Depachika

We were first clued to depachika by way of a gift from Fumiko-san several years ago. She brought back tea for us. We coined this gift "crack tea" because we became so addicted. We asked her how a French tea would be a gift from Japan and learned that giving and recieving the best food items from around the globe, as well as Japan -- tea, fleur de sel, cookies, fruit, chocolates -- was the latest trend in gift-giving. I even ran across an article in Food and Wine a few years back that piqued my interest.

At the bottom floor of department stores like Takashimaya and Isetan are depachika. We all would have been happy to be locked up overnight here. We wandered around an amazing array of prepared foods (salads, meats, noodles, contemporary versions of sushi and other foods) and beautifully wrapped bento boxes behind jewelry-like counters. When we hit the wall with temples or sight-seeing, a depachika visit was a nice shot in the arm, especially with the free samples: pickeled vegetables, tofu, fancy-pants lobster flavored sembei, mochi, chocolate truffles and the best one yet -- sake! Norv and I cut ourselves off at 4 sake samples. Maybe it was five. It's a great place to grab lunch, a snack or souvenirs.



I wonder if the New York branch of Takashimaya has depachika?

*top picture credit: Cousin Jeff