「日本料理」 – Japanese dish

Well, I hope you guys are hungry because there are a lot of food pictures here :P Kidding aside, one thing that you should do while you’re in Japan is, of course, taste all of the foods that this country has to offer. And by that I don’t mean the Teriyaki Burger from McDonald’s. Although that will be kind of interesting to try as well since this type of burger doesn’t exist in my country. Anyway, Japan has different kind of foods. Just looking at them already makes one wants to be a glutton. Not only that the foods taste good, they normally are packaged rather well.

I’m actually quite surprised at how affordable foods in Japan turned out to be. I mean if you keep going to the restaurants, then obviously you’ll be running out of money in no time. But you can save money by getting a bento box for around 500 Yen (around 4-5 US Dollars) from local convenience stores. And don’t look down on convenience stores here. In Japan, convenience stores are light ahead in comparison to convenience stores in other countries. Not only Japanese convenience stores have more variety, the foods in the shelves are normally very fresh. The foods are re-stocked every couple of hours, so there’s little chance that they will go stale.

But if going for a pre-cooked foods is not your thing, then there’s always local ramen/tonkatsu (fried chicken/pork)/sushi place where you can get cheap foods. Having said that, please note that I’m talking about my experience so far in Tokyo and Okazaki city. I’m not sure about other cities just yet. I’ve heard that Kyoto is a tourist trap and that everything is expensive over there but I haven’t been there myself. But in Tokyo, at the very least you don’t have to worry about not having enough money to buy foods. If you’re strapped for cash, there’s always one of those Onigiri (those triangle-shaped rice) or breads which you can get for around 150 Yen.

I have a lot of favourite Japanese foods and these includes: Takoyaki (squid-filled fried balls), Chicken Katsu Curry (fried chicken topped with curry sauce), Flower-topped Hamburger (Hamburger meat patties topped with flower-shaped egg – must take a picture of this next time I eat), not to mention the various breads, drinks, pocky (did you know that there’s a lemon cheesecake flavour?), and fruits. I wonder why I haven’t gone fat with all of these foods even though I haven’t gone to the gym for the last 2 weeks. Maybe it’s because in most cases, the portions are not too big. Or maybe all of those bike riding that I do every day eliminates the need to go to the gym.

Anyway, the best food I’ve had so far was this meat dish on a hot plate when I visited Akihabara. The eatery is called Pepper Lunch and it basically serves fresh meat and vegies which you then cook yourself on a hotplate. It doesn’t take long before everything are cooked well and since it’s not overcooked, they taste really fresh and the meat remains tender. I also had a good experience at one of Japan’s fast food outlet called Mos Burger. Their burger is much better than anything that McD’s serves and the Matcha (thick green tea) drink that they have at the place is rather good.

And oh, for those of you who are still wondering about Kibidango, I just realised that I have some photos of them which I didn’t discard after all. The Kibidango is the one with brown sugar coating. I personally haven’t tried the black or the yellow-coloured ones. But the next time I see them again, I’ll make sure that I do just that. Anyway, I think I think if you go here, it’s a good idea to try different food variety. What’s the point of going all the way here and only end up eating McD’s day in, day out? Make sure you make the most of your time while you’re in Japan and that means having some of the local foods.

One of the reasons, sorry scratch that, the main reason that I chose to stay at Asakusa was its close proximity to Akihabara, the one place where electronic, games, and anime fans gather to satisfy their expensive hobby. If you already have an addiction to any of the things mentioned above, it’d take a lot of willpower and restraint to stop yourself from going on shopping spree. I don’t know what actually stopped me from blowing all of my budget at once but I’m glad I managed to restrained myself.

On the weekend, some streets are purposely off-limits to cars so pedestrian can run around the area safely while spending their hard-earned money. This place is simply *unbelievable*. Here we have an entire suburbs dedicated to selling electronics, games, and anime. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this anywhere else in the world. Hell, there are many buildings that has nothing from its first to sixth level but anime, manga, and character merchandises.

The best thing about the place is that if you look hard enough and have enough luck, you can probably find one of those ‘limited edition’ anime box/DVD that the Japanese online retailers don’t carry any longer. Strangely for some reason there’s nothing that I want to buy at that point. I saw some Mai Hime DVDs but there’s nothing unusual about them so I don’t want to waste money buying them. I also think that this is because my mind was mostly on a ‘find the cheapest PSP available’.

So in the end I ended up getting a PSP and a game. I have to say that this thing unbelievably good-looking. I love the sensation of playing Ridge Racers on a moving Shinkansen. It has to be experienced to be believed. I also managed to re-encoded some of the anime that I have and put it into the memory stick. And the result, as you can see in the picture above, is quite stunning. It’s really fun to be able to watch Tsubasa Chronicle or Speed Grapher while I’m at a food court, etc.

Vending machine is probably an attraction of its own when you go to Japan. I have to say that they really are convenient and can be found almost everywhere, including in front of some people’s house sometimes. I wonder if they have a say on whether or not they agree to have a vending machine placed in front of their house. Anyway, these vending machines dispenses many thing from normal stuff such as drinks (both hot and cold) and tickets, to something that are a bit unusual such as Ice cream, toys, and camera. I’ve heard about vending machines that dispenses underwear but I haven’t seen one so far.

If you ask me if there are few things that I don’t like about Japan, I’d say that it’ll be the lack of rubbish bin and the Earthquake. It never ceased to amaze me how a country that is as clean as Japan managed to get by with as little rubbish bins on the street as possible. I’d often go and buy a drink from a vending machine only to regret it later on because I’ll have to carry the empty drink bottle for the remainder of the journey until I find a rubbish bin somewhere. Usually I can do nothing but hope that there is a McDonalds or other fast food chain nearby so I can dump the rubbish on their rubbish bin. :P

For me this was a very uncomfortable thing to experience, especially when you have to carry 3 heavy luggages with you at the same time. I was informed that the lack of rubbish bin is mostly because eating and drinking while you walk is not considered a polite behavior here according to some Japanese people. So you’d normally finish your food from where you buy it then dump the rubbish in the nearby rubbish bin. But this becomes problematic when it comes to night festival where you’ll want to buy an oden, for example, and it eat while you look at the other attractions around the festival.

But the worse thing that probably can happen is Earthquake. I got to experience 2 rather big Earthquake moments when I was in Tokyo. There I was just checking my email and hoping that my download of Speed Grapher will be completed as soon as possible when suddenly I felt a bit dizzy. My room felt as if it’s swaying from left, right and back left. But imagine my surprise when I realized that I didn’t have a headache whatsoever. What I experienced at that time was a rather huge Earthquake that is enough to rock the hostel where I stayed left and right.

Of course, since there was no one around to ask (I was too lazy to go down and ask the receptionist) I just shrugged it off. Plus, I got Speed Grapher on download. I was too confused as to what I should do. Well, now that I think about it, I know that I should have unplugged the cable, gathered my stuff, and got out as soon as possible. But my mind wasn’t working properly at that time. Anyway, the Earthquake subsided after 1-2 minutes and later on that day, I asked the receptionist if we indeed had an Earthquake. She confirmed yes and it was a rather huge one. The thing is, she said it in such a casual manner as if this happens on a daily basis. :0

Well, this is basically a continuation of the previous entry. After brunch, I decided to go to Sensoji Temple (Asakusa Kannon Temple). I started by going into the front of Kaminarimon Gate. Since this was on Sunday, the place was packed full of tourists. There are also these rickshaw drivers trying to offer people a ride on their carriage. I’ve seen this on Japanese Drama but I never thought that there really are rickshaw drivers in Japan. Anyway, Kaminarimon Gate is basically an entrance to the Nakamise shopping arcade and of course, the Sensoji temple itself.

Once you past the gate, you basically will see rows of traditional shops lining up from the start of the gate to the front of the temple. These shops sell many things including Foods, Kimono, Sweets, Biscuits, and other types of souvenirs to take home. Like I said on my previous entry, I had to restraint myself from buying anything because I’d travel to Central Japan and possibly elsewhere so it wasn’t a good idea to buy too much things at this point in time. In the end, all that I bought was a pack of Kibidango. After 5-10 minutes of continuous shops, I ended up in front of Sensoji-temple.

The first thing that I did was washing both of my hands in a fountain underneath the general statue. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if this was a requirement of entering the temple. But everyone else did it and I didn’t want to be the only one who breaks the rule and offends someone. Anyway, a bit of history here, Asakusa Kannon Temple is basically named after the Kannon/the Goddess of Mercy. The inside of the temple is heavily decorated. Unfortunately, there is some kind of bar that separates the visitors from the altar, so I couldn’t take a good picture of the altar.

There’s also this place where you can throw coins and wish for something. I can’t remember what I wished for but I sure hope it will come true :D. Anyway, the top of the ceiling contains these two paintings that alternate with each other. One of the painting is that of a Goddess, and the other is a dragon. Both are equally impressive and I kept wondering what kind of back pain the painter must endured during the creation of these work of art. Anyway, apart from the temple, there is also a shrine built based on the order of the 3rd Tokugawa Shogun to commemorate the 3 fishermen and a very zen-like park.

Some of the highlight of the park includes: a statue of Buddha, a tranquil pond complete with Koi fish, Sakura petals flying all over as one passes the park, a cute bird house, and a Spring festival around the park. I have to say that I’ve been enjoying this particular temple. I know that some part of it sounds really commercial (the store stalls, etc). Having said that, it’s such a minor part that I don’t think it’ll ruin the entire experience of visiting the temple itself.

Started the day by visiting a local food vendor. This place is frequented by the local neighbourhood Oyaji (old guys) who come daily for their noodle fix. I have to admit that I never experienced this kind of ordering method beforehand. Basically you put your order on a vending machine by placing coins into it.

Once you’ve made your selection, the machine will print a ticket which you will then give to the waitress before you sit down and wait for your meal. I thought it was a rather nifty thing and the food is not bad either. I ended up ordering Chicken Katsu Curry (650 Yen) because the time was close to lunch and I haven’t had any breakfast.

Once that was over, I decided to walk around the neighborhood. Asakusa is quite an interesting place. It’s a mixture of the old and new culture of Japan. So while you can see places such as Starbucks and KFC, if you want you can always go to one of the food vendors to buy a bento/takoyaki.

Anyway, Asakusa is definitely a good place if you’re looking after some traditional Japanese foods as well as presents to bring back home. And I am not even talking about Nakamise shopping arcade just yet. I’m talking about the surrounding shops around the neighborhood. It was definitely hard for me to not succumb to the buying mentality.

In the end, I had no choice but to force myself to remember that I’m still going to be here for another 2.5 months and at the end of that month, I’ll be going back to Tokyo anyway. Somehow I managed to made it through without buying anything much. The only thing that I bought was this really nice traditional cake called Kibidango.

This is some kind of glutinous rice cake mixed together with peanuts and coated with brown sugar. You can get this at the Nakamise shopping arcade and I’ll talk about this and Sensoji-temple next after I get some sleep and sort the pictures that I took while I went there. I think I went a little bit overboard when I took the pictures.