Food Adventures Japan is a tour operator offering bespoke gastronomy, food culture and food history tours of Japan that was launched by author and food historian Dave Conklin.

Originally from Portland, Oregon, Dave has lived in the Ningyōchō, the heart of Tokyo’s shitamachi, for close to fifteen years. Dave studied economics as an undergrad at Oregon State University, then in 2004 returned to school as a graduate student at Portland State University where he earned a Masters’ degree in Japanese History, the topic of his M.A. thesis being the history of Japanese food in America. Dave continues to research and write about food, and in 2017 published a book, “コンクリンさん、大江戸を食べつくす (Mr. Conklin Eats his way around Edo)”. He is also a frequent contributor to various Japanese magazines, usually writing about food. He has lectured on the globalization of soba, his favorite Japanese food, at international academic conferences and hopes to soon publish—in English—a book on soba that will help make it the next globally popular Japanese food. Besides shopping and eating his way through Shitamachi, Dave also enjoys cooking, matsuri, kabuki, and other traditional Japanese cultural activities.

       Illustration by Watanabe Osama　(渡部修) of Design Studio Baton, Kumamoto http://batonworks.net　　batontoyou@gmail.com