Pizza in Japan

There are many things I love in life. I love my family. I love running. I love Canada, the country I am from. I love living abroad and the adventures I have in doing so. I also love pizza.

Pizza is food from the Gods in my opinion. It is the perfect mix of all major food groups. I get Grains, Dairy, Veggies and Meat all in one wonderful package.

I have been a fan of pizza my entire life. A great take out pizza is something to cherish, but even more is a great homemade pizza. Luckily, my parents are amazing cooks and growing up I have th fondest memories of my father's "from scratch" pizzas. They were delicious beyond description and now, as I live in Asia, I appreciate them even more.

I have lived in Asia for almost 10 years now. I lived in Korea for more than 5 years and there, pizza is everywhere. Pizza is common, it is cheap and to be honest, doesn't taste very good. Most places that sell pizza basically serve ketchup, a few slices of pepperoni and very little cheese on a slab of cardboard.

In Japan, pizza is really expensive and doesn't taste very good. ALSO, the sizes are really small.

Solution.....make your own from scracth. That's what I do. here is a quick vid of a pizza I made last weekend. An actual recipe/tutorial video will come soon.

Here is a great video that explains what you get in Japan when you order take out/delivery pizza.

Donbori, pizza and a tower

Another week has come and gone here in Japan and here are some more instagram photos from the previous week. The weather was hot and sunny all week.











You can see some supermarket donbori I ate earlier in the week, a street near my apartmen, some pizza I made from scratch, my local train station and Port Tower along the Kobe waterfront.

From Kobe to Canada

After a painful, yet uneventful flight, we ended up in lovely and frigid Canada. We have been calling a small place outside of Ottawa (the Nation's Capital) our home away from home. It's been great so far!

I've been catching up on food I've missed, Tim Hortons and some great beer.

I've encountered one major dillema. I haven't been able to continue my Tokyo Marathon training as I had hoped. I tried running this mornin, but at -19c outside, I gave up in under 15 minutes. Hopefully it will warm up a little bit so I can try again tomorrow , but I'm not holding my breath.



Last night we tried some of Beau's Brewery"s "Lug Tread" which is a German style beer. I also had it with some amazing pizza from a shop in Cornwall called North End pizza! This is heaven!



Yesterday I had a chance to tour Beau's Brewery which is an awesome craft brewery located in a small town called Vankleek Hill. It's just outside of Ottawa. I picked up some beer, toured the facility and had a great time. There will be a You Tube video about it once I get back to Kobe.

On another subject, I'm more than a little pleased with the fact that my Christmas video on You Tube has been featured and is doing better than I could have ever expected! Thank you everyone who watched it.

Learning About Food and Corn Pizza

I love Japanese food. Let my correct that, I love many types of Japanese food, but not everything. I will be the first to admit that there has been, somewhat of a learning curve for me when it comes to embracing all foods new. Point in case; fish. Fish is something that I doubt I will ever "love", but I am indeed growing to tolerate it. Some types I'm even beginning to enjoy eating.

Growing up, I could have been easily placed in the "picky little eater" category of Canadian food consumers. I'd like to blame it on my parents and geographic locale by saying thing such as, "I was never exposed to different foods." Or something like, "I only ever knew meat and potatoes before I came to Asia." I'd say those things, but they'd be outright lies. My parents valiantly attempted to introduce new and wonderful foods to my palate as a youth and I was only exposed to meat and potatoes.

Now, here I am. Living in Japan and exposed to a wide and fantastic cuisine. Previous to moving to Japan I spent more than five years living and working throughout South Korea. I consumed more vegetables than I ever thought humanly possible and ate things I never could have once imagined myself eating (I'm still not really into the kimchi thing though). Here I am, married to a wonderful Japanese woman who is doing her best to convert me to a new religion. That of, "Fish Fan." Will it ever happen? Maybe, maybe not. I am getting better though.

Along the theme of trying new things, there are some I have tried and feverishly see as wrong. Some foods are dear to me. Some foods are sacred. Pizza is one of those sacred foods. Those who have had the fortune to spend time traveling in Asia and have craved something they know, such as pizza, may have been in for a rude awakening at some point.


Corn on Pizza!

It's more common and well-loved here than you might think. It tends to be when you order pepperoni and cheese pizzas. They come slathered in sweet corn.I know what you're thinking! "That's just plain wrong Kevin!" And you are correct in that thinking. The sweet and spicy combination simply fails miserably in this case. At least to the "Western pizza fan" palate.

I took these pictures in my local 7-11 with my camera phone. This is "Pizza Toast", a popular snack here in Japan. Basically, it's bread, instead of crust, with pizza toppings. In this case you can clearly see the corn.


Here it is "up close!" Corn on pizza!! A travesty.


A few days ago I posted a BRILLIANT video of someone making "Korean Pizza." In that video you can see him adding the "very necessary" ingredient of sweet corn.

Hanami 花見 and the WORST Pizza ever

Spring is in the air and the cherry blossoms are coming out to play. It's time for people all around Japan to head to their nearest park, spread a blue mat on the ground, fire up their bbq's and get pissed under the cherry trees. This yearly activity is called Hanami 花見 which literally means "cherry blossom viewing"



In this video, Japan's most famous vlogger Tokyocooney explains a little more about what Hanami is.

Life In Tokyo: Vlog #19 Hanami - Cherry Blossom Viewing


Now Tokyocooney organized the first You Tube Hanami party in Japan last year. It was held in Yoyogi Park in Tokyo. I was in Canada freezing my ass off when it went down. I won't be able to make it to the second annual You Tube Hanami party which takes place tomorrow in Tokyo. I am not alone though and several other Kansai-based You Tubers can't make it up there either. We've all decided to band together and have our own little Hanami party at Osaka Castle Park tomorrow starting at 1:00pm.


On a food related note, I saw a video about pizza in Korea today that almost made me bust a gut. It was one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time.

If you've ever had the chance to live or visit Japan or Korea, you might notice that they do some very "interesting" things to their pizza. In Korea, when you order a pepperoni pizza, it's common to have it arrive with corn on top! Pizzas often come with mayonnaise, sweet potato and a variety of other "undesirable" toppings. Often the sauce has no spices, and the cheese is rubbery and of VERY poor quality.


I really appreciated this video:
Making Korean Pizza