STB47: Aichi
Things Take A Turn
Review — Starbucks JIMOTO Frappuccino #23 Aichi
Devising 47 unique Frappuccino must have been a challenge, especially when attempting to find an interesting drinkable theme for places like Tottori or Saga. A lot of the entries in this now-finished promotion could get vague, but the true highlights…the ones that drive someone to, say, spend way too much time looking at Shinkansen ticket sites for deals…find a true local taste and condense it into dessert-drink form.
Cheers for Aichi Prefecture’s entry into this series, which latches on to a Nagoya specialty and imagines it as something you can stuff into a plastic cup. Their Frappuccino recreated the sweet taste of ogura toast, which is just a piece of toasted bread smothered in red bean paste. This drink actually gets the anko flavor down in a way that’s neither overpowering or unsettling. It mixes well with the sweeter elements present without ever becoming too much. It’s reminiscent of the regional breakfast delight without ever feeling off-putting, and a highlight.
OK, I can explain. I didn’t buy a Shinkansen ticket and book a hotel room near Nagoya Station to just drink as many Starbucks JIMOTO Frappuccinos as possible. I ate lunch with an old friend and, uh, bought some souveneirs. It’s just that the majority of time spent on this two-day trip revolved around zipping across five prefectures to injest sugary beverages. Thanks to surprisingly reasonable JR Tours transit/lodging packages for making it possible.
Nagoya, the fourth largest city in Japan, served as a base for this most-certainly-a-mid-life-crisis exercise. Still, while serving me primarily as a giantic train platform into surrounding areas, there was something refreshing about being in another large urban area that wasn’t Tokyo (and somewhat unnerving — bars out there, packed until like 1 am, based on the area immediately around my hotel). I departed a day after the Olympic opening ceremony, and following along with the Games from tiny in-room TVs and the occassional big screen inside a pub visible from the streets felt far more fun than the sort of deflated experience the event carried in the capital. At home, it was “is this really happening near us?” Out here, it was “oh look, judo!”
Nagoya band CRUNCH’s “blue blue blue” EP
I’m hesitant to underline the plainness of visiting Nagoya, because the city’s entire reputation over the past 10 years has been “BORING.” Despite being a large metropolitan area, nobody strives to leave their sleepy hometown so they can try to make it in Nagoya. Nobody craves the hustle and bustle of Sakae after dark. Nagoya seems either transitory — like, literally, the center of the country, choose what direction you want to go next — or suburban. Nice, but nothing that will get the hairs on your arms standing up.
Nagoya cuisine, Pringle-ized
I love visiting Nagoya, partially because everything seems a little less frantic compared to not just Tokyo, but other similarly sized cities. It’s also just more fun than most in the country paint it (Nagoya is going through it’s own Saitama moment, with its boringness more of a punchline than a reality, though the city still takes it personally rather than weaponizing that uncool), and, to share a personal hot take, might actually be home to the best food in Japan. Give me deep-fried cutlets dipped in miso, spicy chicken wings and thick toasts coated in bean paste over Osaka’s gooey street food any day.
Team Syachihoko — “Capital Relocation Plan” (“dip it in miso miso / put it on miso miso / change the capital!” now that’s how you rep for your hometown!)
When I interviewed CHAI a few years ago, they were pretty clear in announcing Nagoya’s music ecosystem didn’t do anything for them. That makes sense — that’s a band with a clear goal stretching far beyond Aichi’s biggest city. To them, Nagoya was a hurdle to the world. Yet for artists who stay or even move there, I find Nagoya helps them craft their own world.
That’s most clear in the crop of experimental artists based in and around the city, creators such as Foodman, woopheadclrms, House Of Tapes and more. They offer a surreal take on the everyday, inspired by…a setting that is very regular, but allows for the mind to wander. That applies to projects like Lullatone, whose defining approach to art is capturing the magic of daily life, or the ennui of it via the city’s always-healthy indie-pop community. I go back to a quote from the electronic artist CVN, who moved from Tokyo to Nagoya a few years back.
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies