Tasty Ways to Make Your Time in Japan More Meaningful

Travel changes you the moment you let it. In this session, we'll talk through why solo travel in Japan — even the disorienting, plan-free parts — creates the kind of vulnerability that turns a trip into something that actually stays with you. Food becomes your anchor along the way: a bowl at a counter with no English menu, a market stall you point at and hope for the best, the meal that gives you something familiar to hold onto right after you've let yourself get gloriously lost. The recommendation: go alone, get a little lost (safely), and let the day — and your appetite — lead the way.

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This event is a part of YCAPS' "Getting to Know Japan Series".

Speaker:

Daisuke Utagawa is a founder of Ozendate Advisory Group a consulting firm that specializes in promoting cross-cultural culinary exchange as a launching point for broader business-to-business and public-private partnerships around the world. Utagawa is also a partner in several Japanese restaurants in the Washington DC area. The Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington awarded Utagawa and his partners at Daikaya Group the prestigious Restaurateur of the Year award for 2020. Utagawa has also served as a contributing editor for National Geographic Traveler, producing five feature articles covering his travel adventures through Mediterranean food cities, Tokyo, Kyoto, Thailand, and Hong Kong. Three of the five stories have won awards. Utagawa has also lived and worked in Europe (Italy, France, and Switzerland) and the Middle East (Dubai), consulting for hospitality and media projects. He produced, wrote, and co-hosted a season of Rudy Maxa’s World that was a six-part series on food and travel in Japan, Hong Kong, and Thailand in 2017 and 2018. The series continues to air on public television stations nationwide and is streamed on Amazon Prime Video. He was recently appointed as a Japanese Cuisine Goodwill Ambassador by MAFF - Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries in Japan.

Format: This event will be recorded and published in our web archive. Questions are encouraged during the live event.

Registration: Required Link

Moderators: Amani Kidd and Jeffery Mazziotta

Webinar Cost: Free of charge