Seaweed Shop

These are photos of a shop in Shibuya that only sells seaweed. All kinds of seaweed!

One of the most well-known seaweed is nori, which is used to wrap maki-sushi. It is also eaten as a snack or along with steamed rice. When I arrived to Japan I didn’t like it that much but after some years here I am now an addict to nori.

Another seaweed that is very popular in Japan is kombu, used to flavor soups in Japan as well as in China and Korea. It is also used to make a kind of tea called kombucha.

Wakame is another seaweed usually used in soups (as for example in miso soup) and also in salads.

Mozuku is maybe the least known seaweed for foreigners and the one that people dislike the most. Most likely because it doesn’t look really tasty:

Mozaku seaweed doesn’t look really good but it doesn’t taste that bad as an appetizer along with a refreshing drink.

The kinds of seaweed I have mentioned are the most used and well-known in Japan, however depending on the region you can find other kinds of seaweed which are used in regional cuisines, for example, in Okinawa one of the most used kinds of seaweed are sea grapes. Japanese people say that eating seaweed is healthy and it is specially good to keep your sking young.