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.