Of course, rice is Japan’s main diet, but noodle has also been eaten by Japanese people from long ago.
Soba noodles are made from buckwheat.
Buckwheat can grow even in poor soil, thus it is recorded that soba noodles has been eaten in Japan since 1500.
However, there are those who have allergies towards soba (buckwheat), in which, they cannot eat the soba noodles. Many foreign tourists tend to eat soba noodles in order to feel the Japanese culture, but we can say that they too have the risk.
“Nadai Fuji Soba”, a very popular soba noodle chain, thus stood up and organized “Soba Allergy Tattoo Checker” trial event for foreigners on July 7, 2016 at Tokyo Asakusa.
Soba allergy tattoo checker is designed with mainly Japanese ukiyo-e drawings. After performing the prick test on top of the tattoo sticker, if an allergic reaction towards soba (buckwheat) occurs, the part in which the prick test is performed on will turn red; in which the ukiyo-e art is complete.
Those who participated in the event had enjoyed the tattoo stickers and were carefully listening to the topic. The event seemed to be a success with voices such as “this was fun!” and “I didn’t know buckwheat allergy existed. But now with this I think I can enjoy Japan even more.”
From this event on, they will continue to hold these soba allergy events continuously.
Soba is popular among foreign tourists as a tasty and healthy Japanese food.
Writer: Tomoki Furukawa (Tokyo,Japan)