Kabayaki grilled eel stores and restaurants in Japan attracted crowds of customers on Saturday, this year's Day of Ox, with many lining up from before opening time in hope of surviving the intense heat by eating the summer delicacy.
Japanese people have a tradition of eating nutritious grilled eels, believed to be good for restoring energy, on the midsummer Day of the Ox. The popularity of the summer tradition seems to be unabated even when purse strings tend to tighten due to high prices.
At Yatsumeya Nishimura, a long-established eel restaurant in Tokyo's Meguro Ward, the staff were busy from early in the morning preparing around 1,500 fillets of grilled eels. They dipped the fillets in a sauce and grilled them skillfully over charcoal until they were browned.
Yatsumeya Nishimura's grilled eels for take-out are priced at ¥3,000 per fillet, unchanged from last year. The restaurant has been attracting many customers this summer, since before the Day of the Ox.
"It's hot again today. We will work hard to sell our eels so that many people can enjoy them," owner Kiyoshi Matsumoto said.
A man in his 70s from Ibaraki Prefecture, meanwhile, said he was up early to get his share.
"I left home at 5 a.m. to buy eels at this store," he said. "I want to nourish my body by eating the eels."
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