Japanese B-kyu Gourmet Culture Trend

In last decade, there is a B-kyu gourmet culture trend in Japan.  It is a food culture of people who  want to find unique, but not yet widely known foods considered B-kyu, or second level, grade or class, as opposed to A-kyu within Japan.  They tend to be inexpensive foods, and oftentimes they are either from small restaurants or are local specialties known only in a certain area.  A great thing typically is their affordability.  You don’t have to spend a lot of money to taste them; so, everyone can enjoy it.  Also we rediscover our own country by finding local specialties that we never even thought about.  There are even a few TV shows that introduce these local specialties, and also some small towns are trying to bring tourists by introducing unique local specialties.  Overall they are all positive things.  

I enjoyed finding these unique food myself too.  Every time I go back to Japan, there are always more new B-kyu foods that I want to try, and just like the rest of Japanese people I don’t mind hours of driving if they sound attractive enough.  In this blog, I am hoping to introduce some of those interesting gourmet foods from Japan as a way to reintroduce you to my country, Japan.