Arrival in Tokyo. Your appointment with Japan’s culinary secrets begins early tomorrow morning. In the meantime, you set in for a quiet evening, dinner on your own. You meet your guide, a professional sushi chef, and head for Tsukiji Market. Here, the best chefs in Tokyo gather to secure the finest ingredients for they daily fare. Your guide is quite the expert and lets you in on a few secrets. Armed with this new knowledge, you are feeling more appreciative of Japanese cuisine, but also more adventurous. After you’ve secured the ingredients for later in the day, you try some amazing food right there in the market, what can only be called high-end street-food.
You spend the rest of the morning learning how to prepare exquisite sushi, and learn the techniques behind this quintessential dish. Now that you’ve prepared your own lunch, you can sit back and enjoy your creation in a private and luxurious setting. A walking tour of Harajuku, gives you not only a taste of Japan’s quirks, but it is also a fine way to build your appetite. You spot for an aperitif and a pint of local craft-beer, before going to Ginza for a bout of shopping and finally dinner in one of Tokyo’s finest restaurants.
It is unbelievable that such peace and quiet can exist so close to the chaotic charm of the capital. However, Hakone, a town near Lake Aishi, is a meditative landscape where Shinto sites, hot-springs and inspiring nature are all around you. The scenery resets your palate, whose ambitions now turn to the purity and beauty of fine ingredients. Your hotel for the night was initially intended as a retreat for the Imperial family. The integration between nature and architecture is a work of art in itself. Here you delight in a Kaiseki dinner, the highest form of Japanese cuisine. An experience that is as culinary as it is spiritual.
You head to Kyoto, a city that wears its idiosyncrasies near the surface. Here, you explore the culture behind sake as you visit several breweries. The temples and shrines posses an aesthetic quality that you can see reflected in the food: clean flavours, subdued yet powerful. To deepen your knowledge of the culture, you experience what Japanese households eat today in a traditional house turned-school. The last stretch of your journey takes you to the bamboo forests and delightful gardens of Arashiyama. Here you explore a Zen approach to food, Shojin Ryori. It is full of appreciation for taste and it is a delicate experience, and the powerful simplicity captures all that you love about Japan.
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