Exploring Japanese Street Food and Local Surfing Spots | DIRT Japan Part 1: Kyushu

Shop gear from this episode of DIRT: https://bit.ly/4cAKm7S

Hope you’re hungry. In this episode, come along as we eat our weight in sushi and ramen, meet nori farmers and wagyu ranchers, and make some new surfing buddies along the way. P.S. if you’re hungry for more Japan content, stay tuned for our next two episodes.

In this episode of DIRT, the crew road tripped around Kyushu. The food culture in Kyushu dates back to the emperors of Japan, and the Black Current off the eastern shore has shaped the island’s cuisine for centuries. The DIRT team followed that current up the coastline, surfing with new friends and tasting new flavors. And with each stop, we learned even more about how the traditions we keep can honor thousands of years of knowledge—and point the way to the future.

Thanks to our friends at Japan Airlines for partnering with us on this episode of DIRT. Start your adventure in Japan here: https://bit.ly/43H1EMA

Shot and Edited by WRKSHRT | https://www.wrkshrt.com/

#adventure #travel #culture #food

– Nothing beats this ’cause it has the pressure. – And you can feel every one of your heartbeats. I never felt that before. – I never felt that before either. – You can feel your blood. – Yeah, feel the blood circulating. – Circulating. – Oh my gosh. – [Josh] Here I am as a kid. Now I’m a washed up pro snowboarder, dad, and curious food nerd, hell bent on new adventures. I’m Josh Rosen. Food and adventure have led me to some of the most interesting places. So we’re off on a mission

To source the freshest ingredients, all while taking it in through the lens of the locals. And each adventure ends with a feast. This is “Dirt.” Now I can see why they call it the island of fire, a place where Samurai warriors bathed in fiery onsens, warmed from the lava of its 70 volcanoes,

A land where giant satsumas grow and warm currents shape its coastline. An island with such overwhelming natural beauty that it’s inspired Murakami, Yoko Ono and “The Legend of Zelda.” We’re in Japan and we’ve made it to the island of Kyushu. Japan has four main islands. Kyushu is the one furthest south,

And we’re beginning our trip in its largest city, Fukuoka. Once home to futile lords during the Edo period, it’s now a modern metropolis and the fastest growing city in Japan, a city of food lovers. Tonight, we’re meeting our chef at Yorozu to begin our trip with an ancient Japanese tradition.

– I feel like I can almost understand what you said. – [Josh] Tea ceremonies like this have been happening in Japan for over a thousand years, and dessert is always included. – Holy (censored), excuse me. We’ve just come to Kyushu. Tell me about where we are right now. – [Josh] Close proximity to fresh ingredients are important to a chef, and we’re lucky to call Kazuma our chef for this episode. He has three restaurants in the city and two are in this building. In the front, a gyoza spot called Las Vegas, complete with rock and roll vibes and DIY dumplings. Hidden in the back is Yorgo, a 20 seat restaurant, showcasing Kazuma’s French trained cooking and where we will return for our final feast. Fukuoka is obsessed with food. Only Tokyo has more restaurants per capita. – So we eat? Let’s go. – [Josh] And Kazuma is going to show us,

Just how food obsessed his town is. – [Josh] Every night, more than 400 food stalls, called Yatai pop up on sidewalks across the city. And Fukuoka has more food stalls than the rest of Japan combined. When there’s only room for 10 customers, snagging a seat can be a competitive sport. – This the one? – Hai.

– [Josh] The first rule, make friends with everyone in your yatai. My old friend and translator, Rip Zinger, always makes this part easy. And our wonderful server who has been running this stall for 50 years made us feel right at home. – Let’s eat. – [Josh] Most stalls serve oden,

Which is basically a pot of boiling broth full of different fish cakes and vegetables. You get the picture. When the clock strikes 12, these temporary structures are rolled up and just like that, poof, they’re gone. – That’s perfect. – [Josh] But we’re not done yet.

For our nightcap, Hakata Ramen, a simple bone broth and ultra thin noodles made famous in Fukuoka. In a country obsessed with food, we may have landed in the most food crazed place of them all, feeling full sodium in the best way. We’ll see you at the end of our journey, Kazuma.

Gallon of water and then off to bed. Kyushu is known as the land of farmers. Just outside the capital city, we are surrounded by rice terraces, hillside farms, and roadside shrines like this. – Hi! – Josh. – [Speaker] Two clap hand, note in the hand, hand in the pocket. Yeah. – Can you explain to us a little bit about Shinto? – [Josh] Shintoism worships nature and ancestry. Spirits exist in nature and harmony is achieved by connecting with it. Watch any Miyazaki film and you’ll get the idea. – For the success of shooting “Dirt” in Japan. – [Josh] Yosuke grows his root vegetables and community garden plots around his village, and this plot’s right next to the Shinto shrine. Today, we’re harvesting sunchokes and yams. – [Josh] Yosuke’s specialty is yama imo, a Japanese mountain yam with a light sweet flavor, similar to jicama, but with a famously sticky texture when cut into. And I won’t say no to some forged weed tea brewed in a suspiciously perfect setting. – Oh buddy, look at us! Crescent Down Works. Actually same. – Oh, same! – [Josh] And because now I’m best friends with Yosuke, we’re gonna take our little matching vest, head to the local squid market for a snack from a few ladies unimpressed with our matching vests,

And then find ourselves some waves to surf. There are a few things as cool as the parking lot scene at a local Japanese surf break. – [Josh] And we are off, to the southern tip of the island to a place known as the end of the road. This is where we will begin our road trip through the rest of Kyushu. We’ve landed in Kagoshima and the airport has a foot onsen next to the curbside pickup. Kate approves.

This region is known for a very active volcano, like daily eruption type of active, fresh seafood, and a potent local liquor. It’s 5:00 AM and we’re hitting the fish market to join a local sushi chef on his daily rounds. Meet Kaz, the sushi chef. His father was a sushi chef

And now he’s following in his footsteps, running one of the best restaurants in Kagoshima. For 150 years, this market has been bringing in fresh caught fish daily. At this small restaurant next to the market, they serve broke-neck mackerel sashimi. You’re gonna wanna eat mackerel sashimi no more

Than a few hours after it’s caught, otherwise you die. Just kidding, but it does taste a lot better. – That is insane. That was maybe the most delicious piece of fish I’ve ever had in my life. – Many sushi chef, they want to learn sushi in Tokyo. – Mm.

– In the restaurant, many sushi chef use Kagoshima fish. – And why can we only get it here? – [Josh] Let me jump in here. The black current is a powerful warm water ocean current that pushes water and plankton up from Southeast Asia. A lot of that plankton gets pushed right here into Kagoshima Bay, creating a feeding frenzy for small fish, making them extra fatty and perfect for sashimi.

And now we get to eat these chubby little fish right here in Kaz’s restaurant. Cue the 80s porno music. Wowee, and now I am spent. – [Josh] Goodnight Kaz, and thank you. Today, we’re on a quest to unlock the secrets of umami, or one part of it. Ever wonder where those flickering fish flakes come from that are on your teriyaki Brussels sprouts at a Japanese restaurant? Well that’s Katsuobushi, and it all starts here. Introducing our guide for today, Mr. Agemura-san. – [Josh] Our first stop, Makurazaki port where the process begins. This dock receives 50,000 pounds of skip jack tuna a year. Shipments like this come in daily. – [Josh] The tuna are sorted by weight, then auctioned and delivered to the 70 local factories in town. Accidentally invented by a fisherman 300 years ago, the katsuobushi process has been perfected and this factory has it down like clockwork. First, the fish are hand fileted and boiled, then into the smoker.

Once cooled, they’re coated with a fish paste and roasted. Then more rounds of smoking, drying in order to remove all the moisture from the fish. Finally, the fish are shaped with a sander and inoculated with a special mold and left in a climate controlled room. And even this process is repeated multiple times.

Three to six months later and whew, there you have it, people. A finished katsuobushi. – [Speaker 2] Wow! – [Speaker 3] Wow! – [Josh] I’ll never take these tiny, fishy flakes for granted ever again. – [Photographer] Okay, smile. – [Josh] Volcanic hot springs warm these sands to approximately 131 degrees. Sand bathing is a wellness practice that dates back hundreds of years. This slightly uncomfortable activity is meant to relax and release toxins. Rip and I indulged and overheat. – I mean, like if you’re gonna bury me,

Like please do it this way. – Sand bath. Yeah, right there on the right side. – [Josh] Now that we are fully detoxified, we’re headed across town to retoxify in the small coastal town of in Ichikikushikino. There we go. Thanks to the volcanoes in Kagoshima, the soil is full of ash. Not great for rice harvesting,

But sweet potatoes are a different story. – [Josh] I guess you could say, Takafumi and his family are in the sweet potato biz, but you know how it goes. First comes starch, then comes liquor. – Oh wow! It hits. – [Josh] His family specializes in Shochu, a Japanese liquor made from these local sweet taters

And Takafumi is the head distiller. Shochu was first distilled in Kagoshima in the 1500s, and his family run business as one of the many local distilleries carrying on the tradition. Shochu can be distilled from rice and barley, but in Kagoshima, the sweet potato is king.

Crushed and put into giant ceramic pots to ferment, Takafumi uses a hundred percent wild yeast fermentation and minimal filtration. – Koji room. It’s like, apples. It’s spice. You can smell. It’s getting more refined. Someday I will drink you and wake up feeling sick. What? Did I earn like, one shot yet? – [Josh] He sources local sweet potatoes of all different colors and each color holds a unique flavor. He then tweaks his distillation process

To highlight the unique flavors of each ingredient. He’s a Shochu mad scientist of sorts. – Here we go. It’s party time. Kanpai. It’s beautiful. – [Josh] If Fukuoka is a city of foodies, Kagoshima is a city of ingredients. It’s not the end of the road. It’s the beginning. Only one way to go from here, north. Let’s roll. – [Rip] I don’t know how to describe it, right? Maybe God took the chicken with him, or God followed the chicken when he landed. – What came first, the God or the chicken? – Sh, sh, shhh. – It’s not every day you get to eat raw chicken with the owner of a tranquil spa resort. But I feel like I would do just about anything with this guy. Just lightly cooked on the outside, and the texture is almost of like, a really nice fish. – Too much? – [Josh] A little R&R at a utopian lodge in the mountains was just what the body needed. – Thank you for having us. – [Josh] That’s nice. We’re crossing over the Hiroshima mountains to the original honeymoon destination of Japan. Now, it’s more known for its surf scene. It’s a chilly 40 degrees out, but the water is a comfortable 70. And the swell, well, just about perfect, thanks to, you guessed it, the black current that followed us up from Kagoshima. In 92, during the Miyazaki Pro event, Typhoon Orchid delivered a 15 meter swell. Pro surfer Tom Curren paddled out and caught what was then considered the greatest waves in the history of surfing in Japan. It put Miyazaki and the Japanese surf scene on the map. I stand by my words earlier, nothing cooler than the Japanese surf scene. Love it here. We’ve arrived at a homemade oasis with a French wood-burning stove in the center. And this is Hiroko who recently left Tokyo to pursue her passion in Miyazaki, a land where dreamers can exist. Her words, not mine, but I agree. Hitohi means fire. She grows and grinds her own barley and uses local ingredients. In a country steeped in food traditions, bread is relatively new, so Hiroko just gets weird and makes what she wants. Damn, it’s so good. – [Josh] Up next, the ingredient I generally live on and the ingredient Miyazaki is famous for. In the world of Wagyu, Kuroge or Japanese black beef is king. – Hey! – Hey. – Josh. – Nice to meet you. – Nice to meet you. – [Josh] This is beautiful!

Can you tell us about your beef and what makes it special? – Does this one have a name? – Name? Koba. – Koba? – Koba. – Koba. I think Koba and I have a thing going on. – [Josh] Mr. Yasaki believes the best beef comes from happy, healthy cows. So he sets his free on his grass pastures, complete with an ocean view.

Yeah, lucky cows. And the result, lean grass fed beef, dry age to perfection. – How do you explain to the Japanese consumer that this sort of beef is different, but still very good? – [Josh] Now obviously as a dedicated Huberman carnivore, I have to try a piece of it raw. – That is unbelievable. That’s like the cleanest meat I think I’ve ever tasted. – [Josh] A little Japanese beachside barbecue with an adorable little camper. What are we shooting, a hug parade commercial or something? Honk honk, beep beep. Off we go. Through the mountain range that seems to be showering some form of spiritual energy all over us, over the river and through the woods to Kumamoto we go. We’ve reached the center of Kyushu, the city perched on a calm bay, a place said to hold the spirit of its samurai past. We’re miles off shore, in the Araki sea with a third generation farmer and his 22-year-old son to harvest Nori, or what the locals call ocean moss.

And it just so happens that our trip timed up with the hundred day harvest. Before it ends as the crunchy wrapper on your sushi, it starts as this, red algae. Slurp. Hey mom! – You look fabulous! – Do you see that boat, mom? So it pulls the Nori up

And then gets dipped into that light acid bath that gets rid of all of the bugs and holds it in this holding tank. But I just wanted to just quickly say hi and show you what we were doing, and then I gotta get back to it. Love you. Ooh.

It’s like nothing you’ve ever tasted before. – We’ve just gotten off the Nori boat and he’s extracting all the Nori that we’ve just harvested into this truck. And then we’re gonna take it over to the processing plant and see the whole process of how Nori is made. – [Josh] A mile from the dock, surrounded by rice patties and satsuma groves, the algae gets poured into a tank and then this futuristic machine takes over, first mixing it with fresh mountain spring water, then straining, mincing and laying it onto sheets. It’s something outta “The Jetsons.”

– So these are sponges and they’re pressing down on the Nori and extracting all the water out of the bottom before they go into the drying rack. It’s like natural and mechanical comes together to make this beautiful thing. Oh! Still warm. Yum. – [Josh] he final step, resident grandmothers go through every sheet with tweezers to remove imperfections while they watch Korean soaps. Adorable. But wait, homemade preserved plum onigiri made with the Nori right off the belt. What an immersive and incredible family operation. – Hey! – Hey! – What’s up, man? Hey! Howdy! Hey. (laughs) Hi. Cheers, chef. Nice slicing me off a slice there. – [Josh] A week on the island of Kyushu and our coolers are full, but our hearts and minds are fuller. Damn, that was epic. – You make cocktail today? – Ah, yeah. – Sorry, chef. Made a mess. – [Josh] Yosuke taught us vegetables absorb memories from the soil and by eating them, humans can also become part of this region. Holy cow. Holy like, crazy man. That looks incredible right there. And like the vegetables in the soil or the fish in the sea, the Kyushu people have absorbed memories from their ancestors, carrying on the techniques, practices, and cultural roots of their past. Wow. – [Josh] It’s like that, beef jerky but fish. It’s got a meaty flavor. Tender, light. Oh. (laughs) They’re so good. That’s really nice. That looks incredible right there. – [Josh] From the powerful currents of the sea to the healing onsens boiling up from below, we’ve now seen how the spirits

In nature move through everything, the food, the waves, and even us. – Arigato. All right, all right, I know. You’re hungry. Don’t worry. We’re done here. All right. All right, bye. – [Speaker 4] Bye. – [Josh] Everything that we’ve learned has changed, how I do things A little slower. I don’t get why it’s so good, but I want it. It’s like, it’s got a salty flavor. What the (bleep).