Free Rice, Noodle, Fish by Matt Goulding Page B

and kept at arm’s length. Japanese are unfailingly polite, and most will go to absurd lengths to give you directions or greet you warmly as you enter their establishments. But even then, you are destined to sit on the sidelines of this society and watch it unfold from the outside. Outside that tiny yakitori joint exhaling charcoal smoke and good times. Outside the incredible sushi bar that serves only Japanese-speaking customers. Outside the animated conversation taking place on the stools next to you. This is a dense culture, steeped in a history, a code, and a language that most will never comprehend, and so we stare through the window and wonder what it must be like to understand.
    But Osaka leaves the door ajar, if only a crack. Walk into a bar with an open mind and a wide smile, and someone might buy you a drink and ask you what you’re up to tomorrow. It might not always be true, doors are walls here too, but everywhere you will see those little slivers of light, and when you see the light, the only thing to do is step into it.
    At the end of the night, when our stomachs are stretched to the snapping point and all I can see is purple, the owner turns down the music, quiets the crowd, and makes an announcement in Japanese. Naturally, I understand none of it, but cheer along with the crowd as he punctuates his sentences with hand chops and fist pumps. Until suddenly everyone is staring at me with glasses raised. The owner comes from behind the bar and presents me with a white bandanna, the same one that he and his team of cooks are wearing.
    This isn’t a polite gift for an enthusiastic foreigner. It’s a key to a door I thought was locked forever. And, for this one night in Osaka, it is mine.

    Â 

Vital Intel
揚げ物
OPERATION IZAKAYA
    It’s your first night in Japan. All is a mess of incomprehensible signs and inscrutable commuters. Then you find an izakaya—Japan’s ubiquitous, open-hearted bastion of small plates and big drinks. In this, the most accessible and democratic of all Japanese institutions, you can have it all. Follow these steps, and your first night in Japan might be your best.

    (Michael Magers, lead photographer)

    (Matt Goulding)

    START WITH SAKE
    Izakaya means “to stay in a sake shop,” and rice wine should propel your tavern experience. The most important rule of sake: keep your drinking partners well lubricated, but never serve yourself (that’s what partners are for). Start with a midrange junmai , a pure rice wine.

    (Matt Goulding)

    GO RAW
    Next to first-class sushi bars, you won’t find better raw fish in all of Japan. Izakaya sashimi plates typically deliver a mix of three to five different types of seasonal seafood, such as scallop, yellowtail, squid, or tilefish. A perfect match for sake.

    (Matt Goulding)

    BRING THE FIRE
    Yakitori appears on most menus, but even better is whole grilled fish. Excavating the tastiest bits of a fish head with your chopsticks is izakaya eating at its best.

    (Matt Goulding)

    SCALE MOUNT SAKE
    Remember, you’re here to drink. Now that you’ve warmed up, move on to a junmai daiginjo from Niigata, Japan’s greatest sake-producing region. Daiginjo means at least 50 percent of the rice has been polished, giving it a more delicate, complex flavor.

    (Michael Magers, lead photographer)

    TACKLE THE TEPPAN
    Griddle-cooked staples like yakisoba and okonomiyaki make it onto most izakaya menus, but it’s crispy gyoza, Japan’s juicy pork dumplings (best when lashed with chili oil), that offer the best match for your blooming buzz.

    (Matt Goulding)

    SWITCH YOUR POISON
    Now that you’ve warmed up on sake, time to wade into deeper waters. Shochu is the distilled drink of choice in Kyushu, packing twice the punch of a typical sake. Try a sweet potato–based imo shochu. (No shochu? Make it a highball—a salaryman favorite.)

    (Michael Magers, lead photographer)

    GREASE UP
    Fried