while visiting Tokyo you have a chance
to enjoy all of the wonderful Lively
bustling streets of the city but after a
while you want to taste of something a
little bit more traditional but luckily
just an hour away from Tokyo is kawagawe
also known as little Edo where the old
charm of Japan is still alive and well
so today I'm going to be exploring
little Edo and trying out all of their
wonderful street foods but before we go
don't forget to subscribe for more
awesome Japan Adventures let's go
[Music]
is actually not part of Tokyo it is
actually located in saitama prefecture
and it's known as little Edo for its
edo-like Ambiance Edo being the old name
for Tokyo and the reason it gained
prominence was mostly during the Edo
period when it was a key post town
during the trade route between Tokyo and
the northern regions of Japan and one of
its landmarks is actually right behind
me this is the Toki no Kane which
translates to the bell of time and the
sound of the Bell is actually certified
as one of the 100 soundscapes of Japan
so this Bell is definitely one to look
out for hopefully we can hear it today
oh what's this let's give it a try oh
it's a big line okay we're gonna line up
and give it a try I am in front of
osatsuman it's a shop that's known for
their sweet potato chips that you dip in
cream and the reason why this is a snack
that you should try here is because
sweet potatoes are really famous in
kawagoe until the 1960s kogoy was one of
Japan's leading producers of sweet
potatoes so you'll find a lot of sweet
potato snacks I've had sweet potato
chips before but never had it in cream
actually that's way better than I
expected I've had sweet potato chips
before that were really really dry and
just too hard this one has just the
right amount of moisture to keep that
crisp crunch when you bite into it and
it does go really well with the cream
it just adds a wonderful sweetness it's
kind of like eating chips with with ice
cream I guess it's very nice
although you shouldn't really eat while
you walk you can kind of eat while
you're around here but it's a nice snack
I like it
[Music]
oh this place looks really nice
and they have this really interesting
dessert it is basically a cheesecake
Montblanc and it's got ice cream inside
it just this is a cheesecake I don't
know how they do it so let's give it a
try
wow
[Music]
look at that it comes in a really cute
little paper cup and it's got Mont Blanc
on top and I was able to choose between
Basque cheesecake or kawaguay sweet
potato cheesecake so I got this cowgirl
sweet potato it smells like cheese it
doesn't smell like Chestnut which is
what most Montblanc are made out of
usually it's like a chestnut paste
that's threaded okay let's give it a
taste the ice cream with the cheesecake
sweet potatoes
as I suspected the montblan paste at the
top is not made out of chestnuts I
believe it's just made out of sweet
potatoes but it seems to be infused with
cheesecake flavor almost a saltier rich
cheese rather than like a cream cheese
it's less it's a little bit more sharp
ah it's got little corn flakes or bran
flakes on the bottom look they're really
common in Japanese Park Bays there's
usually Corn Flakes at the bottom
this one doesn't taste like corn I think
it's not made out of bran it's made out
of rice it's like rice cereal flakes it
does give a really nice crunch it goes
really well with the ice cream and the
cheese and sweet potato in the moment
this is a very unique and refreshing
dessert very kawagoya but I'm going to
finish this off and then let's keep
exploring little Edo
foreign
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this is a popular unagi shop and as you
can see a lot of people are lined up and
waiting to get some unagi and
coincidentally in this region unagi is
really famous since this area is called
kawagawe so it means over the river and
you get eels from the local Rivers so it
has a long history of eels and there's a
lot of really old Edo period eel
restaurants here as well so I think we
might as well try some eel and in
particular I want to try the egg rolls
with unaki this looks really good this
is called an umaki basically tamagoyaki
is a Japanese rolled omelette like this
but instead of just the tamago which is
the egg it also has unagi inside and
therefore you get umaki and these are
really popular in areas where unagi is
famous
mmm oh my goodness there's so much Umami
in this bite and it's so juicy it's a
fluffy rolled omelette with some juicy
fluffy unagi meat on the inside and the
sauce just adds so much Umami it's like
it's like a sweet soy sauce
mmm
that's really good I'm glad I got that
that's a good one to try I think this is
definitely a must try if you come to
Cowboy
[Music]
oh I think it's also important to
mention that coeto or little Edo has a
really famous Starbucks it was the first
Starbucks I think that was made in a
design that looks like Edo do you see
how it fits with the design of the city
this is a famous location apparently
[Music]
I got a cucumber on a stick this might
seem really weird but this is a classic
japanese summer food
foreign
that is so refreshing and so crunchy and
it's not just a regular cucumber it's
been salted and pickled in in a plum
brine it's so it's sour and a little bit
sweet with some sugar but also salty
it's a really good summer snack
[Music]
one of the reasons why you can't see
traditional buildings like this in most
of Tokyo is because all of it was
destroyed during World War II during the
Air Raids and also during the Great
Kanto earthquake in 1923. so this is a
really rare area that was primarily or
mostly unscathed from all of these
disasters and one of those areas that
survived is this street here known as
kashia yokocho which means candy alley
it is a wonderful place with a nostalgic
atmosphere and many many traditional
candy shops at one point after the great
Kanto earthquake this area actually
became the place to get candy because
there was a shortage of candy and sweets
all across Japan and at that time there
was over 70 different candy shops in
this area nowadays it's dwindled down to
20 but it's still a really great place
to come so let's go and see if we want
kind of traditional sweets we can find
and traditional nostalgic candies
oh here we are at a candy shop that
sells something called fugashi and
fugashi is basically dried wheat gluten
and it's coated with sugar cane sugar
called and this is a type of dagashi
which is mostly what was sold here back
in the day it's like a really really
cheap candy
um like a Penny Candy the kids would go
by so this is a version of that but it's
the biggest one in Japan and they have
the longest fugashi in Japan at 95
centimeters long oh and it even says on
here
which means nostalgic flavor from the
old times wow that is pretty impressive
that's quite long
smells so good it smells sweet and kind
of nutty because it's sugar cane sugar
okay here we go let's give it a try
okay so it looks like bread
it really does like it looks like a
baguette the inside also looks fluffy
like like bread
but the texture is kind of like cotton
candy almost when it melts in your mouth
like when you eat it it melts in your
mouth really fast and it leaves you with
this strong sugar taste like cotton
candy or candy floss whatever fairy
floss whatever you call it
it is very good very sweet it's like
eating a hard cotton candy
and the original bite into it is kind of
like eating some bread
it's really interesting if you like cane
sugar
this would be a fun snack to try
and one of the things to do here is
definitely to dress up in a Yukata it's
very very popular dress up I haven't
seen too many other people dressed up
today but a lot of people do and it just
makes you feel like you're living in Old
Tokyo
[Music]
oh this looks fun it looks like a glass
blowing candy of some sort this is old
school candy the kids used to do I'm
gonna blow into it like glass blowing
and we'll make a balloon
here we go
[Music]
it's actually really difficult
[Music]
whoa that was cool it was actually
really really hard to blow into it first
it was like
I can't even blow up balloons actually
so maybe that was part of the problem
but it starts out really really hard
I've actually never done that before
this is very cool it's starting to like
break apart at the top a little bit but
you can just like lick it like a
lollipop or something
it's kind of it's just like licking
sugar actually there's nothing too
exciting about it just fun to make
which is a sugar lollipop
kind of like eating cotton candy but it
hasn't been flavored
activity
burst so maybe if you don't like if you
do it better
if you don't I don't know maybe with a
little bit more practice it'll stay
intact
but yeah just a fun fun old school snack
and fun activity to do here
to finish off my date in kawagawe I'm
having some local craft beer called
coweto beer which literally means little
Edo and this is a really really famous
and popular beer it's actually won a lot
of different beer Awards in Japan and
around the world and this particular one
is the Benny AKA beer they have a few
different kinds but the Benny akka in
particular is very quintessentially
Japanese and kawagoy because it is made
out of sweet potatoes that were grown
right here in kalagoe oh that is so good
it's a really really it almost tastes
like a a stout it's actually very rich
and deep flavors now that I know that
there are sweet potatoes in it I can
taste what feels like the sweetness of
sweet potatoes but it's also rich and
dark it is a very delicious and
refreshing beer
and a great way to finish off my day in
little Edo I hope you guys enjoyed
following along my day trip with me in
kawagoi saitama prefecture and I'd love
to know have you guys ever visited
Cowboy before because I feel like it's a
little bit out of the city maybe not a
lot of people have been here but if you
have please let me know and if you
haven't let me know if you guys would
like to come and even try dressing up in
traditional Yukata or kimonos because it
is a lot of fun anyway if you guys
enjoyed this video please make sure to
give us a like comment and don't forget
to subscribe and we'll see you guys very
soon in another video bye
cheers
thank you