The Great Jeans Search Part I + Epic Yakitori

Side note: I think the Japanese women's volleyball team won the world championship last night against America, in Japan. I've seen games and commercials off and on, and the hype over it seemed pretty intense. I'm trying to figure out what's going on, but it seems this is the first time in 32 years that they've taken gold. Some of these girls are definitely gonna be in commercials now.

Like every Monday, I had the day off. Unlike every Monday, I decided to go shopping for something distinctively Japanese: selvedge denim. Some of it is a marketing ploy, but a lot of it is remarkably romantic. The word "selvedge" actually comes from "self edge" which is the natural edge you get from a roll of denim on the loom. I'm not exactly sure how it works, but basically since it's not mass produced, you end up with a super high quality pair of jeans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denim#Selvage_denim

A lot of companies make selvedge denim, but Japan's jeans mostly come out of Osaka and is made of 14 to 16 oz denim. Most normal jeans are something in the 10 oz range, so the jeans are definitely quite heavy. In the beginning, the jeans tend to be very rigid and even uncomfortable; however, wearing them in is supposed to be part of the experience. They are dyed in natural indigo and not chemically treated so they always start out really dark but then slowly fade with time.

The basic point is that the jeans start out something like this:

Then begin to get broken in within a couple weeks and start to fade within months, but it takes two years of consistent wear to get them looking like this:

Yeah, those jeans look just like a lot of jeans you can buy that way originally, but the whole point of raw selvedge denim is that the pair will turn out the way you make them. Plus they are rugged enough to last forever (I haven't found an instance of people destroying their jeans) and continue to fade for years afterward. Lately, I've been going through my jeans pretty quickly, and although Japanese selvedge designers all cost around 20,000 Yen, these pair of jeans could potentially be cost effective.

I spent way too long researching this and made this map of potential stores:

Tokyo Denim

Today, I decided to hit up Harajuku and Shibuya to try on a couple of pairs. The first store I went to is inconspicuously named "Smart Clothing Store." I certainly felt smart walking into this place.

The Smart Clothing website sells a bunch of jeans brands, but the store only really had Pherrows. I tried on a couple of pairs, but none of them fit really well and for some reason I really felt like a cowboy...

I continued down the street to Studio D'Artisan. Someone on a forum thought they were French and got totally bashed for it. SDA is another pretentious Japanese name. There are actually a whole bunch of other stores around Harajuku that I could hit as well, but I didn't have the time for it today.

SDA is where I found my favorite pair of the day. Amazingly they were also the most affordable at 17,000 Yen. The cut was still rigid but somehow a little softer than the rest and I was feeling the color. I wonder if just cuz it's a little softer, it might not last as long as the rest of the denim.

Yep, that's me taking pictures of my legs in the fitting room.

Next stop is the place I've been raving about: Momotaro Jeans. Not only does Momotaro have the coolest name, they have an awesome store front that just screams at you to come in and check it out.

Momotaro Jeans also makes the most custom and expensive jeans in Japan. Most of their pairs cost 22,000 Yen, but there's a gold label that is totally handmade on an oldschool loom and goes for 178,500 Yen. Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csPL3WQrLRM

Momotaro is a heavier cut at 15.7 oz. The others I tried on today were around 14 oz and you could really feel the difference. I tried on their tight straight and their medium classic straight and found myself wanting something in between. The storekeeper recommended another cut that was kind of in between, but I didn't have the time to try on another pair as I had one more stop before everything closed.

The double butt-stripe pattern is very distinctive of the brand and proof of how cool you are for wearing them... Well, I like them. The Momotaro Jeans are a little bit more daunting than others because they are so heavy. I have no idea how they're going to end up, but they are super stiff at first. I really like them, but I'll probably pass on them as my first pair of selvedge.

Last stop of the day was the most famous brand out of Japan, Evisu. Evisu is located in Shibuya so it was a little walk away, but tucked away out of sight is this mecca.

There are seriously so many jeans inside that store. One wall of the second floor looks like this:

There are a couple of walls like this, but I went to the one in the back where they have the classic ones. Evisu is known for its high quality painting, and a lot of the pairs have crazy hand-painted graphics all over them. However, that wasn't what I was looking for and I headed straight to their Classic No. 1 and No. 2's.

The No. 2's are their more popular raw selvedge jeans and every year they produce a different cut. So you won't find any classic, straight, tapered, or bootcut in Evisu. Instead you get 2000, 2001, and 2002. It is impossible to navigate that stack without some help from a store clerk, and he eventually picked out a 2000 for me to try.

Evisu is recognized by the "m"-shape painted onto the back. Super high quality paint will last a while, but not forever. Interestingly, you can always bring them in to get repainted for 1500 Yen. The No. 2's didn't really end up fitting me that well. So, I tried on a pair of No. 1's which ended up being amazing. Too bad they also cost over 30,000 Yen.

All these jeans are so rough and rigid that I broke a sweat going from store to store and trying on a dozen pairs. Do you know how hard it is to button up cardboard pants? Seriously, my fingers hurt. I can't wait for a pair of my own.

The whole experience has been sort of mind-boggling and intimidating. I mean these are jeans that are kind of a pain to begin with, but slowly become made for you. It feels like I'm entering a relationship that might suck in the beginning, but if I put in the effort, a year or two down the road, we're going to have an amazing time. Yes, I made a metaphor between jeans and girlfriends, and yes, I'm married.

I have a handful of other stores to try and plenty of time. Uniqlo also makes lower quality selvedge and I'll go to check it out. From what I hear, it bleeds a lot more easily and wears out more easily as well.

Can't end a blog without some delicious food. Khai was back in Tokyo for the day, and I hoped to meet up with him before he headed back to London. He had plans to go back to this yakitori restaurant that he had eaten the week before, and thus Diana and I went to join him and his sister.

Fuku is a small shop out in Yoyogi-Uehara. The area is quiet but distinctively upperclass. I think a lot of the South-Southwest suburb type areas of Tokyo are like this: where the rich people go to buy houses. The restaurant has the most nondescript but classy storefront which clearly eschews its popularity. House was packed on a Monday night and we had to wait a bit to get seating for four. Making a reservation for larger parties is definitely advised as seating is very limited overall.

Still, Fuku is unlikely to get any larger because all the cooking is done by one chef. He has grunts in training that help him with plating and preparation, but the yakitori grill is invariably manned by this guy.

Just look at his face; yakitori chef man is serious about his yakitori. Fuku is definitely pricier than your average joint, but it is totally in a different echelon when it comes to yakitori. A lot of it is in the special sauces they use to season, but an even more a lot (...) of it is because of that man. You sit at the bar and watch him work his craft, and you never see him plate anything that doesn't look absolutely perfect and also tastes impeccable.

I started off the meal with a Fire Rock Pale Ale straight out of Kona Island, Hawaii. Don't have too much to say about it; a very standard and delicious American Pale Ale. The first thing we ate though was probably my favorite of the day: enoki wrapped in bacon. It didn't last long enough for us to take pictures, but it's ridiculous how amazing something so simple can taste.

Another one of the early dishes was also quite good: toriwasa. Toriwasa is rare chicken marinated in wasabi and served sashimi style. Fittingly, you eat it with wasabi and soy sauce; Diana was right when she said it tasted like fish. Everything tastes like chicken, but raw chicken tastes like sushi... Health hazards aside, I think that the way it tasted was the most amazing thing about it. I mean the way it tasted like fish. It was good, too.

Second favorite dish of the night may have been the oysters. I'm usually a big fan of raw oysters, but the oysters at Fuku as by far the best grilled oysters I've ever had.

My least favorite thing today was the liver Diana ordered. She loves it and I was able to appreciate one piece maybe, but liver is totally not my thing. Fuku is unique in that it has a menu full of standard yakitori items, but it also has a specials menu filled with things you can't find anywhere else. Like the bacon wrapped mochi...

More interesting than delicious. When in Rome, right? The dishes kept coming and coming. We had the normal chicken, chicken with green onions, and chicken wings. I believe that they use free-range local chickens or something, but whatever it is, that chicken meat is supernatural. Bacon wrapped asparagus was enjoyable, but my apologies to the chef, that's one of the dishes that my wife just owns. I may be spoiled; hard to meet my bacon wrapped asparagus standards.

We had our fair share of veggies as well. The maitake mushrooms were among my favorite and the cheese stuffed pepper was pretty spot-on. Actually, anything mushroom was pretty awesome. The shiitake mushrooms were stuffed and heavily salted, but the salt was grilled and crusted on like you get on a good steak. Freaking amazing. One of the last things we ordered were the potatoes.

Hokkaido potatoes are somehow different. It's hard to describe, but yes they are marginally more tasty.

We ate a whole lot of yakitori. I'm not sure how it happened, but food just kept coming and when last order rolled around, I had no desire to order anything else. Tons and food and a healthy dose of alcohol came out to a hefty but not outstanding 3500 Yen apiece.

That sounds like a lot, but it was totally reasonable for how much we ate. I will bring V with me next time and we probably won't break 4000 Yen together. Yeah, I like yakitori, but it's not anywhere on my list of favorite Japanese foods. Fuku though is a whole other matter. The place is a haven for gaijin and more than half the store was speaking in English. The owner has some pretty damn good English himself, a rarity in Japan.

I just get this feeling that somebody classically trained made up that menu whether it was the owner or the head chef. Either way, it's the kind of chill joint where they'll cater to your every need and even take a picture with you if you like.

Ridiculous food and perfect service; Fuku is a must try and a definitely come back. Digression: Khai is Vietnamese, but after seeing his sister, it's official. There is some caucasian in his blood, somewhere. Yeah, I dunno, we were just talking about this the other day...

Can't wait to bring V.