanity prepares to venture further into space, one crucial consideration is food.