Tokyo's traditional diet

IN the Sugamo district of northern Tokyo, the capital’s older people – braving 30°C heat and energy-sapping humidity – come to shop, eat, and pray for even longer lives.

The object of their desire is Sugamo’s famed shio daifuku. The heavy, glutinous patties of pounded rice containing salted, rather than the usual sweetened, bean paste are the perfect accompaniment to an afternoon cup of green tea. The sweets are perhaps the one guilty pleasure that elderly shoppers here will own up to in a diet that is otherwise faultless in its simplicity, not to mention its commendable lack of transfats and refined sugar.