A yen for Tokyo

My friend Tariq Ansari and his son Imaan invite me to JapanmdashTokyo and Kanazawa to be specific ldquoJoin uswersquoll walk wersquoll eat wersquoll explorehellip wersquoll experience you can take photoshellip Tokyo the big city and Kanazawa off the beaten track the castle town of 400 yearsrdquo Tariq is pretty much a native of Japan having studied in Tokyo his Japanese is fluentmdashFor everyone whorsquos been to this great nation ldquoTherersquos no country quite like itrdquomdashI concurmdashit is a quiet city of 14 million people perpetually on silent modeOld world in its orientalism Ornate but not opulentThere is an order that permeates day today lifeIn Tokyo your every sense is activated there is fragrance scents of various kinds in the air there is solitude amidst the swarms the streets spotless without being antiseptic the best example of a metropolis in meditative motion The people arenrsquot over chatty but the attitude is helpful without necessarily being ldquohail fellow well metrdquoThis is a world cityhellip and yet there is a traditionalism Irsquod be tempted to say tourism hasnrsquot been fully embracedThe universe of food takes centrestage in Tokyo cuisine isnrsquot just about eating and ldquoMichellin Star dishesrdquomdashitrsquos about a process the ingredients the garnishing critical to the end product ldquoOpen your mind to the flavours and the feel of the food the attention to detail there is no compromiserdquo Tariq tells me In many styles of Japanese cooking while the chef prepares you sit in front of him watching the drama unfold Fingers delicately placing pieces of eel on small beds of rice Yoshiihiro knives slicing through chunks of Wagyu beefTariq and I go to Mijo an Omakase style restaurantmdashyou place your trust in the chefrsquos culinary skills to create a private mealmdashOmakase translates as ldquoI leave it upto yourdquo Ohara is our Omakase chefhellip hersquos a funny guy a far cry from the mostly ldquoMajimemekaordquo serious face of the average TokyoitemdashHe carries his skills lightly he cooks cleans pours slicesmdashldquoHowrsquos your English so goodrdquo we askldquoI studied school in Coloradordquo he saysHersquos no more than 27 but he is an artist an aesthetemdashhe knows his spices he knows his sake he knows his sea food he knows his sashimimdashand then he places before us the most exquisite piece of ceramic crockery with what looks like four separate delicacieshellip my eyes first light up and then I gulp as he explainsmdashldquoBaby squidhellip salmon eggshellip pickled sardineshellip and whelk from the snail familyrdquoHe watches while I eat a twinkle in his eyes I summon my inner samuraildquoIf you don like is ok therersquos next onerdquo he assures me Then he places in front me octopushellip ldquoCome eathellip tell me if you likerdquomdashldquoOctopus lsquoTakorsquo in Japanese is both a street food and a speciality dish depends where you eat it the preparationrdquo Tariq tells meIn Japan food is about seasoning and seasons which region itrsquos from and what time of yearOhara focuses on us intrigued by Tariqrsquos ease with Japanese culture and traditions each course is a private tuition a gastronomic journeymdashhersquos asks where wersquore from surprised when we say Indiamdashhow do Indians approach their meals he enquires he is horrified to learn that Indians eat after drinking after all this is a man who pairs each course with particular sake ldquoyou take a bit of food followed immediately by a sip of a particular sakerdquo he saysHe proudly produces an MDL Chaat masala ldquosomeone gave me from Indiardquo and proceeds to apply it to some fried radish The combination worksldquoI like the film 3 Idiotrdquo he says suddenly ldquoYou know Aamir Khanrdquo he asks ldquoDonrsquot know him but wersquove met himrdquo we both say He pours each of us a small peach liqueurAs we get up to leave post a sevencourse meal he comes out to say goodbye he gives us the traditional bowSayonara Ohara Arrigato Till we meet againThe next day we board the bullet trainAnd a new adventure begins to the even quieter town of KanazawaRahul daCunha is an adman theatre directorplaywright photographer and traveller Reach him at rahul dacunha middaycom