As an appetizer to the imminent beginning of my next Kansai trip, let me introduce to you my absolute favourite “gastronomic TV series”, Kodoku no Gurume (= Lonesome Gourmet).
This show tells the story of a man, Goro Inogashira, traveling across Japan for business, but his real passion is eating, trying new restaurants and local dishes. Each episode has the same structure: After a short introduction of the place he’s visiting for business, Goro-san becomes suddenly very hungry. Then he stops everything he was doing, even work, and begins to search a place for lunch. Once he finds it, he orders huge amount of delicious food and enjoys it all by himself, with cool voice-over comments of all the tasting.
I really love this programme, everything looks so good! And after seeing it I’m so hungry I could eat alone a whole raw tuna fish! Here a small video teaser of an episode who plays in Himakajima, one of the islands I will visit at the beginning of May with my wife. Enjoy: Kodoku no Gurume.