Okonomiyaki

[Kaikitsune Makoto 203]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fjchXhgBxk

Nice clip about okonomiyaki Kansai-style. Okonomiyaki is quite good snack. Liked that very much both in Osaka and Hiroshima. In Osaka ridiculous price too at one street corner place where they made those. Something like 120-150 yen per quite big piece.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNDOLrl6OKM

Hiroshima

[Jonosuke 28]

Taste of Tsukishima in downtown Tokyo:

Edited June 15, 2007 by Jonosuke

[Kaikitsune Makoto 203]

Okonomiyaki is good. It has benign smell and it is innocent food regardless of the mayo and stuff. If I was in Japan tomorrow I would eat okonomiyaki while walking down some street.

[Jejima 1,314]

Okonomiyaki is good. It has benign smell and it is innocent food regardless of the mayo and stuff. If I was in Japan tomorrow I would eat okonomiyaki while walking down some street.

Trad Hiroshima-fu (Hiroshima style) is mayo-less (although most places in Hiroshima will now give you the option of adding mayo, if you so wish.) I think it is a key ingredient for Osaka-fu though.

[Kaikitsune Makoto 203]

If I was in Japan tomorrow I would eat okonomiyaki while walking down some street.

You should blow your nose at the same time. Also carry a bowl of rice with the chopsticks plunged in.

Negative. You failed to deliver. I would buy from one of those outside stands and then have chopsticks in right hand and the okonomiyaki thingie in left hand. Nose blowing wouldn't be necessary as the rich fumes from okonomiyaki would function as the best decongestant and nose wouldn't be stuck at all. Rice is not necessary with okonomiyaki and would be very difficult to do while okonomiyaki already in one hand. Tachigui is cool but arukigui is noble and humble at the same time and constitutes a moment in life. I have to say though that Ueno eki tachigui sushi is a bit hastening.

Don't joke around about okonomiyaki eating and do not exhibit sarcasm when mouth full.

Edited June 17, 2007 by Kaikitsune Makoto

[Kaikitsune Makoto 203]

I would buy from one of those outside stands

Outside stand okonomiyaki???

Photographic evidence please.

No photographs but I have eaten okonomiyaki twice in Osaka from such stands. The other time I took some to hotel too. They are temporary stands I am sure but such was the case anyway.

[kawika 123]

Photographic evidence please.

[Kaikitsune Makoto 203]

Hai!

The second picture reminds of me similar stands in Kyoto too. At least twice I ate okonomiyaki outdoors in Kyoto too.

[Sasanishiki 57]

I had okonomiyaki from a yatei opposite the Tokyo Dome (Suidobashi station), but that was about 14 years ago. Ah, how time has flown!

[Otokonoyama 2,735]

KM-san, I don't think Nish was being all that sarcastic in his post. For many Japanese (particularly the elderly), eating while walking is considered quite bad manners. Much like blowing your nose in public. It is considered far more appropriate to snort any nasal blockage back inside. (Whatever above, it is funny...) All things change, however, and many young people eat and walk simultaneously all over Japan these days. Also, ordinary conventions seem to be overlooked at festivals, and indeed one can find yatai selling okonomiyaki at many a matsuri, usually without any tables or chairs around. You just walk, eat, and enjoy the festival.

Eating on trains seems to be more of a grey area. Some say it's alright, others not. Express trains often have a tray for food and drinks, and carts selling beer & snacks. And many stations carry the ubiquitous eki-ben. But as for local trains, I've gotten mixed messages as to whether it's ok to eat/drink inside. I do anyway, and it appears many young folk do too. But there are those who insist it is inappropriate. YMMV.

[Sasanishiki 57]

The pictures look like they were taken at a matsuri. Sasanishiki did you walk down the street with your okonomiyaki too or were there small tables and chairs nearby?

I actually bought and stood nearby devouring it. I didn't walk and each as that would have been awkward. I realise that walking and eating is considered rude by some in Japan, as Otokonoyama has pointed out. I tend to only eat sandwiches while I walk, or anything else small that I've bought from a kombini (onigiri, chocolates, nikuman), and try to be discrete about it, ie. not waving the food around in my hands etc.

Just to add to Otokonoyama's point above about eating on trains. i think a good rule of thumb is not to eat anything hot on trains in case it might go flying or spill. So, no nikuman or instant ramen, but potato chips, sandwiches, etc are ok. I tend not to be that hungry on local trains but definitely eat on express trains with trays and cart service. I most definitely eat on the shinkansen, usually sandwiches or eki-ben, and usually kaki-pi and beer. Mmmm, beer is good - Sapporo Black Label, Suntory, Asahi (in that order) - and definitely with okonomiyaki (to return to the topic at hand)!

Edited June 18, 2007 by Sasanishiki

[Kaikitsune Makoto 203]

Blowing the nose rudeness I knew. Didn't have a clue that eating while walking is rude in any way. Why is that really so? Of course the risk of dropping food on the ground is there so maybe that is the reason? In shinkansen eating is a must! Never traveled shinkansen without eating bentou or at least bought that super frozen ice cream from the women with carriages. Subway eating is frowned upon here too but in Japan the discipline with cell phones and refraining from talking to them in public transportatios is at high level, at least compared to Finland.

The Kyoto okonomiyaki stand was outside matsuri time but if was attached to some store and the cook just fried the okonomiyaki in front of the store and people bought and ate there outdoors and I wasn't the only one who started walking while eating. One in Osaka was close to sumo arena and one in dotombori.

[Fay 1,677]

I saw some shimpan in May blowing their noses all the time, so I had no problem doing the same, when I was catched by a cold in the last days. Better for my neighbours than snuffle all the time, I thought, this assimilation would have been a bit too much for me (Sign of approval...).

Didn't know about the "never eat when your walking rule", but that's something I wouldn't do anyway - except icecream - so no problem for me.

[Fay 1,677]

I saw some shimpan in May blowing their noses all the time

Ringside?????????

THAT I would def need photographs to believe!

Otherwise I wouldn't have seen it

You can trust me even if I have no documentary evidents ... didn't know I would need them ... (Sign of approval...)

Edited June 18, 2007 by Fay

[Kaikitsune Makoto 203]

Actually I have seen shimpan blow their nose too while on duty so evidently not so out of protocol...

Besides it is far more unpleasant for bystanders if someone keeps snorting some heavy climp back to nasal cavity instead of blowing it with killer instinct. When I was in military one trainer yelled "Blow your f*****g noses if your nose leaks!" when rain was bad and some damn mines had to be dug into the ground. And if we can't trust military officers' orders and implement them in every situation in life, what can we trust??? (Sign of approval...) (In jonokuchi...)

I am interested though that what is the origin of this habit of eating while walking being such a no no in Japan? Is there some shintoist or buddhist reason for example?

[Kintamayama 44,354]

Is it just Japan? Chomping away and showing all and sundry the inital stages in the digestive process isn't something that I think would fit under the "polite" heading in many places.

Take a walk in sunny Tel-Aviv/Jerusalem. The food is "walking-based". And mostly eaten with your hands.

[Jakusotsu 5,815]

When I was in military...

Biggest revelation in this thread so far. (Sign of approval...)

[Otokonoyama 2,735]

I am interested though that what is the origin of this habit of eating while walking being such a no no in Japan? Is there some shintoist or buddhist reason for example?

I have heard that it dates from the days of the samurai, and that when eating on the run, so to speak, your attention is focused on the food and not on your surroundings. Bumping into someone back then was a far more serious thing that it is now. That, and you could just be taken out while off-guard. But that could all easily be legend and myth...

[Jejima 1,314]

Didn't have a clue that eating while walking is rude in any way.

(Sign of approval...)

Wow I thought that was one of the famous "don't do in Japan" things.

Hmmm maybe I have lost perspective after so long. I can't remember what I knew or didn't when I came here first.

From my recollection of 4 or 5 years back, I have to agree..... The locals seem to find it difficult (or very strange) to walk and eat or even drink at the same time.

[kawika 123]

Didn't have a clue that eating while walking is rude in any way.

(Sign of approval...)

Wow I thought that was one of the famous "don't do in Japan" things.

Hmmm maybe I have lost perspective after so long. I can't remember what I knew or didn't when I came here first.

From my recollection of 4 or 5 years back, I have to agree..... The locals seem to find it difficult (or very strange) to walk and eat or even drink at the same time.

My first visit in '86, it was a big no-no to eat and walk, since no one did it, you got heaps of folks staring at you, though it was not the same at a matsuri, where it seemed that since there weren't many places to sit down, you had to eat standing anyway.

[Kaikitsune Makoto 203]

Chopsticks are very noble utensils when eating okonomiyaki. It has friction and streching elements so it can wrapped in enticing way by using chopsticks. Also gigantic sumo mouthfuls feel more rewarding when the transportation equipment is chopsticks! Do you agree?

[nirumaruyama 0]

Nishi, it's even worse now! Everyone seems to be constantly on a mobile phone conversation about the most inane pointless stuff. I get the luas early in the morning and there are always people chattering. The worst was when I got the 6 a.m. Luas and there was a girl talking away about some drivel to a friend. At least in Japan no one goes on with that.

Regarding the blowing your nose issue. I think it is regarded as rude to blow your nose into a handkerchief which is made of cloth. It is ok to blow your nose into a tissue. Because most Westerns use handkerchieves made from cloth and then put them back in their pocket afterwards it causes some Japanese to have issues.

[Kotoku 0]

You don't eat while walking or riding in a public conveyance such as a train, because there was a time-- especially after the war -- when people were starving. Eating in public was seen as hugely rude to the less fortunate. Of course, the current crop of high school warugakki love to flaunt their donuts... -L-

Nose blowing is not so hard and fast. Never blow your nose at the table. If you are on the train with kafuncho or a kaze and you must, bend your head over and make it clear you know you are intruding, being as quiet about it as you can. Never, ever, ever on your handkerchief. The tissue they hand out on the street is for the toilet, not for the nose -- keep a pack of kleenex in you bag. If you are performing a public duty the same rule holds true, mappo or shimpan or gyoji.

And remember, it is always omusubi and never onigiri. If you have to ask, I cannot reveal why to you! :- )

Nirumaruyama-san, "Ima dokko?" can be heard a thousand times a day in the streets near the eki. Cellphone manners here are just as bad. And have a Guinness for me, and all the lads whose ancestors came from Strokestown...

Edited September 1, 2007 by Kotoku