Oyama Happy Road: One of Tokyo’s Oldest and Longest Shopping Arcades!

hi welcome to japan by food i'm your host shizuka anderson today i am in the happy road oyema shopping street it's located just five minutes away from ikebukuro by terrain and there are over 200 shops here to check out so let's see what kind of delicious foods they have here let's go the reason why it was called happy road is because it was built right after world war ii when most of tokyo was totally destroyed so it started out as actually a really short road and now it's expanded into a full-blown shopping arcade that stretches about half a kilometer oh what is this it looks like a wagashi shop let's take a look at sandisk this sounds really good i've actually i don't know if i've tried that before but i'm also interested in this side [Music] what [Music] here we go our first item is the chameshi rice ball chameshi he said it's similar to takikomi gohan which basically it's a flavored rice this is really good i love that the rice grains are really really chewy almost like a mochi rice there's a lot of nice savory flavor just kind of absorbed into the rice this is really nice it makes for a really nice snack so this is kanoko i've definitely seen this wagashi before it's very popular at wagashi shops let's give it a try [Music] look at that so basically this is a ball of red bean paste and as you can expect it's very sweet very rich and dense and a little bit starchy from the beans but if you like red bean paste it's very delicious it's really nice it's a like a classic wagashi it tastes like japanese dessert it would go really well with green tea that's great well if you guys want to try wagashi this is a great wagashi slash onigiri shop as well and it's wonderful you get to chat and eat at the same time alrighty so i'm going to finish off my dessert and then let's go for a little walk and see what else we can find [Music] all right so i'm at my next place this is a meat shop that i've heard is really famous here it's been around for a long time it's called arai meat shop so let's go inside and see what they've got on this kid i know foreign he named this one dish after them they're called sandwich man this is ham sand cutlet i like it there we go looks super hefty it looks super crispy too let's take a bite wow that's really good and it's so crispy i have panko bits all over my hands [Music] look at that cheesy creaminess with those really thick slices of ham i have nothing to say but it's super good it's really creamy really cheesy a little bit messy but it's fun to eat [Laughter] so i'm gonna finish munching on this delicious ham cheese sand cutlet and let's go find something else maybe a little something sweet who knows okay so i'm here at this crepe shop which looks so vintage it's called pierrot which is the japanese word for clown and it comes from the french word piero which is also a pantomime character but anyway let's take a look and see what kind of delicious crepes they have it looks like they have a lot konichiwa [Music] that's a lot of different crepes you can get here wow i don't know where to even begin so you can get a hot crepe or a cold crepe which would be really nice for the summertime he mentioned that super spicy crepe and i want to know what that tastes like [Music] i love it i love cheese and crispy cheese chop that off [Music] chili pepper oh my god guys that's a lot of cayenne pepper holy cow i i'm not ready for this [Laughter] look at that crispy cheese on the top and i noticed they have a comic they actually feature the super extra spicy crepe is actually in this comic book crepes foreign [Music] foreign it's so cheesy the mentaiko is so nice it really does go well with cheese right now it's not too bad it's like slowly building it's quite spicy but it's not like you're gonna die spice there's one level above this which is super extra spicy i might even be able to try that my hands are covered in hot sauce [Music] [Laughter] all right let's see what else we can find on this street feels like another world back here and i've heard that there's a really popular restaurant right around here i think this might be it and they're known for their really really big round gyoza so i definitely need to give this a try [Music] wow so it's called tenohira gyoza because in japanese tenohira is the palm of your hand this one is called magonotekyoza and that means grandchild's hand gyoza which i think is so cute it's a tiny version to be about the same size as like a little kid's hand [Music] so give this a try it's really the same size that's a hefty gyoza and all of these are already flavored as she mentioned but we can add a little bit of vinegar if we want to first we'll try without the vinegar because it already has flavor so let's give it a try mouse [Music] look at how much soup is coming out it is packed full of pork we have crunchy veggies garlic it's really garlicky it is so meaty and juicy let's give it a try with a little bit of vinegar and see how that changes the flavor gyoza usually goes really well with vinegar so it should be good here we go mmm that is excellent the vinegar changes the flavor quite a lot and the the crispy dough on the outside is so nice and it's nice and doughy on the sides you get to enjoy a lot of textures this is a meal on its own it's that gem packed next i want to try the smaller dumplings i say it's small but they're still pretty big the mago no te gyoza that looks so good so this one is supposedly um instead of garlic it's got ginger inside so it should taste a little bit different here we go oh oh my god that is a juicy dumpling it got everywhere let's try again here we go it's so hot the skin of the gyoza is really doughy and delicious it's so juicy it's almost similar to a shorompo or xiaolong pao man this is a full meal on itself i'm so happy with this this is so good but i want to know a little bit more about how this shop got started so let's ask foreign it's such a cool like hidden spot but the atmosphere is incredible we did it we paid our respects to her handmade shrine these are the offerings to the shrine gods all right that concludes my day here in happy road oyama shopping street and this was a lot of fun i had so much fun trying all of the delicious foods and traditional shotengai like this one are really rapidly disappearing so if you want to experience a little taste of the showa period right after world war ii it's best to come here as soon as you can because a lot of things change really quickly in tokyo and if you guys enjoyed this video make sure to like comment share and subscribe and let me know which food you want to try the most in this video alright so we'll see you guys very soon in another video [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Japan by Food

Views: 104,082

Keywords: japan, japan by food, japanesefood, oyama happy road, japanese street food, japanese shotengai, shotengai, shotengai street food, japanese shopping street, japan shopping arcade, gyoza, wagashi, rice ball, street food, Traditional Shotengai, tokyo street food, what to eat in tokyo, japan 2022, japan travel 2022, tokyo travel tips, tokyo food guide, japan street food tour, shizuka anderson, byFood, tokyo street food tour, japan street food, japan food, japan travel

Id: JI9wog6XqwI

Length: 14min 16sec (856 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 22 2022