culture and lesser-known restaurants and hidden gems all across Japan

I'm your host Shizuka Andersson and today I'll be sharing with you the

quieter side of it typically bustling affects up

today as you can see it is currently cherry blossom season in Japan so we'll

be featuring at three different restaurants that are very popular in

this season and that will be featuring the very famous cherry blossom motif

let's go check them out

so this is the famous kota tua tango restaurant it is actually over 130 years

old and it was founded during the edo period so it is it is a long history and

it's very traditional well gushie restaurant this shop has

also become very popular for people during the cherry want some season to

take and done go over to the park and enjoy cherry blossom

so this is the famous Kota toy tango it's a very unique type of tango as some

of you may know Japanese dango or mochi ball on a stick basically they usually

are on a stick and they're covered with a kind of sauce usually soy sauce bases

and sauce but this time there is no sauce at all and they come in three

different flavors and they're actually just made with red bean paste and there

are different types of red bean paste white red bean yellow and red which is

the most traditional right it's much softer than I actually expected it to be

this is the classic red bean dongle let's give it a try

that's a mouthwash that's very very chewy it really is so chewy the you

can't talk at first the inside is a sticky rice cake but it's also very very

soft and it all blends together really beautifully the red bean paste if you're

not familiar with it it's usually known to be very very sweet it's not

overpowering however and I think it goes perfectly with the slight bitterness of

a green tea and now this is the new Scirocco the outside of it is covered in

a rice cake and there should also be some miso paste on the inside as well so

that smells quite a unique dango I've decided to give it a try because of

their rice hit on the outside it's very compact and the inside is full of flavor

and very very soft there's a really nice hint of miso but also red bean paste so

this is the last white bean paste

let's take a bite and see what it looks like

see what that looks like it's all whites it blends all together a little hard to

see but the very very center is a really soft and chewy rice cake

here we have the iconic komeiji Sakura mochi this is actually the birthplace of

the Kanto style mochi which is known for its very smooth rice cakes traditional

Kansai separate emoji are actually very they have like very visible rice

granules in the mochi this has been smoothed out completely and we've got

this very flat appearance to the mochi as well and it has been wrapped in

cherry blossom leaves perfect for the cherry blossom season an interesting

thing about this restaurant is that it was actually founded in 1717 so it is a

very historical restaurant and it is said that the founder of this restaurant

got the idea for this type of psychology when he was pickling cherry blossom

leaves and that was how this cherry blossom leaf wrapped Moshi was born the

name of the restaurant itself chili G is named after a temple that is right along

the seaweed Ogawa River which is right across from us and apparently back in

the day they used to sell these Sakura mochi right along the river during the

cherry blossom season and and Chum AG means long life temple actually and this

shoumei temple is known for its healing water so perhaps as its namesake maybe

if you eat this mochi you might actually live a long life for self as well

this is the cherry blossom mochi it's very different from what I'm used to

seeing most cherry blossom mochi in Tokyo actually are pink colored and

they're more round and chewy looking not as flat but here you can see that the

mochi is actually paper-thin and I think that's quite a unique style the leaves

themselves are apparently become from Shizuka Prefecture and they are edible

pickled cherry blossom leaves however at this restaurant you're supposed to

remove the leaves and just eat the mochi on its own the leaves are very well this

is beautiful I really love this presentation all right let's give it a

try the famous show Meiji Sakura mochi eat like us

mmm mmm well that's very interesting it to be honest it has a much more subtle

cherry blossom flavor to them what she itself it doesn't taste as artificial as

other types of some kind of mochi in the sense that I think this is a completely

natural and very traditional style second emoji it clearly hasn't been dyed

pink to represent Sakura mochi you can taste the flavor of the sacre de mogi

and I think part of it also comes from the leaves that it was wrapped so

there's a slight salty taste to it and it blends very nicely with this very

sweet and very soft red bean paste on the inside it's delicious

this is she oh no it is another very famous and very traditional Japanese

rugged shoe shop and as you can see it's actually been selling

the entrance to a new school year so it's very fitting with the new cherry

blossom season as it signifies new beginnings of delicious desserts to

celebrate Fred new starting school year this shop is also a very traditional

shop with the long history it was first established in 1883 towards the end of

the Meiji era so again a very long-standing shop and they feature a

lot of very traditional Japanese wagashi noticed Nitti Keeney huacachina it's

made out of a white bean paste combined with rice paste and it's a very

moldable malleable type of paste that it can be designed into various shapes so

as you can see we have some cherry blossom motifs as well as different

types of flowers or different animals of

this terracotta inertia got knee-high boot Okinawa and not Susie condo men

named Akira desu kedo colega irony irony we sleep in canary toga Chuck testa shoe

a cat Roca me carotid and no movies you allow us

do not I know what you forgot tell my videos my cuca why you don't see this

man I feel so bad to put my fork in this so beautiful let's give it a taste

mmm that is delicious you can steal that looks like there's a little bit of red

bean on the inside mmm that's very good it's much more firm than the dungo that

we tried earlier and you can really taste the white red the white bean paste

it's a very light it's much softer than the typical red bean and it blends very

nicely again this is a dessert that pairs really well with a nice cup of

green tea because of its sweetness so you can balance that off with a little

bit of the bitterness of the green team who again I'm really nervous about

cutting into this it's so beautiful I'm just gonna take a bite here so beautiful

mmm the texture of this is totally different it's much softer and you

really just bite into it it's very very soft and you can taste a little bit of

food you serve mentioned there is this really nice

fresh flavor and again on the inside it's filled with a dark red bean paste

finally this one I'm really excited to try because of its three different parts

and also three different textures that I think we can enjoy thank you mice mm-hmm

very good whoa you can really enjoy those three

different textures in one bite you've got the chewy rice paste which is very

much like a mochi and the bottom is in things almost got a bit of a gelatin

vibe a little bit of like a yoga which is a a solidified red bean paste with a

little bit of gelatin on the bottom and the top is is basically what I just need

here very very smooth white bean paste flavor that is delicious this is really

wonderful that you can try so many different textures and flavors that are

reminiscent of the spring and so good with a cup of green tea I hope you guys

enjoyed this video today I know I did very much and I was very surprised to

learn that there was still such historical restaurants in such close

proximity to this River and a success as well if you guys

are ever in Tokyo during cherry blossom season I really recommend to check out

these three traditional wagashi shops especially the netk volga she which I

thought was so interesting and meticulously hand-carved so I don't

think there's any better place to enjoy traditional Japanese desserts anyway

thank you guys so much and see you guys in the next video

you