Tokyo diners line up for grilled eel on midsummer Day of the Ox
Tokyo’s Yatsumeya Nishimura prepared more than 1,200 fillets from 4am and kept its large kabayaki at 3,000 yen as eel purchasing costs eased.
- Diners in Tokyo lined up for grilled eel to celebrate the midsummer Day of the Ox, a tradition believed to restore energy and combat summer heat.
- Despite rising costs for other ingredients, an increased supply of eel from plentiful catches last year allowed many restaurants to keep their prices unchanged.
- Demand for the traditional dish was high, with customers queuing for hours and some restaurants preparing over 1,200 eel fillets for the occasion.
Chefs at Yatsumeya Nishimura’s Meguro outlet were already at work at 4am on Sunday (July 26), preparing more than 1,200 eel fillets for customers marking Japan’s midsummer Day of the Ox.
Experienced staff coated the eel in the restaurant’s secret sauce before grilling it over charcoal, while queues grew from early morning outside kabayaki shops and restaurants across Tokyo despite scorching temperatures.
For the occasion, Yatsumeya Nishimura offered takeaway service only.
Its signature large grilled eel fillet remained priced at 3,000 yen, unchanged from last year, although the cost of ingredients other than eel had risen sharply.
Owner Kiyoshi Matsumoto said the reduction in eel procurement costs had brought some relief.
“With eel procurement costs down this year, we’d like to reward our employees with higher wages,” he said.
Matsumoto said plentiful baby eel catches last year had increased the supply of well-grown eel this year.
“I hope people will enjoy it and build up their stamina,” he added.
Across Japan, grilled eel is traditionally eaten on the midsummer Day of the Ox in the belief that it restores energy and helps people cope with the summer heat.
Despite widespread increases in food prices, eel remains popular, with many restaurants reducing prices or leaving them unchanged because of the improved supply.
A woman in her 30s who had joined the queue two hours before opening said with a smile: “I usually try to save money, but this is the one day of the year when I absolutely have to eat eel.”
[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
