tokyo food file

Summer Reasons to be Cheerful – Part 1: Hanabi

Summer in Japan is few people's favorite season. Anyone who has spent even a couple of days in Tokyo in the heat of late July, August or early Spetember will know it is a steamy cauldron of sweat and potential heat stroke.

But that is not to say there are no upsides. Quite the opposite. Summer has plenty to celebrate. Cue this new series: Summer Reasons to be Cheerful.

 

Starting right here, with hanabi — the beautiful "flowers of fire".

They're all good. But fireworks festivals over water are best of all. Not only is there usually a cool breeze off the lake or sea, you also get to see reflections. 

 

Best of all, you can bring your own drinks. And there's often a cool food stall nearby, such as Twitch's Jamaican jerk chicken grill, down on the beach in Hayama.

   

Jamaica x Tokyo = jerk chicken madness

 

Reggae music + clouds of billowing fragrant smoke + jerk chicken on all sides = only one thing: the annual One Love Jamaica Festival in Yoyogi Park. It's that time of year again...

 

These guys in their goggles are here every year, and they really mean business...

 

The chicken is good — which is why the line here is up to half an hour long...

 

After wading through all the greasy barbecue smoke, it was a relief to find Cafe Eight's clean, mellow stall.

 

"Eat your vegetable, eat your ital" is their slogan.

It's all righteous: Ital stew with rice and peas; soymeat chunks in pita bread; and their ital plate with vegetarian pasties. Good for body, mind and spirit.

 

I rarely get to Cafe Eight these days, since they moved out to Aobadai — a good healthy walk from Naka-Meguro Station. But the ethos is just the same as when it was in Aoyama (which was when I wrote it up in the JT)... 

 

Today's the second day of the One Love festival — and the weather looks perfect!

 

bon odori, sake and jerk chicken

Bon odori on the beach. It's a fine location to see off the spirits of the ancestors...

 

Once darkness has fallen and the lanterns have been lit, it's time to start. The ritual circle dance begins, slowly moving anticlockwise around the musicians in the centre...

 

These days the music for bon odori is usually canned, with perhaps just a token drummer to keep the beat. Not here...

 

The music is traditional but instruments are electric — and so are the band. Many of the backing singers have appeared each year since they were knee-high to a cicada.

 

A libation or two can never go amiss, to lubricate the dancing muscles. There's always something to drink close at hand.

 

Sake seems appropriate, in honour of the ancestors. Above Kikuhime; below Suwa Izumi.

 

An hour of bon dancing can generate a powerful hunger. Some of the beach huts offer an impressive and eclectic range of snacks.

 

Goya chample (aka champuru), and some oasis curry (with chickpeas and other beans).

 

But the longest lines were at this Jamaican jerk chicken stall. Spicy and with a choice of rice or authentic festival.

  

 

The ancestors on their journey back to the other world would surely approve.

One Love Festival — two days of good vibes and music (and jerk chicken)

The annual One Love Festival took over Yoyogi Park — or the portion of it by NHK Hall — yesterday and today. There were reggae beats in our ears; Red Stripe and Guinness in our hands and in the ice boxes; and plenty of smoke in our eyes — most (though maybe not all) emanating from the basic barbecues at the food stalls...

 

There were a god number of grills turning out jerk chicken of various degrees of spiciness (and blackness). But the longest lines (and best food) were at the stalls operated by the Jamaican community: JamRock Cafe, the excellent new little restaurant in Harajuku; and Rice and Peas, run by the ever-mellow Twitch (in town from his base on the coast in Hayama).

 

Now it really feels like the summer — and the festival season — is here.