Tsukudani and hot rice: Still a go-to meal in Japan centuries after its creation

Japan Tsukudani - (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Their morning starts at 5 a.m.

The father and son don’t speak to each other. They don’t need to. They barely look at each other as they go briskly, almost mechanically, from task to task. Beads of sweat glisten on their foreheads.