Tokoroten is made by boiling tengusa seaweed, chilling the liquid until it sets, and pressing the jelly through a wooden press into noodles. At Tokoroten-goya Aoki the owner dives for tengusa off Tayuzaki beach in front of the shop from May to September, dries and bleaches it, then boils and sets it; the whole process is said to take about ten hours.
Sources: mina-pre.chiba.jp
This moment in the journey
A shop for natural tokoroten
Past the tunnel, in the middle of a grassy field, stood a wooden hut with a sign reading natural tokoroten. This too is a summer tradition: tokoroten, an old-fashioned treat made by boiling seaweed and chilling it until it sets.
The shopkeeper lifted a translucent block from a tub of water and pressed it through a wooden press into noodles. My favorite is the one with plenty of kuromitsu, dark sugar syrup, poured over the top, finished with a single red cherry.
Watch this scene on YouTube4:56
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From: Zero minutes to the sea: summer vacation in Kamogawa
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From: Zero minutes to the sea: summer vacation in Kamogawa
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