Shizuoka's black oden: skewers you lift from the pot yourself, dusted with sardine

The broth in a Shizuoka oden pot is close to black, and the first time you look into one you will assume it has been sitting too long. It hasn't. Beef tendon and dark soy have been feeding that pot for a very long time, and everything in it stands upright on a bamboo skewer, waiting to be lifted out by whoever is hungry.

Two alleys and a shared pot

Ten minutes on foot from Shizuoka Station, behind the wide green strip locals call the symbol road, two narrow lanes run parallel: Aoba Yokocho and Aoba Oden Gai. The buildings are one storey, the counters seat six or eight, and the pot sits at elbow height between you and whoever is cooking. Most places open in the evening and keep irregular days off, so the alley you walk down at seven has a different half of its shutters up than it did the week before.

Kuro-hanpen and the powder

The skewer to start with is kuro-hanpen (黒はんぺん), a grey-dark fish cake pounded from sardine rather than the white, airy hanpen sold elsewhere in Japan. It arrives with dashiko (だし粉) shaken over it, dried sardine and mackerel ground to a dust, usually alongside aonori seaweed in a second shaker. Daikon, konnyaku, egg, and beef tendon go in the same broth and come out the same colour. You pay by the stick, and the count of spent skewers on your plate is the bill.

You do not so much order oden here as reach for it.

The candy shops that keep one going

Shizuoka's other oden counter is the dagashi-ya (駄菓子屋), the penny-sweet shop, where a pot has traditionally simmered for children walking home from school. They buy a skewer or two with coins, eat standing at a low table, and leave. There are fewer of these every year, and the ones still open near primary schools tend to be run by someone well past retirement age.

静岡では、駄菓子屋の鍋に串が立っているのが当たり前だった。

Going in without a menu

Nothing here will be printed in English, and in the alleys nothing may be printed at all: the pot is the menu. Point at what you want, hold up fingers for how many, and add skewers as you go rather than ordering everything at once. Go early in the evening if you want a seat, and carry cash.