Exploring an Underground Food Court | Kenji Eats Japan (Patreon)

In Japan, department store basements turn an everyday shopping run into a world-class culinary experience. Follow along as the team explores one of these food halls for a "depachika" taste test.

It’s Erin, Content & Community Manager for Kenji’s Patreon, and I’m back to introduce the next episode in our Kenji Eats Japan series, Exploring an Underground Food Court!

As an American, before I ever stepped foot in Japan, I thought I understood shopping malls and all they had to offer. And as a Seattleite, I naïvely assumed our city’s history founding The Bon Marché and Nordstrom would prepare me for certain realities of the department store experience… But that all changed in Kyoto.

That's really just a dramatic way of saying: Japanese malls and department stores are, truly, on another level! Where an American mall will have a fast food chain–riddled food court (which always kind of looks like an airport terminal), Japanese food courts are massive, city-block-sized underground halls with just about anything you might be craving at any given moment. Where the American department store is dying, the Japanese one is thriving—and not just as a touristy gimmick but, seemingly, as a cornerstone of city living.

This particular adventure began when Kyoto native, Taichi Kitamura (Executive Chef and Owner of Sushi Kappo Tamura), recommended to Kenji we explore this underground food court (or "depachika") at Takashimaya’s Kyoto location. So, off we went!

Exploring Takashimaya’s Depachika

To say the options at this depachika were sprawling would be an understatement. Entire sections of the floor plan were broken down by category: Seafood, produce, grocery, sugar and flour confectionery, and more. Within those categories, the assortment of food options was baffling and, at times, overwhelming. While some shops focused on one product—making exclusively pork katsu or eel and rice bowls, for example—others were selling a diversity of products within that category, like different flavors of wagashi, various types of croquettes, or assorted boxes of nigiri.

In an attempt to narrow down our options, we set out to select five items for the video. Needless to say, we failed to stick to our self-imposed limit.

Enter: Akari

As we shared last week, Akari is Kenji’s assistant. She lives across the country—so we don’t usually have the pleasure of working alongside her in person—but as a fluent Japanese speaker and someone who spends a lot of time in Japan, we were grateful she accompanied us on our trip to act as a translator and cultural liaison.

She joined Kenji on camera for this video as a fellow Japanese-American for a discussion of cuisine and culture. Luckily (and hilariously) for us, this quickly diverged into a Kenji roast over their food court meal. Behind the scenes, it was maybe the funniest moment of the trip for Lena and I, who were in tears by the end of the shoot, enjoying Akari’s dry humor bounce right off Kenji’s attempts at sincere conversation about the taste test.

We hope you enjoy the banter as much as we did in this episode of Kenji Eats Japan!

🔗 Watch the full Kenji Eats Japan series.