Lucky Chow

(gentle upbeat music) - [Narrator] Sushi.

Tempura.

Yakitori.

Ramen.

Seems like there's always something new coming from Japan to mesmerize American foodies.

The Japanese have a word, otaku, that refers to obsession with pop culture, and it captures the way we respond to their cuisine.

Suburban moms teach themselves to make intricate, picture-perfect bento boxes.

New York hipsters open Japanese-inspired cat cafes, in miticais.

And in Los Angeles, the American's love of sumo wrestling spurs a rebirth of chankonabe, the traditional one pot stew that provides the daily fuel for some of Japan's largest men.

(upbeat music) I've come to LA's little Tokyo to learn how to make chankonabe.

The dish that helps sumo wrestlers bulk up before they get into the ring.

But before we hit the kitchen, I drop by the headquarters of US Sumo to see some of those big bodies in action.

(grunting) (rock music) And you know what?

I think I could hold my own in there.

Or at least work up an appetite.

(speaking Japanese) - Here we go.

- I weigh about a sixth as much as my opponent, who's a world champion.

And a sumo diaper doesn't come in my size.

But hey, the bigger they are, the harder they fall, right?

- Okay, there's one first knot.

Alright?

- Feels good.

- You're all ready to fight, Danielle.

- Alright.

Who's ready?

- Go down.

Other side.

- Yama is the heaviest Japanese human being in recorded history, 600 pounds, versus Danielle, who's not even close.

Who do you like?

- Maybe 90.

- Let's go.

- Okay.

(yells) (applause) - I just wanted to let him go easy because it would be embarrassing for a girl to beat him, you know?

Right before his big match, didn't want to ruin his confidence.

Next time.

- After all that sparring, everyone's hungry.

So I asked the sumo warriors Yamba Yama, and Tekeshe to show me how they make their staple cuisine, chankonabe.

And to explain the special properties of this one pot vegetable and chicken stew.

At the nearest Japanese supermarket, the Asian vegetables fly off the shelves.

You need to fill up your cart when you're shooting for an ideal weight of 400 to 600 pounds.

That typically requires eating about 20,000 calories a day, seven or eight times the average amount for an adult man.

This looks like kind of what you would get for shabu-shabu or a Chinese hot pot.

- The rice is nice.

- The rice is nice.

sandwich for dessert?

Okay.

And just like in Japan, sumo wrestlers draw attention wherever they go.

Their day begins at four or five in the morning.

Their first meal around 11 AM is a super size 10,000 calories followed immediately by a nap to slow down their metabolism.

Then another colossal meal.

Vegetables, rich broth, bowls of rice, and, my favorite part, chicken meatballs, provide the nutrients.

What do you eat when you're not eating chankonabe?

(inaudible) - The top guys eat first.

They eat all the really good tasting meat and vegetables.

Then the lower ranked guys have to eat last, so he said all that's left is the broth itself.

But the broth is really rich in nutrients.

And then the lower ranked guys put in huge bowls of rice and because they're packing in all that rice and the nutrient-rich broth, that's helping them to gain weight.

- According to myth, chankonabe is made with chicken since chicken stand on two feet just like sumo wrestlers.

I love how ritual and superstition add meaning to our daily grub.

- People believe the sumo wrestler can beat devil - Devils?

- Devil or you know, other something like this.

- So is cooking and learning how to make a chankonabe part of becoming a sumo?

- Yes.

- Really, It's part of your job?

- Yeah.

- So, when you're training to be a sumo wrestler, you're also learning how to make chankonabe?

What other dishes can you make?

Or what other dishes do you eat regularly?

- Actually a sumo wrestler is also good chef.

They know many recipes and they know true delicious food.

- Really?

That's so interesting.

- Let's eat.

- Yes, good idea.

Everybody sit down and have some delicious chankonabe made by our fellow resident celebrities sumo wrestlers.

So, maybe I won't give up my day job.

As delicious as chankonabe is, I'd have to eat an awful lot of it to compete with these guys.

But I've learned that sumo isn't just about winning in the ring.

It's so much more than a sport.

It's a a discipline, a philosophy, and a way of life.

On a daily basis, it honors the simple and soulful cooking that gives all of us strength.

Kawaii, which means cute or adorable, is a phenomenon that cuts across all aspects of Japanese culture.

From the TV shows people watch to the airplanes they fly, when it comes to food, a major expression of kawaii are character bento boxes.

Edible works of art packed into small containers that Japanese children show off at school.

It's a trend that's swept the world.

And I'm in Northern California to meet Sheri Miya a suburban mom who's an American bento master.

- Hi Danielle - Hi, Sheri.

It's so nice to finally meet you.

- Same here.

- I've been following your blog for some time and thank you for having me here today.

- Thanks for coming by.

Well, I think moms all over the world have the same concerns for their children.

And that is that we worry that they're not getting enough nutrition that they need during the school day because they have to learn so much, have to focus and concentrate and pay attention in school.

So, here's one way that I can make sure that they're healthy, they're eating well, and it's also a way for them to know that I'm thinking about them in the middle of the day when I don't see them, you know for six or seven hours.

- Making bento regularly means keeping a lot of cute supplies on hand.

And Sheri's kitchen looks like that Japanese toy store at the mall that your kids are always trying to drag you into.

- I get a lot of ideas from a lot of the tools and the items that are on sale, yes, and kind of makes me want to buy a lot more.

Although, I have enough, I really shouldn't buy anymore.

- How did you get started making bento boxes?

- I started with bento boxes when my child, my first child, was about two.

So, I've been doing it for about 10 years now.

And when he was a baby, I'd like to make his meals in a divided box so that I was sure that he was getting good variety.

As he got older and went to school, that naturally progressed in to making a bento box so that he could take it himself to school and start eating like that on his own.

- Sheri is among a growing group of moms around the world who have become bento stars by blogging about their passion, sharing tips and showing off their latest creations.

- I decided to start a blog because when I first started posting pictures of the bento on flickr, I noticed I was getting a lot of questions from the community, so that's why I started it.

I've met people from all over the world.

- Working alongside Sheri, I'm receiving a master class in bento making.

It's a fun, creative, and sometimes nerve wracking art.

- We're gonna put these carrot flowers in here which I carved from a carrot log.

- Do you use a tool for this or do you just?

- I use a knife.

I usually do them with raw carrots but for these I steamed them a little bit and it makes a little bit easier to cut and probably less dangerous.

But either way, they're really easy to do.

Okay, next we're gonna use some Okinaawan sweet potato which are purple.

- I love these.

- Very nice.

- This is a lot of fun.

- Yeah, let's put some cherries in there.

- So basically just fill the rest of the box with fruit.

- Fill the rest of it up.

The fruit actually is the smallest portion anyway, so we just put that wherever it fits.

Oh, that's very nice.

- Yours as well.

- Thank you.

- The boxes Sheri and I have made are truly adorable.

Kawaii to the max.

But they're also a practical way of feeding her children.

- I thought I had to hide the kale in his oatmeal, but it turns out I didn't have to hide anything.

He ate everything.

- That's great and I think it's best for kids to know what they're eating and to embrace it as well.

It's a really wonderful tool.

- It is.

- It's great to get your kids in the kitchen and cooking.

Sheri's bentos may be American, but they reflect her Japanese roots.

Today's protein, teriyaki chicken sliced thin for convenient school lunch eating.

- Chicken's one of my favorite proteins to put in bento because chicken is good cold or hot and it goes really well with rice.

Cherry tomatoes are great space fillers.

So, whenever you have a little tiny space, you can just pop one in there.

That is tamagoyaki which is basically just a rolled omelet and you can make it in any number of ways.

I added spinach to mine, which is why it looks green.

And some people like them sweet, but mine are savory.

So, it's just a matter of taste, I guess.

After you roll the omelet in the pan, then you compress it in the mat, and that's why it looks like this, like a little log.

I don't think bento making has to be laborious.

And actually you can make a really cute appealing bento in the amount of time it might take to make a regular lunch for your child.

Really, I mean, it doesn't have to be a very complicated or intricate design.

Sometimes I just add one little touch to just bring it over the edge.

And a lot of moms don't have a lot of time, they don't want to get up at five o'clock in the morning.

So, I find ways to shortcut and to just do what I can so every day they have something nice to look forward to.

- You see you can have a lot of fun with this.

It's like flower arranging.

- It is kind of.

- You learn a few rules, you get some ideas, and then it's all about creativity.

- And what you think looks pretty.

- Absolutely.

Sheri has taken a Japanese pop culture and culinary phenomenon and made it her own while sharing it with other mothers around the world.

And it looks like the real judges of her work agree.

Cute and delicious can coexist in one little box.

I'm on Manhattan's Lower East Side where waves of immigrant history wash up against trend setters in fashion, food, and art to experience the ultimate in culinary kawaii.

A cat cafe.

At Koneko, the first American example of this popular Japanese concept, you can eat jewel-like Japanese pastries and drink sake in the company of some of the world's cutest animals.

And since they're rescue cats, you can even adopt a new companion before you finish your green tea cheesecake.

Ben Kalb opened Koneko after discovering the cat cafe concept on a visit to Japan.

For New York, he chose a sleek space that looks nothing like an animal shelter.

- Welcome.

- Thanks, I love the decor here.

I mean, it's so minimal it really feels like hipster Japanese cafe.

- Right now, we're in the cafe and all the food and beverages are happening here.

It's really a celebration of cat culture.

This space used to be an art gallery, so it felt very natural to kind of take that direction.

So, we have a revolving collection of cat related artwork here.

So, the whole place is inspired by Japan.

Japan has really pioneered the cat cafe concept over the past decade.

So, this place is really a celebration of Japanese culture as well.

- One reflection of that culture is Koneko's collection of Japanese cat toys, including catzilla.

They're definitely scarier than the real thing.

- So, this is really the first of it's kind in New York in terms of being a full realization of the cat cafe concept.

Which means having food and drinks incorporated into a space with cats.

So, it was definitely complicated to navigate.

- How did you get the Department of Health to agree with that?

- Basically by separating the two areas and having all of the food stored and prepared on this side and the cats doing their thing on the other side.

This place kind of functions as two individual spaces and that allowed us to rewrite some rules, I guess, with the health department cause there was no real precedent for something like this.

Through this way is the catery, please come on in.

- Finally, I'm allowed into the catery where I meet the real stars of the show.

Human visitors have to put on slippers a nod to both Japanese tradition and cat safety.

- A big part of it is keeping the space clean for the cats and making sure that no dirt and germs and stuff from outside are coming in because we really care about the cleanliness of the space and also the cats health.

So, that's a big part of why we ask people to take their shoes off, sanitize their hands, stuff like that.

So, please, come on in.

- This is so fun.

- So, the catery is really inspired by my experiences and travels in Japan.

I first went to a cat cafe a few years ago just out of curiosity before it started to become popular in the States and Europe.

And I was just really inspired by the idea and that kind of set the foundation for this place.

And in the early days of Koneko, I actually went back to Japan and went to over 30 cat cafes to kind of study what is working best there and what wasn't working and bring back all my findings and apply it to this place.

- How did cat cafes become so popular in Japan?

- I think, in Japan, a lot of people have really small apartments.

So, they either can't have pets because of like the rules of the building, or the apartment itself is literally too small to have an animal.

So, I think that sparked the interest in people wanting to be around animals while not being able to have them in their homes.

And, also, just the celebration of cats, I think is very wide-spread in Asia.

They love kawaii culture and cats kind of are emblematic of that.

- And what could be more kawaii than an adorable, adoptable tabby like Hobbs who I spent some quality time with.

Exploring Koneko further, you'll find a colorful salute to Japan's festishization of everything feline.

- So, this is the catio, unfortunately as you can see it's not the prettiest day, but this is a outdoor space that we have.

- This is so nice.

All of our favorite cats, Felix, Dr. Seuss, Garfield, and, of course, Hello Kitty.

Of course, it's a cat cafe, and Ben who has cooked at restaurants like Bouley and Momofuku Noodle Bar, offers a menu of small plates that pair well with kitties.

Kiyosa, tsukemono pickles, (inaudible) made with tofu.

- This place is really, it means a lot to me and with the food, you know, just because it's a cat cafe, I think there's no reason not to make the food be really special and memorable and representative of real Japanese cuisine.

And then I just love everything about Japanese culture.

I think there's a real attention to detail and a aesthetic that's really important to me.

And I wanted to kind of bring it back and infuse it with having lived in New York for 10 plus years and just kind of take the best of all the worlds and bring something new and unusual and different to New York.

- Can I take a cat nap now?

- Yes.

- Crossing the Williamsburg bridge into Brooklyn, I'm looking for signs of Japanese otaku obsession on New York's hipster frontier.

I'm headed for Bushwick where a Frenchman has poured his love of Japanese pop culture into a restaurant called Okiway and perfected a Western take on a Japanese staple, the savory pancake called okonomiyaki.

Now, I mean, this place is so animated, and you can really tell your personal touch here and all the little anime characters and objects, did you collect them all from Japan?

- Collect all of them.

- Really?

- Through the years.

- Vincent Minchelli is from a Parisian restaurant family and fell in love with Japan during family trips in the 1990s.

- What attracts you to Japanese pop culture?

- The food, the taste, the clothes, the way they do things, that's what the influence and the culture that's what really appealed me.

It's so interesting cause always something new to learn.

- So, for those who don't know, what is an izakaya?

- Izakaya is small plate like Spanish have tapas or Chinese and dim sum.

- Okonomiyaki is classic Japanese street food topped with (inaudible) Kewpie Mayonnaise and eaten on the go or at tiny store front counters.

It's growing profile in America is part of a global wave of interest in the street foods that are so important to the daily lives of every culture.

Do you remember the first time that you had an okonomiyaki?

- Yes, I do remember.

One of my best friends bring me to Tokyo and she (inaudible).

And there was great memories cause here we go 15 years later, we're here - So much so that you brought one here.

- Yes.

- And your menu, though, it's certainly not an authentic izakaya menu.

It seems like it's really influenced by global culinary trends.

- Trends from my travels, from my palate, I want to bring some Japanese ingredients and make it a little more interesting, a little more Americanized, a little more Bushwick we can say.

And if you go to Japan, you have like a modern izakaya and I think some of them take from it.

- Versions of okonomiyaki have been served in Japan for centuries and distinct regional variations have developed.

Okiway offers traditional Osaka and Hiroshima versions.

But it also creates imaginative okonomiyaki fusions.

But there's also lots of regional styles and I've certainly never heard of like a Mexican Osaka okonomiyaki, I mean, where did that come from?

- So, the Mexican Osaka I do love Mexican food.

We use real chorizo and different ingredients like once again tasteful.

So, the bases of okonomiyaki, basing it with a Japanese way, and then we adding some Mexican ingredients.

And a burrito, a taco, something like that.

- Who are most of your customers?

Are they locals or?

- Locals, range of 25 35, young professional.

People who like food, people who like to - Have a good time.

- Have a good time, exactly.

We're hear to educate people.

So,to get new flavor and get a new dish and plate for people and I think people really like it.

- I feel like Japanese pop culture has had such an influence on American cuisine and just American lifestyle.

It's growing more and more and there's this is like hipster aspect of Japanese culture that just penetrates especially in the food world.

You know, I mean, how did you bring your interpretation, all of your travels across Japan, to this izakaya?

- I think all the influence comes from different country and come like from Japan because it's really the base ingredient food.

What's on the wall and bring it to Brooklyn where I live and I spend most of my time.

So, I want to bring what I have in my house and bring it to the restaurant, my second home.

- Really, so your house looks like this?

You have lots of toys - More cluttered - Bottles of sake - Maybe not the sake, but all the toys and Japanese newspapers, magazines, clothes, yeah.

- Are you a Japanophile?

- I would consider that.

I would consider otaku.

- So you're more Japanese than you are French, perhaps?

- I would say more New Yorker, Japanese, and French.

A good influence of three different, it's a good cocktail.

- The truth is we're all otaku.

Our obsessions define us.

The difference is that while we in the West often try to hide them, the Japanese live by them, bringing them out into the open and celebrating them.

And maybe that's why Japanese popular culture and cuisine appeal to us so much.

They touch the obsessive in all of us.

The child-like side of us that wants to indulge our appetites and passions.

Whether your passion is for watching very large men throw one another around, or turning the contents of your refrigerator into storybook scenes, or eating in the company of cats, the Japanese say, fine by us.

Just make sure you're well-fed while you're doing it.