Places we stopped along the way
Kinoshita Suisanbutsu Fresh Tuna Self-Service Shop
A self-service shop run by a fresh-tuna wholesaler. Packs of fresh tuna sashimi are laid out on a blue counter, with the day's special written on a board on the wall. You pay by putting the money in the box at the front. I bought a tuna collar and a pack of sashimi.
8-6-5 Tsukiji, Nachikatsuura, Higashimuro District, Wakayama
Sources: yukoyuko.net
This moment in the journey
The self-service tuna shop
I passed under the "Welcome to Katsuura" gate and through the Izakata Street arcade. Around Katsuura port, I had heard, there are several unstaffed shops selling fresh tuna. How could I not be curious?
The one I stopped at had a sign reading "Fresh Tuna Self-Service Shop." A board on the wall announced today's special: chewy, wild-caught fresh yellowfin. Packs of fresh tuna with handwritten prices were laid out on a blue counter. I decided to buy a tuna collar too. You put the money in the payment box. Thank you, come again.
Watch this scene on YouTube3:27
More notes from this journey
Nachikatsuura, Wakayama
Ochazuke with saba heshiko
Heshiko is a traditional preserved food of the Wakasa region of Fukui: gutted mackerel is salted, then packed in rice bran and left to cure for months.
From: Nachikatsuura: the sea from a fishing-village window
Nachikatsuura, Wakayama
Charcoal-grilled tuna collar
Nachikatsuura is a fishing town that boasts Japan's largest landings of fresh tuna.
From: Nachikatsuura: the sea from a fishing-village window
Nachikatsuura, Wakayama
Fresh tuna sashimi
Katsuura's fresh tuna, never frozen, has a soft, chewy texture.
From: Nachikatsuura: the sea from a fishing-village window
Nachikatsuura, Wakayama
Nachi Falls (Hiro Shrine)
One of Japan's three great waterfalls: 13 meters wide at the lip, with a 10-meter-deep basin, it drops 133 meters in a single fall.
From: Nachikatsuura: the sea from a fishing-village window
Nachikatsuura, Wakayama
Kumano Nachi Taisha and the Yatagarasu
One of the three grand shrines of Kumano, born of the worship of Nachi Falls, with a history of about 1,700 years.
From: Nachikatsuura: the sea from a fishing-village window
Nachikatsuura, Wakayama
Katsuura's fresh tuna
With the Kuroshio current flowing offshore and a deeply indented coastline, Nachikatsuura is a fishing town with Japan's largest landings of fresh tuna.
From: Nachikatsuura: the sea from a fishing-village window
More notes from Kinki
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Kyoto-style ozoni (white miso New Year soup)
Ozoni in and around Kyoto is built on kombu dashi and white miso, with round mochi, taro, carrot and daikon.
From: Making New Year's Eve soba in a Kyoto townhouse
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Osechi (datemaki, red-and-white namasu, decorated kamaboko)
Each osechi dish carries a wish.
From: Making New Year's Eve soba in a Kyoto townhouse
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Toshikoshi soba (nihachi soba)
The custom of eating soba on New Year's Eve is said to have spread among ordinary people in the Edo period.
From: Making New Year's Eve soba in a Kyoto townhouse
Aridagawa, Wakayama
Chestnut rice (kuri gohan)
My first chestnut rice, made with chestnuts I had picked myself.
From: Chestnuts, saury and an autumn feast
Aridagawa, Wakayama
Charcoal-grilled saury with sudachi
Sanma is written 秋刀魚, "autumn sword fish," but that spelling only spread from the Taisho era on; older texts wrote it 青串魚.
From: Chestnuts, saury and an autumn feast
Aridagawa, Wakayama
Wakayama bonito and mandarin carpaccio
In contrast to the lean first bonito of spring, the fish that head south from around September are called modori-gatsuo, returning bonito.
From: Chestnuts, saury and an autumn feast