Spring Food in Japan

Spring lengthens the menu in Japan more than any other season. Mountain vegetables, bamboo shoots, firefly squid, and pink wagashi all run on tight windows. Here's what to look for, where, and roughly when.

Sansai (mountain vegetables)

First thing on the spring table. Foraged shoots and ferns: warabi (bracken), zenmai (royal fern), kogomi (ostrich fern), tara no me (angelica buds), fuki (butterbur). Bitter, grassy, often served as tempura, in soba toppings, or simmered as ohitashi. Late March through May, peaking in mid-April. Country izakaya across Tohoku, Niigata, and Nagano carry the widest sansai menus; Tokyo restaurants source from these regions and mark it up accordingly.

Takenoko (bamboo shoots)

A four to six-week window from late March to early May. The Nishiyama district of western Kyoto, Rakusai, is the high-profile source: tender, low-bitterness shoots dug at dawn and on the menu by lunch. Look for takenoko gohan (rice cooked with the shoots and dashi) and kinpira (julienned, sautéed with chili). Ryokan kaiseki in Kyoto puts takenoko on the menu through April; it falls off by Golden Week.

Hotaru ika (firefly squid)

Toyama Bay, late March through May. Glowing squid the size of a thumb come into the bay to spawn, scooped at night by small fishing boats. The catch is sold raw, boiled, in nuta (vinegar-miso sauce), or marinated in shoyu. The Hotaruika Museum in Namerikawa (just east of Toyama City) and the Iwase fishing port run pre-dawn observation tours from late March through early May; sake breweries in Toyama and Ishikawa pair brilliantly. Late April is the safest bet for both the catch and the boats running.

Sakura wagashi

Two regional sakura mochi to know: Domyo-ji style (Kansai) wraps a salt-cured sakura leaf around chunky glutinous rice and red bean paste; Chomei-ji style (Kanto) wraps the leaf around a crepe-like skin instead. Hanami dango (three-color skewered rice dumplings, pink, white, green) shows up at every department-store basement and most konbini chains. Worth the comparison if you're moving between Kyoto and Tokyo on the same trip.

Hamaguri (clam soup)

March 3 is Hina Matsuri, the Doll Festival, and hamaguri ushiojiru, a clear sake-steamed clam soup, is the seasonal dish. The two halves of a hamaguri shell only fit each other, which is why it's a Doll Festival dish: a wish for a matched partner. Order through early March in Tokyo and Kyoto izakaya; it falls off the menu by mid-month.

Image: Hanami dango by gochie- in Seiryu-cho, Kyoto by gochie*, CC BY 2.0.