Tokyo: Soba Making Class
This morning we took the Toei Ōedo Line (都営地下鉄大江戸線) from to Tochōmae Station (都庁前駅) 🗾 to Tsukishima Station (月島駅) 🗾 (12 stops). A seven-minute walk from the hotel, and a 20-minute walk from the Tsukiji Soba Academy (築地そばアカデミー) 🗾. The location is not far from the Tsukiji market we visited during our first stay in Tokyo earlier in this trip.
The academy is housed in what is essentially an apartment in a residential building. The founder and instructor, Akila Inouye, has converted the space to a kitchen and classroom (for small groups like ours). He founded the academy in 2002 and has since taught numerous individuals. In 2009, he did a culinary tour of the United States and was featured in the LA Times. No doubt related to Steve Jobs’ love for anything Japanese, the chef of Café Mac, Apple’s cafeteria, was sent to the Tsukiji Soba Academy to learn the art of soba making. Akila speaks English quite well.
Our instruction includes not only how to prepare the dough, cut the noodles, and cook them, but also how to cook two different dipping sauces for the noodles. The class then concludes with cooking and eating the noodles. All in all, the class was from 11 AM to 2:30 PM.
After the class, we walked back to Tsukiji Station (築地駅) 🗾. From there we travelled to the location of teamLab Borderless: MORI Building DIGITAL ART MUSEUM (森ビル デジタルアート ミュージアム：エプソン チームラボボーダレス) 🗾.