Akabane Food District

After visiting Tokyo DisneySea, I travelled to Sugamo Station to meet up with our family friend, Naoto. The last time I saw him was in 2015 when he introduced my family and I to the LGBTQIA+ community at the Akta Community Center in Shinjuku.

I was so excited to see him again. I made sure to bring some pasalubong (gifts) from my home country, the Philippines. I brought him some coffee grounds and dried mangoes.

From Sugamo station, we travelled to the Akabane district to meet up with a couple of his friends, freelance photojournalists who were visiting Japan.

As a freelance journalist, I am very thankful to be able to touch base with fellow freelancers. Two of them were from the West (Mexico and Holland), and one of them was a Japanese local who worked remotely. Naoto and I met them after walking a few blocks from the Akabane station.

For Naoto, Akabane was a hidden gem in Tokyo that many tourists often overlooked in their itineraries. While I was researching for popular food places in Tokyo, this food district never came up online. According to him, the Akabane food district was frequented by locals, and it had the "most authentic" izakayas in Tokyo.

A local shop that serves nabe, or one-pot dishes. Customers can choose from a variety of ingredients to be included into a broth mixture.

Getting there was a bit of a challenge as the food district was hidden from the main road. We passed through several alleyways with pachinko casinos, small shopping centers and grocery stores. Once we got there, I saw so many Japanese locals who were in a celebratory mood after a long week of work.

Two Japanese locals walk towards the food district.

It was Friday night and every food place we visited smelled like smoked food and grilled meats.

There were a lot of places that allowed customers to cook their own food. After walking around, we decided to eat dinner at an izakaya that was frequented by many local celebrities.

We ate at this place which had a picturesque facade of traditional lanterns.

We were welcomed by the friendly and hospitable owner who was quite popular in the area as we were seated by a wall filled with photos of him and celebrities who dined in his izakaya, and public events that were held there.

A wall with event posters and memorabilia from the owner.

We ordered ready-to-grill meats and vegetables, and we had a lot of fun cooking them. The scent of cooked food wafted through the air, and it was a bit of a challenge to see who you were talking to because of the smoke.

We were grilling chicken, beef, and potatoes.

Nonetheless, the food was excellent, and we even got free appetizers from the owner!

This appetizer is made of seaweed topped with a block of cheese and cooked chicken. It was kind of like a palette cleanser which we ate before our second round of grilled food.

Aside from the delicious food, I also got to try the local beer there. Asahi Beer is sort of like their San Miguel beer. San Miguel is a popular local beer brand in the Philippines. You can find a San Miguel bottle or canned drink almost anywhere- the same goes for Asahi beer. Even vending machines in Japan were dispensing the drink.

The beer tasted refined, and a bit bitter. I wasn't able to finish it though, but it paired nicely with the grilled meats we ate.

At the end of the night, Naoto and I made three new friends who had so many interesting stories to tell about their respective countries. We spent hours talking, laughing, and sharing our experiences. Indeed, great food and drinks can bring people from different nationalities under one roof.

As a first-time solo traveller, this really meant a lot to me, and this particular encounter was the start of how I became more open-minded and friendly with travellers like me, who yearned for a life of adventure too.

(Clockwise from left: Hilde Coenegrachts, Walter Shintani, Mutzu Ishizawa, Naoto Okamura and the author).

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