Mhm So the spot I am today, not a lot of people know about, it's kind of a very, very local spot.

It's called Oyama Station.

It's about five minutes away from Ikebukuro.

What's interesting about this spot is that it's a show thing guy or a shopping street with a covered route.

So basically if it's raining outside you can still enjoy this area.

The name of this shopping street is called Happy Road and was built just after World War Two.

But it wasn't called Happy Road when it first started, it was called Oyama Ginza, but it was later changed I believe in 1977.

So this place does have some history.

If you look around and just through the shops you can see that there's a lot of mom and pop stores were just super cool and I'm super excited to show you today.

But before I started going to see what I'm doing on a daily and check out my instagram account and if you want help for the channel, check out the Japan March and if you have any questions about Japan or your Japan travels, check out my discord community that all said, let me take you on this hidden street food tour.

Happy Road.

Oyama runs in two directions from Calgary kato to Oyama station and from Oyama station southward.

This nostalgic shopping street has more than 400 stores in the arcade and more than 25,000 locals coming here every day.

One thing I love about this area too is they have some back alleys that you can explore number one.

Yakitori home po hammock, you can find this takeout Yakitori shop on the outside of Dharma.

Each have a market.

The shop sells 100% japan made chicken but today I'm sharing with you my own secret favorite.

They're fried beef and pork.

Minchey.

We are doing some street food today.

Look at this men cheat katsu explain anymore.

Let me just take a bite because I am hungry.

Oh that is so delicious.

Got crumbs all over my face, look at all of that juicy juice coming straight from this man she cuts, it's just a lot of meat juice and it is so crunchy.

What is going on today?

I gotta take another bite.

Mhm.

Oh like ice cube said today is a good day.

Let me just open this up and show you what we are dealing with.

You can see all the onions.

There is just so much flavor in there that has a little bit of that savories and sweetness at the same time.

Man, the flavor is popping.

This is like some of the best men she got I've ever had.

Like I have a lot of men she cuts and this is pretty good.

What's also cool about this shop is that they have not only mention katsu but they have like different yakitori, all sorts of different meats that you can buy.

But if you do want some chicken yakitori, then I'm going to show you another spot in just a little bit.

So just hold on, we're gonna get there, wow, I just really love walking around this place just walking around.

You really feel like you're in Japan, you kind of get a sense of, you know, all of the culture and everything that's kind of cool about japan all in this street.

What's also interesting about this spot is they have a lot of shops that have really, really cheap products, wow, look at these masks are only 191 yen.

Less than $2 for 50.

Number two Watanabe Sango inside of Fatima Ichiban market hidden behind the vegetable shops and butcher, you'll find a straight from the ocean fresh Fish store.

I love us.

I got the Morales a set which has two different types of fish.

This one I chose to toro which is tuna and it also has some hamachi, you can see it right there.

It is so beautiful, nice and luscious fresh in the morning.

A little bit of a sob right there.

Uh huh.

Mm that is so fresh.

You can taste like all of the fat coming from the chitauro.

That's really nice.

And then here you go.

Here's the hamachi, whoa!

Look at that piece through a little bit of wasabi on there, just like that.

This truly puts a smile on my face.

See how beautiful the colors on that fish is.

Not much.

He is just glistening with beauty saying Eat Me Eat Me Okay.

Mm So what I love about this place, it has all different types of sashimi.

You can choose from all different assortments and they also have rice bowls in the front.

So if you want, you know your carbs for the day, you can also get their number three.

She gets it all.

This japanese shop has been in business since 1948 and not only does it have sweets, but it offers them yum yum rice dishes like inari sushi and only giddy.

What?

What I got my sakura mochi.

This one is pretty awesome because it came straight out of the kitchen is still warm to the touch.

This is a real cherry blossom leaf that they prepare with and you eat it just like so the motion itself has been kind of like smashed down into a little pancake then wrapped around the uncle.

It smells so nice.

Almost smells like a cherry blossom tea house.

Let me take a bite of this.

Mm wow.

You can taste the spring in there.

The sweetness coming from the Uncle and emoji itself is soft and has a playful texture.

Believe itself has been kind of like marinated in a salt.

It just blends so well with that Sweet Uncle the Uncle.

It is pretty smooth.

It has a little bit of texture and then emoji just wraps all of this in like a nice little package.

It's just a great blend of sweetness and saltiness.

I can have another one.

But there's other places to show you.

So let me show you that now.

Number four, you have not a coffee.

If you need a quick pick me up during your adventures, I recommend you knock a coffee.

It's a small hole in the wall coffee roaster that will for sure get you back on that yellow brick road or whatever color the road is.

So I got the milk coffee says you're not a coffee right there, cute little straw cap on top.

So today I got the cafe Ole, also known as milk coffee.

That is a delicious cup of coffee.

If you get the ice coffee, then you get like the blend of beans.

But if you get the hot coffee then you get this like beans.

What I love about this place is that they have all of the beans just right behind me.

In fact, you can hear that like slight humming noise.

They're roasting the beans right now.

They do everything just right here.

Everything is actually roasted and you get like a nice cup of coffee and it just kind of like off the main street.

So you do need to go kind of outside of the shelter number five china, choose this shop is a Yakitori chain originating in Asakusa.

The founder started the business Postwar, specializing mainly in hell and river fish.

But since they could only be caught in the winter, he started to sell chicken on skewers.

This place just so much different chicken.

It has fried chicken and chicken skewers.

In fact, they even have some like tim put us so whatever you want, they pretty much have it.

It's pretty awesome.

I wanted to order everything but I couldn't.

So I stuck with the Yakitori and the three pieces that I got was the Nakajima human and I got that on co two.

I'm going to just start with the Nakajima which is chicken and it has some onions in here as well.

Huh?

When you take that first bite, you can definitely taste the charcoal grill from that.

The chicken is marinated.

It's a little bit on that kind of the savory side.

Usually these Yakitori places are meant for people to buy and then kind of take home and then heat it up in the microwave.

But we're doing it street food style.

So it is a little bit cold.

But who cares if it's this good, Let's do this pieman right now.

You can see the green bell pepper on there and then this is kind of like a minced chicken and probably has some my canyons and some other little goodies inside.

Mhm wow!

Bell pepper taste is really strong and then the mincemeat, there's just a lot of flavor in here.

It is really grilled right there, looks like a little bit burned but it's really perfectly good.

Finally I got that tonkotsu which is chicken cartilage.

Some people don't like it so much.

I love the crunchiness to it.

Mm I heard a crunch, I could be the crunch or the old people shuffling that she was right behind me.

Crunch Test # two.

This is what the non quota itself has been salted quite a bit.

So you definitely get a lot of saving this with this one.

I am quite happy with this and in fact we are unhappy roads.

So it all makes sense right now.

So in this spot behind me right here, I definitely wanted to show you.

But today it's closed.

It's called Pierrot Crave Spot that's ultra popular.

It has more than 200 different types of crepes but they're closed today so I can't show you.

But if you do make it out here, definitely come check out this place.

Let's go into the next one.

Number six, bakery Cafe Maju Maju is definitely the number one hitter for them, bakery shops at Happy Road.

It offers a variety of unique breads that has home run written all over it.

So this spot is right next to the station.

It has one of my favorites curry pond.

In fact, curry pond is one of their best sellers.

I think it's a number two just behind their show pot, which is like a salt bread roll.

But this one, it's a little bit special.

It's not the curry pond per se, but it has a little bit of extra, it has the cheesy of cheesiness.

Look at that crispy outer shell and it's like a fried bread.

Let me just open this up in front of you guys whole whole how amazing is that?

Uh huh.

That is rich.

I'm gonna be honest, taking a bite of this.

You feel just a little bit guilty.

You know, you are taking down some calories because there's a lot of cheese and there's some mayonnaise right here and this curry is thick so the curry does have some beef in it, but it doesn't have like those really big chunks that you sometimes getting curry.

So it's kind of just all mashed into the courage and on top.

Look at all of this cream cheese loveliness.

You think it could be like a cheddar cheese or something like that?

But it is a straight up cream cheese and has a crunchy, crunchy fried outer bread shell.

Just finished.

Let's go to the next spot.

So I just crossed the train tracks in use Oyama in this place doesn't have a coverage area but it's still worth taking a look and number seven Egan, Okay, who said this place that doesn't mean just a little bit different And that's why I took you to this place, being in a beer or whatever drink you want and some pretty interesting food.

First of all, let me show you this.

This is a straight up intestines.

I don't know if you're going to like it.

But the whole thing is you know when you're in japan you might want to try something new.

This is send me which is leave tribe gutsy which is pork stomach and koboko which is the womb on the menu.

It's got sashimi.

So you might think it's raw but it's really boiled.

It's accompanied with a sesame oil with roughly ground salt and some miso which is usually a mix of vinegar, sugar and miso flavor me up.

Just try the guts.

Mm hmm, interesting textures all over in general.

And it's kind of like a chewy gristle texture more than the meat itself.

I am really digging the sauce.

This assuming so is so good.

Kind of has a tangy taste to it.

Whatever the meat is, whatever you put on it and you dip into the sauce.

It just picks up all of the flavor of the sauce.

So it is so flavorful.

I love it so much.

I'm doing like, I'm almost done with all this in essence.

It is so good.

You know, this video wouldn't be complete if he didn't add some color to get to it.

This place is a little bit interesting because it adds some show got to, it looks like it has some spicy flakes to it.

But in fact it is red.

Kind of ginger.

We can dip it into some mayonnaise.

Great friends.

Okay.

Oh, that is crunchy af, wow, super moist in the middle.

Still has all of the juiciness of the chicken with the venice yoga ginger on the outside to give that extra flavor.

I know that some people don't like tennis yoga kind of half and half on it.

Sometimes I like it, sometimes I don't, but you know if there's a court, we're gonna ball and if there's fried chicken we're gonna heat, that's just how it is.

Oh man, I already drank a little bit of beer, I forgot to record because I got so excited, but that's just how it is.

It's such a good day.

Take another drink, this is what it's all about coming here and like getting a little piece of japan, come getting away from the big city and enjoying kind of just the simple things of japan and I know that a lot of you can't come to Japan right now.