Sachie's Kitchen

Sachie goes to the largest fish market in the world – Tsukiji Market in Tokyo – where more than two hundred different types of fish are sold.

The variety of food sold from roadside stalls is amazing in Japan and nowhere is it more evident than Osaka, the city with the food motto "eat till you drop".

Sachie goes on a rice journey from planting seedlings in a paddy field to harvesting full-grown rice stalks and then following the rice as it's processed in a factory.

Japanese people are constantly on the move and to match this hectic lifestyle they've refined various forms of fast food; from thirty-second udon noodles to elegant bento boxes.

Sachie and her family go foraging in the hills for bamboo shoots and other special vegetables for a Japanese style barbecue.

Soy sauce is one of the main condiments in Japanese cooking so Sachie journeys to Chiba, the home of Yamasa Soy Sauce to see how it's made.

Sachie visits Kyoto - from geishas to temples to fine crafts it's the center of Japanese culture, and its food is no exception. First stop is the famed Nishiki vegetable market.

To find out what makes New Zealand salmon so special Sachie journeys to a salmon hatchery and then to a salmon farm in the beautiful Marlborough Sounds.

Sachie travels to Nagano, the home of Marukome (the world's leading manufacturer of miso) where she gets to see how it's made and where the miso is left to ferment and mature.

In this episode Sachie meets some Japanese artisans carrying on very old traditions closely tied to Japan's food culture.