Until 2 September, Japan’s capital city Tokyo is hosting a Bulgarian Festival. The event is taking place for the first time, and aims to present Bulgarian cuisine and traditional Bulgarian products to a Japanese audience, Bulgaria’s diplomatic representation in Tokyo has announced.

Visitors are offered a special menu of popular Bulgarian dishes – the “perpetrator” being Lyudmila Kostova-Yoshida, who has been married to a Japanese man and living in Tokyo for 35 years. 

The stalls with Bulgarian goods offer visitors banitsa, rakia, pastis, wine, pink tea, linseed, Bulgarian yoghurt and many more.

The Bulgarian festival is taking place at a local store in the Tokyo residential area Shinjuku with the support of the embassy of the Republic of Bulgaria. The opening on 27 August was attended by Ambassador Marieta Arabadjieva and other embassy officials.

Just a few days ago, on 21 and 22 august, Tokyo hosted World Sushi Cup Japan 2025, in which sushi chefs from 17 countries took part. Martin Vladimirov is the only Bulgarian to have received an award for sushi. His dish “Valley of Roses” was also awarded the special prize for creativity by one of the five biggest sponsors of the World Sushi Cup Japan contest.

This is a historic debut for Bulgaria on the world sushi stage, and places the country among the nations with a contribution to global innovation in Japanese gastronomic tradition, the Bulgarian embassy notes and goes on that “The Valley of Roses” throws a culinary bridge between Japan and Bulgaria – the place where Japanese purity and the Bulgarian soul meet.

The presentation by Martin Vladimirov took place to the sound of the emblematic Izlel e Delyo Haidutin performed by Valya Balkanska.

Editing by Krasimir Martinov
Translated and posted by Milena Daynova
Photos: Bulgarian embassy in Japan