From interacting with some colleagues, it seems that a Pakistani colleague frequents this Iranian restaurant named Ali Baba Halal near Tsukuba so a few of us went to venture to this location about 20 min. away from Tsukuba center (by bus).
Knowing very little about Muslim and Iranian immigration to Japan, I decided to do some digging and it appears to be quite a rich history.
From a quick google dive, Islamic artifices in Japan were claimed to have been dated as early as 1700s! For context, the main isolationist period of Japan was from 1603 to 1868 so this is quite interesting. Maybe this is due to Dutch intermediaries and Wikipedia has a documented example of an exchange so it's definitely possible.
In modern history, aside from some foreign relations with the Ottomans, I think the first major round of aslyum came near the wake of the October Revolutions as Tatar Muslim refugees fled Russia, with the first documented conversion of an ethnic Japanese person to Isalm being in 1909 and the first Mosque built in Japan was the Kobe Mosque in 1938.
As for Iranians in Japan, the history is a bit more straightforward. Although there has been some accounts of Persians working in Japan dating back to the 7th century CE, the most recent major emigration from Iran was due to the Iran-Iraq war in 1988, who were looking for work abroad. Japan happened to have a massive need for unskilled labor due to the collapse of the bubble economy around the same time so there was a bit of synergy there. Conditions were quite not ideal for many though as people exploited Iranian's work permits. The little tidbit I found surprising was due to these conditions, some had to affiliate themselves with the Yakuza! I knew something similar happened with the Chinese (and maybe Koreans) in Japan but I had never considered other ethnicities like the Iranians. Cool!
Enough history, time for food.
I got a chicken and lamb kebab, which came with a grilled tomato and some yogurt tzakiki sauce. After discussing with a colleague who's more experienced with this cuisine, my suspicions were confirmed that the spices were a bit lacking, probably adapting to the Japanese palette. However, the grill and char of the chicken and lamb was quite superb. The pieces were quite juicy and the lamb was the perfect amount of gamey. Surprisingly, the grilled tomato was still the best thing on the plate. The taste of the tomato was so concentrated but still so fresh and juicy, the best of both worlds.
I'm still a little disappointed in the spices not coming through but the execution was still at a high level so I want to say an 8/10. If there's an occasion to travel this far the next time I'm in Japan, I think it will be worth it.
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