Long lines formed from early morning at kabayaki grilled eel stores and restaurants across Tokyo on Sunday, this year¡¯s Day of the Ox, with the popular delicacy attracting customers despite scorching temperatures.
Japanese people traditionally eat grilled eel on the midsummer Day of the Ox, believing it helps replenish energy and endure the summer heat.
While food prices have risen across the board in the country, eel remains popular, with many restaurants either lowering prices or keeping them unchanged thanks to abundant baby eel catches last year.
At eel restaurant Yatsumeya Nishimura¡¯s Meguro outlet in Tokyo, staff began work at 4 a.m. to prepare more than 1,200 grilled eel fillets. Skilled chefs deftly coated the eel in the restaurant¡¯s secret sauce before grilling it over charcoal.
The restaurant offers takeout only on the Day of the Ox, with its signature large grilled eel fillet priced at ?3,000 ($18) each. Although the cost of ingredients other than eel has surged, the restaurant kept the price unchanged from last year.
The restaurant¡¯s owner, Kiyoshi Matsumoto, expressed relief, saying, ¡°With (eel) procurement costs down this year, we¡¯d like to reward our employees with higher wages.¡±
Noting that plentiful catches have resulted in a larger supply of well-grown eel this year, Matsumoto added, ¡°I hope people will enjoy it and build up their stamina.¡±
A woman in her 30s who said she had lined up two hours before opening smiled and said, ¡°I usually try to save money, but this is the one day of the year when I absolutely have to eat eel.¡±
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