Sushi, Sushidai, Tsukiji Fish Market, Tokyo

September 19, 2008

So, last meal in Japan.... I tottered around the selling portion of the fish market for a while, almost got run over by some of the vehicles, before I found this place at around 9am... and had to stand in a line for an hour. Oh well, totally worth it. The sushi chef told me what each of these things are, but I totally forgot. The first four are the memorable ones, whether they were awesome tasting, or were still moving (2nd one). Good end to the trip.

Tenmusu, Nagoya Station, Nagoya

September 18, 2008
Tenmusu, the reason for my only double-stop of the trip (other than Tokyo, naturally). In my first trip to Nagoya, I stuffed myself leaving the city so much, I completely forgot to buy this, which basically amounts to a type of onigiri stuffed with tempura shrimp. Thankfully, I found it at one of the convenience stores (I love having convenience stores that sell meal-like food, we need that in Toronto). I had this after I got home that night. In retrospect, I should've stopped in at Yamaton again for some more misokatsu. Dang.

Yakitori, Nenohi, Yurakucho, Tokyo

September 18, 2008
So I actually bought this after I bought what's coming up in tomorrow's post, but I ate the Yakitori before, so there.

Yakitori, or grilled meat on a stick, the highlight of late night (or siu-mai) of Japanese food. In a nice drinking place surrounded by many other Yakitori shops, I downed seven sticks of meat easily. Mainly chicken and pork, with the meatballs on the bottom, and also some chicken neck (surprise, tasted like chicken). However, this was a bit of a downer, since it marked the only time I really wished I had someone there with me. Sitting at the bar amongst lots of Japanese natives and tourists drinking and eating loudly and happily will do that to ya.

Unagi, Yaotoku, Hamamatsu

September 18, 2008
The only time I ate unagi (other than on sushi) on the trip was on the second last day, here in Hamamatsu. I actually also wanted to eat snapping turtle here, but that went out the window because of an unpleasantly expensive experience with transportation and taxis the previous night. But besides that, the unagi was solid, very flavourful. It didn't leave a huge impression, though, because I'm not an unagi connoisseur. It was also rather pricey =P But still worth the experience

Yakisoba, Totoro, Fujinomiya

September 18, 2008
Mm, Yakisoba. Visited Fujinomiya to eat it on the recommendation of Ian, which coincidentally is partly how I got the idea of visiting many many places to eat their specialties. Fujinomiya was a great example because, although its a really small town, they still had a map indicating where you could eat Yakisoba. I love the concept of towns centred around food.

I've had Yakisoba once since I've been back to Toronto, and it didn't compare to this. Contrary to how you might usually find it, this wasn't saucy at all, but a little dry, basically non-greasy fried noodles, cabbage and meat. However, the bits of nori (seaweed) covering it was an awesome addition. Mixed up all together with the rest of the food made for a fantastic combination. I'll definitely have to use that idea in cooking in the future.

Ramen, Raumen Museum, Yokohama

September 17, 2008
Ahh.. the Raumen Museum (yes, it's spelled R-A-U-men, I don't know why. I will continue to spell it without the u). This place was pretty cool, they brought in 9 "famous" ramen makers from across the country, selling local specialties or twists on the standard ramen fare, all in the basement in a recreation of 1950s Tokyo. I had actually managed to visit at least 5 of those cities already, so I went for two places I had not tried yet. Apparently I've lost my Raumen Museum guide, so I can't remember where each one was from.

Anyhow, it was ramen, tastes good =). The ball of red stuff in the second picture is actually a ball of spices, that was interesting. And I only realized after I made it to the second store that I could order half-orders, so I probably could have eaten a third type had I realized that before. Surprisingly, the one on the bottom was the half-portion; the pictures don't really show that, do they?

Finally, they had all sorts of other stuff in the Museum, including a history of instant noodles, and many other things that I couldn't understand cause I don't read Japanese. There were also apparently ramen video games, which basically consist of you trying to eat ramen faster than your opponent. Also a bar, a candy store, and some sort of archery/gun carnival game. I bought the marble drink and some ice cream in a balloon, pictured below.

Sushi, Sushi Zanmai, Akihabara, Tokyo

September 17, 2008
Oooh.. the second of 3 sushi meals in Japan, and one of the happiest =P. This is a kaiten (revolving) sushi restaurant in one of the large department stores in Akihabara. I had already planned to eat here, but the bonus was getting a coupon for free chu-toro (medium-fatty tuna, top picture) before entering the restaurant.

The quality of the sushi was excellent, there was a spigot of green tea, and I even got to try otoro (really fatty tuna, bottom picture), though it didn't really meet the hype. But that was the only minor negative in a meal which I stuffed myself with sushi for about 1700 yen, less than the price of a lunch all-you-can-eat in Toronto. Japan rules =)

Tonkatsu Curry, Coco Ichibanya, Yokosuka

September 16, 2008
So here's dinner on the 16th, after eating my dessert. Yokosuka is apparently home to an American military unit of some sorts, so it is known for "Navy Curry". The curry levels go up quite high on the menu, but I settled for a basic order, which was pretty much average, nothing overly special. I get the feeling that I either did not experience the proper amount of spice due to my lack of tolerance, or missed out on a better place to eat the curry. Ah well, c'est la vie.

Purple Potato "Gelato", Crepe House, Yokosuka

September 16, 2008
Same day as Kamakura, I actually found the purple potato ice cream I was looking for. Except I found it in Yokosuka, when I was looking for a curry place. And I was hungry, not in the dessert mood. But still, I wanted to eat it at least, so I got what they called "gelato", which really was just regular ice cream, I think. Still, I'm glad I got to eat it. It actually tasted like sweet potato. (surprise!) In retrospect, I could've eaten it on the way back after eating curry. But take no chances after all the near-misses, I suppose.

Hatosabure, Kamakura

September 16, 2008
Alright, Kamakura's got some elements to it. First off, the picture. It's literally a cookie in the shape of a bird. That was on the list of what Kamakura was "famous" for. Kind of ridiculous, eh? The cookie still tasted good, though, probably loaded with butter =P

The second thing I was looking for was purple potato soft serve. I walked a while to find a place, and went in just to find out that they were closing. It was ..like, 6! Jeez. Walked around some more, the only places I found with a purple soft serve logo were closed.

The final, and most annoying thing: I had looked up some festivals beforehand, cause I wanted to check one out, and try good festival food. There was only one scheduled for the period I was in Japan, and after the first week or so I decided I was too tired to seek out a festival where I'd have to walk around all day.

Then, when I was entering and leaving Kamakura, I noticed there was an oddly high number of people on the train platforms, for such a small city. It was only when I was headed back home later in the evening that I realized that a) Kamakura was the location of the festival I had researched and b) it was held on the 16th. But since I got into Kamakura at around 5:30 PM, I missed the entire thing. Had I realized that, I could've easily gone to Kamakura earlier and Utsonomiya later. Ghgnx...bah.

Dumplings, 3 restaurants, Utsunomiya

September 16, 2008
Dumpling run! This is in Utsunomiya, home of the dumpling. Remember the udon Kingdom, Takamatsu? (which I forgot to mention, is the second place in Japan I'd like to live in someday). This would be the dumpling equivalent, with a dumpling map and all (seen in the top left corner of the first picture). They also had dumpling key-chains =)

I managed to eat a lot of dumplings, we'll leave it at that. They were ok, I guess. Not the way I'd make my dumplings. The last one I ordered was vegetarian, as well (not by choice, I didn't know what I was ordering). It's just nice to have a place where they're so readily available. There was also a dumpling statue. Why did they feel it was necessary to give it ...uhh... girl-parts?

Kobe Beef, Wakkoqu, Kobe

September 15, 2008
Ahh... kobe beef. I originally didn't plan on going to Kobe, since I thought the beef would be too expensive for my $100/day budget (including travel and accomedations!) I forget why I decided to actually go.

Spent a bit of time walking around looking for this place, which I had discovered had some good cheap set menu options at lunch. After looking at the menu, I selected the cheapest one (of course) for roughly 3500 yen. The chef (right in front of me, as you can see) brought out the meat and was about to start grilling it when I decided to check to make sure it was Kobe beef. It wasn't. Apparently it was Tajima beef, which was one grade down from Kobe beef.

After a bit of arguing, me wanting my Kobe beef, the chef claiming he had already cut it, they finally agreed and I got the real Kobe beef. The only set menu option with Kobe beef ended up costing me 5544 yen, but also came with soup and dessert.

The beef itself was quite quality. The chef originally cut out all the fatty parts, and just grilled up what you see in the second picture there, which is obviously smaller than the first picture, so I felt gypped. (It was only something like 5 ounces, after all). But it turned out he grilled part of it first, then did all the veggies, then the other part of it (minus the fatty part). Then he grilled up the fatty parts with some bean sprouts for a mega-quality chop-suey. So quite worth the trip and the cost, all in all.

Final comment, I did not say it melted in my mouth, cause beef can't actually melt. And if it actually could, I wouldn't want it, cause I like to actually chew my meat. Pet peeve of mine =P

Green Tea Softserve, Uji Tourist Centre, Uji

September 15, 2008
This is the first thing I ate after pulling an all-nighter at the internet cafe and eating noodles at 3am. I did get a couple hours of sleep on the train, though, between Fukuoka and Kyoto. Trains, btw, have officially become my favourite mode of transportation. They're mad comfortable.

Another note, Kyoto became the first of three cities I stopped in without eating anything. Kyoto was also the city that I spent the least amount of time in. I stopped there to exchange monies. Yay I have monies!

To comment on the actual picture, Uji is well-known for its green tea. Bought some green tea snacks and some green tea powder. The ice cream was quite the awesome. I still have all the green tea powder, though, I wonder what I should do with it.

Tonkotsu, Ichiran, Fukuoka

September 15, 2008
As I mentioned yesterday, I was running out of money. So I ended up staying the night at an internet cafe. =P Cost me 1060 yen for 6 hours, I think, killing enough time for me to truck out to this place at around 3 in the morning for some more soup noodles.

This time, it was tonkotsu (with an o, not tonkatsu). Basically the difference is the broth, which is supposed to be a pungent pork broth (though it didn't really smell all that bad). Very interesting ordering method, filling out a sheet that has options of how much meat and noodles, how spicy it is, an option for an egg, etc. Quality comfort food for 3 AM.

As for the internet cafe, it was half-full the entire time I was there, even with options for a private room with a shower, anime and games lining the walls, etc. Truly the epitome of Japan =)

Champon, Ringerhut, Fukuoka

September 14, 2008
This be champon, which is another type of soup noodle dish with small amounts of various types of meat and veggies. It's supposed to be well-known and native to Nagasaki, which is the only city I wanted to go to, but did not get to. The reason is that I wanted to check out a church in Fukuoka, and to make it to the 6pm service, I had no time to make the 3 hour detour to Nagasaki. I also slept in at Kagoshima =P. Of course, when I got there, there was no one there, the service was on canceled for the week because the missionaries were out of town. Of course.

The other development of the day was that my credit card did not work at the ATM's (that were finally open). I tried numerous places, but no go. So again, I was running out of money. Found wireless at a McDonald's and basically found a place I could exchange money, but on the next day, as most places were closed on Sunday.

With little money left, I had to conserve. This meal, with a big bowl of noodles and a side of dumplings, fortunately cost 630 yen. There was nothing really remarkable otherwise, except that Ringerhut seemed to be a local-diner-family-chain kinda restaurant, maybe comparable to a Golden Griddle, and really out of place in Japan.

Black Pork Tonkatsu, Katsuju, Kagoshima

September 14, 2008
The other thing I was looking for in Kagoshima was tonkatsu, which is normally pork cutlet in the rest of Japan, but supposed to be some sort of stew in Kagoshima. So I found a place in the mall next to Kagoshima-Chuo station which I hoped would have it (I mean comon, it has Katsu in it's name!). Unfortunately, what I ordered turned out to be more of the same. It tasted alright, but again, couldn't really tell the difference between this and the regular stuff.

Black Pork Shabu Shabu, Wakana, Kagoshima

September 13, 2008
Got into Kagoshima, in the southern part of Kyushu, pretty late in the day (around 9, maybe). I was also out of cash. I finally found a ATM at a convenience store, but they were closed. Seriously, ATMs in Japan have a closing time each day, early on weekends too. So not only did I not have money for eating, but for staying at a hotel as well. I went back to the train station and basically waited around hoping to find an American or someone I could exchange my American dollars with (as that was the backup I had brought with me).

I was fortunate to meet a really nice Kenyan, who was working in the city, who exchanged $100 US for me even though he really had no need for US dollars. He also showed me where a hostel was (which ended up being full), and a strip of restaurants at which to eat.

About the black pork, apparently Kagoshima is known for its black pork, which is supposed to be highly prized pork meat. The meat, as you can tell, is not black, that name comes from the colour of the pigs themselves. The shabu shabu was goooood, especially the fatty pieces, although I don't know that I could honestly tell you (or distinguish) the difference between this and regular pork.

Sushi, Karato Ichiba Fish Market, Shimonoseki

September 13, 2008
First sushi meal of the trip, comes 2 weeks into being in Japan. This was a decent meal, in Shimonseki, the place where Fugu (blowfish, made famous on the Simpsons) is most popular. This restaurant was a Kaiten sushi place, with a conveyer belt bringing sushi goodness past your seat. Also the option to ask the chefs for an order directly.

The meal was a bit difficult, given that there was no English, and I was running a little low on cash, but I managed. Kept it to just under 2000 yen, but didn't get completely full. The three shown here are (in order) whale, uni, and fugu. Whale was blubbery, uni was a tad sweet, and the fugu was tough. I don't think I experienced the best fugu there was to offer, unfortunately.

Okayama fruits, Some supermarket, Okayama

September 12, 2008
Ok, I'm bad, I missed almost 2 weeks of posts. Oh well, time to start up again.

And we start with a random eating. I actually bought this stuff before I got to Hiroshima, but didn't eat it til I got to the capsule hotel I was staying at. We have two peaches that cost 500 yen, Muscat Grapes (Muscat of Alexandria, so-called Queen of Fruit) that cost the same, and Kibi Dango, basically sweet little balls of dough/gummy stuff, which were the awesome. I want.

Okonomiyaki, Sankanou, Hiroshima

Sept 12, 2008
Small back-alley restaurant under the train tracks. The chef was the restaurant owner, and could speak pretty decent English. He also just started making the food for me without even an order, which was totally ok with me. It was Hiroshima-style Okonomiyaki, which is different from the Osaka-style I had earlier. The difference mainly is a thinner layer of batter, on top of a bed of noodles and another bed of cabbage. I have to say I prefer Osaka-style. Nice guy, though, he gave me a present of some crackers and awesome sauce when I left.

Udon run, Chikusei +2, Takamatsu

September 12, 2008
Before leaving Takamatsu, I just had to have a lot of udon, so I ended up hitting 3 restaurants for lunch before leaving. The first one I went to was not to helpful, so I didn't bother figuring out how to order other stuff, just had plain udon in soup, which is fine with me. The second place had much less people, but friendlier staff, so I got a tempura udon with the sauce-soup like the previous night. Nothing special there.

The third place was the more reputable one, Chikusei, which had a long lineup when I got there 10 minutes before it opened. It was like a tempura-buffet, with a lady in one corner constantly making tempura of all kinds, and bringing it over to the main counter, behind which people were making fresh udon. You basically can take whatever you want, and pay for it up top. So I had two tempura shrimp, two tempura soft-boiled eggs (!!!), and a regular bowl of noodles. Woulda went large, but I was filling up already. Heavenly. They need this in Toronto (or near wherever I live, always).

Toriten Oroshi Udon, Ajiyoshi, Takamatsu

Sept 11, 2008
After the aggravation of Kochi, Takamatsu was superbly awesome. Takamatsu is known as "The Kingdom of Udon". There was actually a movie made about udon here. There are over 700 udon restaurants in the larger region of Kagawa, especially in Takamatsu. I also happen to frickin' love udon. Good combination.

Unfortunately, I was so worn down from walking in Kochi that I didn't want to go far at all, so I got a room at a real hotel (cost me just under 50 bucks, most expensive night for me) and rested up, so by the time I was ready to go grab something to eat, I looked at my udon map (yup, a map with alot of udon restaurants marked on it) and most places were closed. The "famous" one was a far ways away, and I had no energy to go search it out. Fortunately, there was one open a few blocks away, so I just went there.

No one in there, usually a bad sign, but they were friendly, and suggested this one, basically battered chicken over cold udon, no soup, just some sauce (like the sauce which you dip soba in). T'was awesome. Chicken was dark meat, udon was springy, soup-sauce was tasty. Amazing end to the day =)

Katsuo no Tataki, Matsumi, Kochi

Sept 11, 2008
Being that this is Kochi, its a good time to mention that my interary is set day to day, looking up Japanese cities on wiki travel to see if they're famous for any food, then going to a "well-known" restaurant to eat said food. I'm learning my lessons, slowly, by missing food I want to eat cause I can't find a restaurant, or don't have a good map, or don't know when they're open. So I embark out of Kochi station armed with a map and knowing exactly where I want to go. I'll mention here that I tend to walk cause I'm cheap, even when I have to walk for half an hour, to save a buck, even though my ankle/back sucks, cause I gotta walk off the food somehow.

Anyways, I make my way down, looking for landmarks and streets that I can recognize, and can't find the frickin' place. So after about 40 minutes of walking, I stop and ask someone (in Japanese) where a certain street is. She looks at me and basically says... that's nowhere near here. I show her my map, and she tells me I walked the wrong way out of station, so I essentially walked the exact wrong direction. Turns out that the only visible door out of the station does not lead to Kochi, but in fact some other place. Lesson learned: don't assume that walking out the door is the direction of the map.

Anyhow, I walk allll the way back, and have to walk around the station to actually get to Kochi. By this time, I'm exhausted, so I just go find the first restaurant I can see and ask if they have what I'm looking for. They do, yay! So I eat. Katsuo no tataki is basically a type of sashimi (bonito) slightly seared on the outside before cutting it up. Solid, but walking all that way was aggravating to the point where I didn't enjoy it as much as I should've.

P.S. Turns out there's a massive fish on the outside of the restaurant that I didn't see when I walked in. So maybe this was the restaurant to go to after all. I'll never know.

Takoyaki, Tako Tako King, Osaka

Sept 11, 2008
Technically on the 11th, I ate these at around 2:30 in the morning in Osaka before heading to bed. Had them with salt, with mayo/awesome sauce, and one other way I forget. Obviously best with awesome sauce. It's kinda crispy on the outside, and all gooey on the inside (with not much octopus). I liked the combination, but I can see how people might not enjoy.

Okonomiyaki, Chibo, Osaka

Sept 10, 2008
Late night meal (after stuffing myself at lunch), in a crazy street-market-like place in Osaka. I really wanted to try okonomiyaki in Japan, after having it a couple times in Canada, and this did not disappoint. Pork, cuttlefish, shrimp, beef, and cheese on this batter-pancake thing topped with some sort of mayo and awesome-sauce (don't really care what the real name is called, it's hereby awesomesauce). Also cool is that each table has its own grill, so you have the option of making it yourself, or in my case, keeping it warm while you ate. At the risk of being repetitive, it was awesome.

Kohchin Miso Nikomi Udon, Yamamotoya, Nagoya

Sept 10, 2008
This was the udon I was looking for. I ended up eating this about half an hour after I stuffed myself with the large portion of misokatsu. Shoulda planned that out better. Anyhow, Nikomi Udon with some sort of special chicken (which tasted, y'kno, like normal chicken). The udon itself wasn't the greatest, Nikomi udon is made with this super thick soup, almost like a sauce. Really overpowering, not in a good way, like the misokatsu, more in a bad way, like the tebasaki. Oh well, at least I tried it.