🇯🇵 Kanagawa

Kanagawa's food

Kanagawa prefecture, next to Tokyo on the southwest, is a place of sea, hills and port. The "shirasu" caught off Shonan in Sagami Bay, the temple-gate food of the old capital Kamakura running since the Kamakura period, the Chinatown and port-town Western food of Yokohama, the cooking of Hakone's hot-spring inns — towns of quite different terrain and history share one prefecture. An hour or so from the city by train, the sea and an old capital are within a day trip. Here, Kanagawa starts with the food walk of that old capital, Kamakura.

Starting from Kamakura

For the way into Kanagawa, we chose Kamakura. Komachi-dori, running from Kamakura station to Tsurugaoka Hachimangu, gathers onto one street the Shonan raw-shirasu bowl, Kamakura croquette, Kamakura ham, colourful dango and Hato Sabure — seafood and an old capital's sweets. In a calm town ringed by sea and hills, tasting plate by plate as you tour the sights — the food walk and the sightseeing overlap neatly, and that is Kamakura's charm.

Shonan's shirasu and an old capital's taste

What stands for Kanagawa's food is Shonan's shirasu. The raw whitebait of Sagami Bay lives on freshness, made into a bowl and into fried fish paste. Add the Kamakura ham running since Meiji, the Hato Sabure named for the pigeons of Tsurugaoka Hachimangu, and a strong matcha soft-serve — the tastes of an old capital. Sea, meat, sweet — plates of different character, grazed a little at a time along the short stretch of Komachi-dori: that is the fun of this town's food walk.

How to go, and manners

Kamakura is close to the city, so holidays and the cherry and autumn-leaf seasons are very crowded. For an unhurried walk, a weekday or the early morning is better. And this matters: don't eat while walking. Out of regard for the crowds, Kamakura's way now is to buy and then stop to eat at the shopfront or on a bench. Raw shirasu has a closed season around January to March, so check the time of year if you are after it. JR and the Enoden are convenient; this is a town easier by train than by car.

More to come

For now, Kanagawa starts with one route, Kamakura. Kanagawa still has Yokohama's Chinatown and port-town Western food, Enoshima's shirasu and seafood, and Hakone's hot-spring-inn cooking — several more food towns to walk. Routes will be added over time. For now, take Kamakura and taste the "Kanagawa plate" of the Shonan sea and an old capital's sweets, each tied to its shop.