Japan Guide: Eating Out

Eating Out

Lots of restaurants will advertise if they have an English menu, and they'll offer it to you if they have one if they recognize you look foreign. If they don't, there's almost always lots of pictures, and you can just point.

No tipping, and taxes are usually included. Both of these are big bonuses in my book, I like that these are the customs in Japan and wish that the US would adopt these practices.

Sometimes hosts will ask you if you want to sit in smoking or non-smoking sections of the restaurant.

If servers don't come to your table and you need to place your order, get more drink or pay your bill, it's normal to call them over. Use the phrase, "Sumimasen," which means excuse me, and they'll come right over.

Most restaurants are very specialized in a certain kind of food. For example, tatsu (fried) places will have mostly tatsu, and not sushi or ramen. If you want good ramen, you need to go to a ramen place. For a truly Japanese dish, I recommend

Partially eaten okonomiyaki

okonomiyaki, if you can find it. They refer to it as a savory pancake, but it's so much more than a pancake, with noodles and cabbage inside, and the delicious and distinctive okonomiyaki sauce they smother it in (along with mayonnaise).

My favorite dish, however, is yakiniku, and also a little bit difficult to find. I used to eat it at school when I studied at Hiroshima Shudo University, and it appealed to my limited palate because it is very simply beef and rice, but whatever magic they sauce it with, it's delicious. I found it also at a restaurant in Miyajima.

A suitable and quite delightful proxy can be more easily located at, of all places, a uniquely Japanese burger franchise called MOS Burger, home of the yakiniku burger. Speaking of burgers, I also recommend eating McDonald's in Japan just once, if you have the chance, so you can experience that.

One note about sushi: when you go to sushi in America, much of the fish is cooked and has fun names like California roll or Dynamite roll. Most of the sushi in Japan, in our experience, is raw. Some may be broiled or seared but may not be fully cooked. I'd advise to keep you mind open, if you're going to try raw fish, what better place to do it than in Japan where they really know what they're doing?

As far as ice cream, sodas and desserts, there are lots of unique flavors that Westerners aren't generally used to, like bean curd. Fish-shaped Taiyaki is a delicious treat you can get at street vendors, especially if you can find chocolate filled ones. Teas and waters, too, especially in the vending machines
or convenience stores, have some wild flavors. My favorite was the orange flavored water, and Jaiman really enjoyed the apple flavored tea as well as the melon soda. 

 

More Japan Guide

Getting There / What To Bring 
Training It - The Best Way to Get Around in Japan (Trains) 
Where to Stay
Eating Out
Things To Do 
Key Phrases

Japan Guide: Tips for First-timers and Returning Visitors to Japan

I've recently returned from my third trip to Japan, and it has spurred a lot of conversation with colleagues, friends, and total strangers like Uber drivers and the girl at the DMV. For those who haven't been, Japan can seem like an "exotic" place to visit, but for Jaiman and I, it's as natural as any adventure. There are some really neat aspects of Japan that make it very friendly to tourists as well some aspects that are a little daunting to newcomers. After a number of these conversations, I thought I'd put together a semi-comprehensive guide to visiting Japan.

Embedded in this guide are tips for what to do and what to expect in certain situations. I believe knowing what to expect helps people feel more comfortable when confronted with something so completely different like a whole new culture. Here is a summary with links to each of the sections:

Getting There / What To Bring (below)
Training It - The Best Way to Get Around in Japan (Trains) - What to expect at the train station and how to prepare and navigate for using trains as your primary mode of transportation in Japan.
Where to Stay - What to look for in hotels.
Eating Out - No tipping, and taxes are usually included! And other tips for what to expect at Japanese restaurants.
Things To Do - My recommended Must-Dos as well as some other fun ideas for your itinerary.
Key Phrases - Don't Miss This Section! Most people in Japan are not great at English, so it is very helpful and respectful if you have some basic Japanese phrases under your belt when you go.

Bonus: Japan Is Weird (Different) and Confusing (Unfamiliar) and I Want to Go Back - Some quirks and our favorites from our previous trip are discussed here. 

Getting There

Narita is the bigger airport in Tokyo, but both Haneda and Narita are fine to fly into and out of. Most itineraries will go through Tokyo, even if you're going elsewhere in Japan. As such, I'd recommend flying to Tokyo and staying there for a few nights if your schedule permits, and then you can always take a bullet train to other parts of the main island instead of getting back on an airplane. If you plan to ride the shinkansen, or bullet train, I would recommend you look into the JR Pass for Visitors before you go, you can get a really good deal and save hundreds of dollars, but you have to buy it before you get to Japan.

Flights from the US are lengthy, at least 10 hours and up to 15 hours depending on where you're flying from. When you land, you'll be about 12 hours off from your previous timezone, so it's important to sleep a little but not the whole time on the plane. The best way to ward off jetlag is to stay up most of the arrival day, and then make sure you go to bed at a decent time the first night.

Many major airlines have personal screens with entertainment, and free alcohol for international flights. You'll also notice that announcements will be made in Japanese and English, and potentially Chinese or Korean as well. While checked luggage may be free for the international flights, I prefer to pack lightly (at least on the way there) so that I can limit myself to carry-ons. If you plan to do a good amount of shopping, it may be a good idea to bring an empty collapsible bag to fill up with your goodies to bring home. Don't worry, though, if you forget, because you can find cheap bags for this purpose in Japan, too (Jaiman got a huge duffle bag for about $16 USD). 

What to Bring

Definitely bring plenty of Japanese cash (yen) to avoid costly ATM fees, you'll need cash at the train stations and at many restaurants, street vendors, vending machines, etc. Major credit cards (Visa, Master Card, Discover) are accepted at many places, but not all. Make sure you know which credit cards have foreign transaction fees. My Discover card doesn't have foreign transaction fees, for example, so I prefer using that when possible, but sometimes places don't take Discover, so then I'd have to use cash or another card and pay the small fee.

Umbrellas are a good idea generally, but they can be purchased pretty readily if you need one while you're out and about.

Bathing suits are a good idea if you plan to go to a public hot spring / onsen. Many are separate by gender and are only used in the nude, but some will have coed spaces for those with bathing suits.

Comfortable shoes are a must, it doesn't matter how little you expect to walk, you'll probably walk more than you expect. 

More Japan Guide

Getting There / What To Bring 
Training It - The Best Way to Get Around in Japan (Trains) 
Where to Stay
Eating Out
Things To Do 
Key Phrases

Melbourne - Aussie Adventure Part 3

We arrived in Melbourne on September 21st, with minimal plans for this leg of the trip.  I had several restaurant recommendations from my new co-worker who had just moved to New York from Melbourne, so we thought we'd try one of those.  Many of them looked a bit pretentious and I was in the travel-tired mode and didn't really want to gussy up so much.  We identified one that was more on the casual side and relatively close to the hotel, so we wandered over there.  Unfortunately, it had over an hour wait to get in, and I was hungry and not really keen on waiting.  So we continued wandering around the downtown area and stumbled upon a place that was probably more our speed anyways: a video-game themed burger joint called 8bit.  We munched on delicious burgers and smothered fries, washing it all down with Nutella shakes.  Our first taste of Melbourne made a great first impression, to say the least! 

We wandered around a bit more, finding lots of graffiti which the locals seemed to appreciate, calling it "art" and taking pictures of it.  One particularly disturbing work featured America's new Idiot-in-Chief Donald Trump in an awkward position with a dumbfounded look on his face. 

We went to a mall in search of a KitKat Chocolatory - we had learned on our trip to Japan that Asia has some amazing KitKat flavors, and we had been finding Japanese KitKats in conveniences stores in Australia, and also some really good Australia KitKats.  Much like the KitKat Chocolatory we had found in Tokyo, the one in Melbourne featured really fancy KitKats and didn't really have the "normal" packs we were looking for.  I bought a couple small packs of fun flavors, and we got to sample a normal Australian KitKat (which is notably much thicker than an American KitKat).  We also played with the KitKat computer that allowed you to customize your KitKats, but didn't actually purchase anything through it. 
Back at the hotel, we decided on booking the brewery tour I had had in mind for our Melbourne excursion - it was a tour of the Carlton & United Brewery which makes Fosters, several local favorites (similar to America's Budweiser).  Then we called it a night, and got some much-needed rest. 

The next morning, we satisfied Jaiman's quest for great donuts at Shortstop Coffee & Donuts.  They had a number of unique flavors, many mimicking tea flavors like Early Grey and Green Tea. 

We were to meet for the brewery tour at 12:30 at Federation Square, a neat little area with museums and foodie places.  So until then, we did a lot more walking around town, first finding a street fair selling all sorts of Australian souvenirs and various other goods.  We found some neat Australian jerserys for cheap, and bought those.  As we walked around, I was struck by a lot of juxtapositions: the flashy, modern new buildings next to old world English-looking pubs and hotels; business-types in suits walking through graffiti-covered streets; and fancy English names for things alongside sillier-sounding Australia slang.  I even took this great picture of a business-type getting his shoes shined in one of the most decorated graffiti alley we saw - it was an alley in which, based on the behavior of the dozens of people walking through it, you'd think we were in the Guggenheim.  People were stopping and pausing in front of every four-foot expanse of graffiti as if pondering and appreciating the artist work, and taking pictures of just about every angle possible.  I honestly wasn't sure what to make of it.  For lunch, we found a seriously legit Japanese ramen place - greeted with the traditional Japanese greeting as we entered.  The bowls were ginormous and delicious, and we were full and happy by the end of our stay at Shujinko Russel.

We made our way to the Federation Square area with plenty of time still before the tour pickup.  Seeing an interesting-looking exhibition, we wandered into the little museum.  It was all about swimming pools, talking about the symbolism of bringing the community together and learning how to share.  My favorite quote in the exhibition was from Paul Kelly: "As you move through life, it seems to be like a series of steps into deeper and deeper water.  What comes along in life are the things that we don't know.  The things that everyone goes through but are not known until you do it yourself.  The loss of a parent, the birth of a child, the beginning of love, or the end of love.  All those things.  You don't know them until they happen to you.  It's all deep water when you get there."  After going through the exhibit, we perused the book store and I found a lot of interesting-looking books. 

Finally, it was time to load onto the Carlton Brewhouse bus and head over to the brewery.  It was incredibly interesting to see how a massive brewery like this one operates; before this trip I had only toured small craft breweries.  I think it's neat when tours include a chance to taste the raw ingredients, and I've tasted the grains and burnt grains before.  A first-time for me was being encouraged to try the hops - not the raw hops of course, I knew that wasn't a good thing to do.  Instead, they passed around the raw hops to smell, and then passed around the pelletized hops and encouraged us to take the tiniest of bites of a pellet.  Skeptical, I wanted to give it a try, and sure enough, the bitter hop flavor enveloped my mouth instantly.  It was definitely too much, but hey, they had water to wash out the awful flavor, and beer would soon follow.  And follow it did - after we checked out the mesmerizing bottling operations, we were guided back to the main tasting room where we were treated to several samples of the freshly-made local beer.  We learned that this brewery also was responsible for making the local version of import beers such as Stella Artois, so naturally, I had to try it to see if it tasted the same.  We got some wings to go with our beer samples, and the wings were pretty darn good too.  My favorite beer was the Wild Yak, and I would later try other Yak beers because of my experience at the brewery, but Wild Yak remained my favorite.  All in all, a great tour experience I would highly recommend to beer lovers!  We had a few minutes in the gift shop before the shuttle left, and Jaiman found an awesome Yak shirt there. 

It was admittedly a bit early for dinner, but we did want to try Taxi Kitchen on my colleague's recommendation, so we dilly-dallied around Federation Square for a bit, finding a strange little room tucked away in a corner of an otherwise open public area - it was meant to be like a little family room, and was decorated with slightly retro furniture and homely décor, with a small book case and various places to sit and read or recharge.  We took a break here, charging up our phones and enjoying the little piece of serenity in the middle of a bustling city.  Then we made our way over to Taxi Kitchen.  I guess it was still far too fancy for us - we immediately felt judged by the host, who asked if we had seen the menu online, implying that this wasn't our kind of place.  Whatever dude, just seat us.  We got high-top seats overlooking a busy part of the city and just ordered one plate to share between us.  While watching the city, we saw a few people with Free Hugs shirts hugging willing passersby, and other similarly entertaining people watching.  The food was, as predicted, weird, and also not very filling, so we moved on quickly. 

Jaiman had been eyeing some sushi places that had the sushi already made and sitting in the window, visible from the street - and the rolls were HUGE!  He opted to get some of those for dinner, and I opted to try some wings from the place near our hotel.  I had noticed that the "footy" championship was this weekend, so we got our eats to go and unwound in the hotel room watching "footy" and eating our respective dinners.  As a foodie's haven, Melbourne did not disappoint! 

The following day, we went to another mall and toured around the city a bit more before catching a taxi to the airport and heading on to our next destination - Cairns! 

Kyoto Adventure - Finding the Old Nintendo Headquarters!

Our recent trip to Japan was filled with all sorts of historical and modern adventures.  One such adventure was kind of a silly one, but while we were in Kyoto we decided to seek out the original Nintendo headquarters.  There was nothing to do there, nor at the current Nintendo headquarters, but the challenge appealed to me and the nerdiness appealed to Jaiman, so on we went!





We referenced this blog post "How to Track Down Nintendo's Original Kyoto Headquarters" which made it seem relatively straight-forward, especially because we were able to plug in coordinates from this post to get it on Google Maps.  However, in trying to take a bus to the proximity, we went the wrong way around a loop and then got off at the wrong bus stop, and we spent an excessive amount of time wandering the streets in the wrong area.  Not hard to do, when so much is in Kanji and we're in an unfamiliar city.  (Note: On the day of said adventure, I was positive that Google had led us to a bus stop that didn't exist.  In reviewing the maps and pictures to write this, I see now that the stop that Google had listed was in fact on the route, so I can no longer blame Google for our wandering.)  

We left from Green Rich Hotel and took the 205 bus line.  As I mentioned, we went the wrong way; having crossed the street to get to that bus stop.  I think the bus stop right outside that particular hotel is the correct one to go the right way.  So we should have gone 6 stops according to Google Maps, but the stop was listed only in Kanji for us on the map. The name in Romanji is Kawaramachi Shomen.  
 
Instead, we got off at Nanajo Kawaramachi.  The stop before it would have been Shiokoji Takakura.  (Going the wrong direction, the Kawaramachi Shomen was the one before where we got off; based on Google that stop would have worked too.) 

  

If you go this route, head in the same direction as the bus was going (which should be north if you went the correct way). At this corner, turn left, as indicated by my pointing finger. 














Cross this little bridge and keep going straight.  





















  
  

 Pretty soon, you should see this cute little unassuming building.

 

Bam!  There's the place!  If you're having trouble finding it, and you have GPS, enter these coordinates into Google Maps: 34.99168, 135.76628

 

For the record, we also went to the current Nintendo Headquarters.  Nothing to do at either place but stand outside and take pictures.  Might I recommend that you try to top my Mario jump pic?  (In all fairness, I was still very sore from a hike we had done in Miyajima, so jumping itself was incredibly painful, let alone moving into the strange position in mid-air.)