One of the classic bar snacks of Japan: hone-senbei. The name means "bone crackers" and that's not far from the truth. They're the deep-fried spines of unagi (or less commonly anago) eels — and they're lightly salted and crunchy like crackers. On top of that they're loaded with calcium and impossible to eat too many of, making them the perfect healthy snack for nibbling on with a glass or two of good sake.
Eel spines are in plentiful supply in Japan, of course, as broiled filleted eel is such a common delicacy — or was till shortages droves prices up and up over the past few years. The best hone-senbei are always those prepared fresh at your local izakaya. But these (above) come out of a large plastic jar that sits on the counter at the Hasegawa Saketen sake bar right inside (well, underneath) Tokyo's central railway station.
We ordered one glass of Seizan (from Nagano) and one of Keigetsu (Fukui) — the former was particularly good — and were happy to leave it at that. We had a train to catch after all...
...but then this bottle (below) caught our eye. Another customer had walked in and ordered it from the back of the the display case — it wasn't listed on the standard menu — so it piqued our interest. And when we saw the simple elegant label, well that tipped the balance. We had to try some.
It's from a brewery in Nagoya called Kuheiji — hence the kanji character for 9 (one reading for which is "ku") in the top righthand corner. This particular brew is called Kurodashou (as inscribed along the bottom), after the name of the town in Hyogo Prefecture where the Yamadanishiki rice it's made from is grown.
But there's one more element on the label: the numbers running vertically down the left side. This has no traditional significance, though. These are actually the Google Maps coordinates for the actual plot of rice paddies where the rice was grown. How cool is that?
Here are those numbers again: 35.039,135.034. Check it out for yourself!
But this is much more than just PR packaging: it's a very elegant sake, almost wine-like — which is why Hasegawa serves it in actual wine glasses, rather than shot-glass-size choko cups.
Hasegawa Saketen is a pretty cool company too. It has set up stylish, upmarket retail stores selling sake, beer, shochu and wine (Japanese only) in various parts of town, including inside the recently opened Tokyo Skytree tower complex.
But the best of the lot is still the one at Tokyo Station — because of the bar. It's just a small counter, with room for eight barstools, plus a small standing area to the side. The beer on tap is premium lager, but there's a range of good craft beers on the retail shelves, and some tasty snacks too — including packets of those hone-senbei. It's a good place to while away half an hour or so waiting for a shinkansen, and also for laying in stocks for the journey.
Another of the pleasures of travelling by train in Japan.
