Shizuoka oden: black broth, fish powder, and a bill counted in skewers

On a weeknight in Shizuoka city, the pot behind the counter is the colour of strong tea, and nearly everything in it is on a stick. A man two stools down lifts out a skewer of daikon, shakes a greenish-brown powder over it from a dented tin, eats it in three bites and drops the bare stick into a cup by his elbow. When he stands to leave, the woman behind the counter tips the cup out and counts. That count is his bill, and it is the first thing a visitor should understand about the city's oden.

A broth darker than the one you know

If you have eaten oden from a Tokyo convenience store or an Osaka standing bar, you know it as pale food: fish cakes and radish sitting in a clear, golden dashi. Shizuoka oden (静岡おでん, Shizuoka oden) looks like a different dish. The stock is built on gyūsuji (牛すじ), beef sinew, along with dark soy, and it simmers until it turns nearly black. Several counters say they top the pot up each day rather than pour it away, so the broth carries something of the days before.

The other difference is the skewer. Daikon, konnyaku (こんにゃく), the beef sinew itself and, in many pots, even the boiled egg are threaded onto thin bamboo sticks before they go in. Because of that the pot looks crowded and upright, a small forest of handles, and the person behind the counter can lift out exactly one piece without fishing for it.

Kuro hanpen, the grey fish cake from Suruga Bay

The piece that tells you where you are is kuro hanpen (黒はんぺん), black hanpen. Tokyo's hanpen is white, square and airy, made from pollock and whipped egg white. The Shizuoka version is a flat grey half-moon, made from sardine or mackerel ground with the bone, and it tastes plainly of the sea. It comes from the fishing towns along Suruga Bay (駿河湾, Suruga-wan), with Yaizu (焼津) the name you will see most often on packets in station souvenir shops.

In the pot it soaks up the dark broth without falling apart, which is why it holds its place beside the sinew. Outside the oden pot, locals also eat it grilled or fried as kuro hanpen furai (黒はんぺんフライ) with Worcestershire sauce. Supermarket chill cabinets in the city stock it in plain plastic packs, and there are worse things to take home in a cool bag.

Dashi-ko and the tin on the counter

That tin holds dashi-ko (だし粉), a powder of dried fish such as katsuobushi (鰹節) or sardine, mixed with aonori (青のり), flakes of green seaweed. It goes on after the oden leaves the pot, and regulars use a lot of it. Next to the tin there is usually a pot of karashi (からし), sharp yellow mustard, which you dab on the end of the piece rather than stir into anything.

Visitors often mishear this part. Elsewhere in Japan, dashi means the broth, so a request for dashi can sound like a request for more liquid. Here the counter staff will usually just slide the tin toward you. A small amount of Japanese covers it.

だし粉はたっぷりかけるのが静岡流です。

That line, dashiko wa tappuri kakeru no ga Shizuoka-ryū desu, means that in Shizuoka you sprinkle the powder on generously. You will see it happening before anyone says it.

Two alleys near Aoba Symbol Road

The densest cluster of oden counters is a few blocks from the north side of Shizuoka Station, around Aoba Symbol Road (青葉シンボルロード), a long pedestrian strip of trees and benches. Just off it are Aoba Oden-gai (青葉おでん街) and Aoba Yokochō (青葉横丁), two narrow covered alleys lined with tiny shops, each with a noren curtain, a red lantern (赤ちょうちん, aka-chōchin) and a counter that seats only a handful. Some rooms have about as many stools as a taxi has seats.

Walking in alone works well. Hold up one finger at the door and say hitori desu (一人です), and if there is a gap you will be waved to it. The drink most counters pour alongside the oden is Shizuoka-wari (静岡割り), shōchū cut with local green tea, which makes sense in a prefecture covered in tea fields. Expect regulars, expect the owner to remember them by name, and expect the conversation to drop for a moment when a stranger sits down before picking up again.

Counting the sticks, and the after-school pot

Paying by the skewer is common across the city, but how it works varies from counter to counter. Some shops mark their sticks by length or a dab of colour at the end, so the count can tell a piece of daikon from the pricier sinew. Others keep a running tally in their head as they serve. Either way, your empty skewers are the record of what you ate, so they stay in the cup or canister in front of you. Before you share a cup with a friend, check that the shop is happy to bill you together.

Not all of this happens at night. Shizuoka's dagashi-ya (駄菓子屋), the old penny-candy shops, traditionally kept an oden pot by the door so children could buy a single skewer after school. A few still do in residential streets. Sengen-dōri (浅間通り), the shopping street that leads up to Shizuoka Sengen-jinja (静岡浅間神社), has shops selling oden by the stick in the daytime, sometimes with a bench out front. It is the easiest place to try a skewer or two before committing to an evening counter.

Getting there, when to go, and the one mistake

Shizuoka Station (静岡駅) is on the Tōkaidō Shinkansen (東海道新幹線), but the fastest Nozomi trains run straight through it. Take a Hikari or Kodama service, or ride the slower JR Tōkaidō Main Line (東海道本線) local trains if you are already travelling between Atami and Hamamatsu. Check the operator's timetable for which Hikari services stop. The Aoba alleys and Sengen-dōri are both within walking distance of the station. Oden is winter food in most of Japan, but many Shizuoka counters serve it all year, and a cool evening in late autumn suits the pot best.

The alley shops are small, owner-run and keep their own hours, with a weekly closing day that varies from shop to shop. Check with the shop itself or the Shizuoka City tourism office before you plan a night around one counter. Prices are by the piece, and the board on the wall gives them in tiers. Bring cash, because a counter this size may not take cards, and ask at the door if you are unsure. The one mistake to avoid is a polite habit from elsewhere: tidying your empty skewers into the bin or handing them back with the plate. Leave them where they are. Here, the sticks are the bill.