Japan Series! - Gundam Café!

            Today’s post features a specific place we visited that I thought would be of particular interest to my readers – the Gundam Café! Even though I’ve already talked a lot about food and restaurants, I thought this one deserved special attention. ^_^

            Near the end of our trip, we visited Akihabara. This district has been known for electronics for quite a while, but more recently has also become the best place to buy anime and related products in Tokyo. I’ll go into more detail about the other things we did in Akihabara (including Club Sega!) in later posts. But for today, I’m going to focus on Gundam Café.

            We saw it as soon as we stepped out of the train station, on the right-hand side of the open square.
 

Gundam Café - It was instantly eye-catching, as you can tell.

            Peek-sensei wanted us to see a few other things in Akihabara before dinner, but when we were done she asked if we wanted to try the Gundam Café, since some of us had shown such excitement over it. The group ended up splitting, because some of them wanted to go elsewhere, but Billy and I, Peek-sensei, and a few other students decided to stand in line at the Café.
 

This person-sized model Gundam stands in front of the Café. His sign says
“Sawaranaide kudasai” which means “Please do not touch.”

            The line was outside the restaurant, as you can see in the first picture. A hostess came along and asked if we wanted the smoking or non-smoking section. We told her non-smoking, and she said there would be a wait. If I remember correctly, she said it would be about 30 minutes. We stood there a few more minutes, but eventually some of the students were so hungry that they decided they didn’t want to wait any longer, and decided to go somewhere else. Peek-sensei went with them, so Billy and I were left as the only part of our group there.

Sign outside the Café. Yeah, I had a lot of time to take pictures while we were
standing in line. XD

            After a few more minutes, we thought to ask the hostess how long the wait was for the smoking section. It turned out it would only be a couple of minutes, so we discussed it and since we were both so keen on seeing the Café (and were also pretty hungry by then), we decided to tell her we wanted the smoking section. A few minutes later a hostess came and led us to a table and to our surprise, no one was even smoking in the smoking section! I don’t know if that’s normal or if we just got lucky that day, but if you ever go there, it’s worth a shot. Just make sure you can handle a little smoke if you aren’t so lucky.

Billy holding the Gundam Café menu.

            As you can see from the above picture, the atmosphere inside was really neat. There were a few other interesting aspects of the décor…

This was printed on several sections of the wall, inside and outside of the restaurant.

I found the “Return Slot” (trash can) really amusing.

            Predictably, Billy ordered chicken and potato chips. XD He’s not very adventurous when it comes to food. I have to coax him a lot to get him to try new foods, and since he had been doing a lot of that so far on the trip, I figured I’d let this one slide. ;)
 

Billy’s chicken and chips. Note the shaped garnish.

            Most of the time when we were in Japan, I took every opportunity to try food I couldn’t have in the States. But when I saw this, I knew I had to have it…

Gundam shield-shaped pizza!!

            Yes, pizza is a very mundane thing to eat in Japan. And I actually ate pizza more than once while we were in the country. But this one actually tasted more like what I’m used to having in the States. And the shape was just too cool to resist!

            Good food in a fun environment perfect for anime geeks. If you’re in the Akihabara area of Tokyo, I would definitely recommend checking out this restaurant!

Japan Series! - Food of Japan (Part 2)

Hi again! Today I’m going to finish telling you about all the amazing, delicious food we got to eat in Japan! I’ll talk about how some foreign foods are eaten in Japan, as well as our breakfasts and snacks. (If you want to hear about more traditional Japanese foods and some of the distinctive characteristics of Japanese restaurants, check out Part 1)

Foreign food in Japan

            Even the non-Japanese foods we ate in Japan tasted a little (or in some cases, a lot) different from the same foods in the States. I think the only exceptions were chicken and French fries.

Apparently in Japan chicken tastes a lot like candy. (Not really... inside joke.)

           Billy was actually really happy to have that ketchup. He’s addicted to the stuff, and we hardly saw any outside of that one restaurant. Seriously, when they brought this out, I think he almost cried tears of joy.

            Even McDonald’s and Burger King tasted different. We mainly went there for convenience, but also to rib a friend of Billy’s, who warned him not to visit anywhere so mundane while visiting an exotic foreign country. ;)

Billy says "Hi Matt!"

            I did try an interesting new soda at McDonalds, called Qoo. I have no idea how to pronounce it (Kwu? Ku? Kyu?), but it was pretty good.
 

Cheeseburger, fries, and Qoo.

 Because of the long and usually close interaction between Chinese and Japanese cultures, a lot of originally Chinese food has been incorporated into Japanese culture. One of my favorites was gyoza (which we in the States usually call dumplings or pot stickers) – pork and other ingredients wrapped in a crescent-shaped shell. (Apparently they are called jiǎozi in China, according to Wikipedia.)

Gyoza.

          Another delicious Chinese food was sesame seed balls (Japanese – goma dango; Chinese – jian dui). They were made from some kind of dough filled with sweet red bean paste and covered with sesame seeds.
 

Sesame seed balls.

            And finally, there were the eggrolls (which I think most of you will be familiar with). Although I’ve tried all of these dishes in the States previously, they tasted so much better in Japan.

Eggrolls. BTW, these and the sesame seed balls were served at the restaurant in the Hakone Open Air Museum. The food there was all so delicious!

 In Akihabara one day, we ate dinner at a restaurant just outside the train station, which claimed to be French. I’ve never eaten food that was supposedly French before, so I was a little surprised to see the meal I chose, which was a BLT and a delicious chocolate cupcake. However, I was even more surprised when I noticed that the menu board had to explain (in Japanese) what the letters in “BLT” stood for. It struck me as funny, but I guess if people in Japan don’t eat that very much, it makes sense that they wouldn’t know what it is. Once I got my “BLT,” though, the “bacon” turned out to be more like ham. XD But it was still pretty good.

My BLT... or HLT...

Yummy chocolate cuppycake. <3

 Curry is originally from Thailand, I believe, but I’ve seen lots of anime characters eat it, so I had to try it in Japan. Of course, I’ve only tried it once before then, and that was in Arkansas, so I have no idea how authentic it was. But the curry I ate in Japan was very different. The curry I tried in Arkansas was like a really chunky stew, with big chunks of veggies and chicken in a spicy broth. Japanese curry was more like spicy mush. Don’t get me wrong; it still tasted pretty good. It just wasn’t what I was expecting.

Curry and rice

            Italian food was what surprised me the most out of Japan’s foreign foods. We tried pizza and pasta at a few different places, but it almost always tasted very different from what we’re used to in the States. (I think the pizza I had at the Gundam Café was the closest to tasting like American pizza.) Peek-sensei told us that Japanese chefs go to Italy to be trained to cook authentic Italian food, so the Italian restaurants we went to in Japan were supposedly more authentic than the American Italian restaurants we’re used to.

Breakfasts

            At the first hotel we stayed at, White Hotel in Kyoto, the staff was wonderful and served us a huge breakfast every morning. What was on the main plate varied from day to day, but it contained small portions of a variety of foods, usually including meat, veggies, fruit, and tofu. Every meal was served with milk (room-temperature, which most of us Americans found a little hard to get used to), a banana, and a small bowl of salad. For the first few days, they served what they called “Western-style” breakfast, despite the fact that most of it didn’t look like anything I’d ever eaten for breakfast.

"Western-style" breakfast

            After a few days, they asked if we would like to try “Japanese-style” breakfast, so of course we said we’d love to. When they served it, we began to see the difference between the two. The “Western-style” breakfast was served with toast and a big basket of sweet breads and pastries, and we were offered toast as well.

This bread = yum.

            The “Japanese-style” breakfast was instead served with a bowl of rice and a bowl of miso soup.

Of course, this was delicious as well. In fact, for a while after I returned home, I couldn't eat miso soup in restaurants here because it just didn't taste right. Japan had spoiled me. ^_^

After our week in Kyoto, we traveled to Tokyo, and sadly our new hotel didn’t serve breakfast. Peek-sensei suggested walking to Lawson, a convenience store about a block from the hotel, to get breakfast each morning. Once or twice I got something warm and fresh-cooked, but I usually gave into the temptation to eat snack foods for breakfast…

Snacks

Lawson is awesome. I miss Lawson.

Lawson had the most amazing mini chocolate chip scones I’ve ever tasted. I wish I’d taken a picture. Actually I wish they sold them in the States so I could eat them every day. We also tried taiyaki – fish-shaped custard-filled snack cakes – which were really good as well.

Peek-sensei was always carrying around rice crackers and/or some kind of snack mix, which everyone but me seemed to like. The flavor reminded me of Chex Mix, which I don’t like, but if you like Chex Mix, you should definitely try it.

Personally, I prefer sweet snack foods. I admit, I have a bit of a sweet tooth. (Read: HUGE sweet tooth!) Some other sweet snacks I enjoyed were mochi (pounded rice) balls and anything green tea flavored. (I assumed the flavoring couldn’t contain that much caffeine…)

Last but certainly not least… Everywhere we went, we kept seeing soft-serve ice cream being sold. We finally tried it while waiting for the pirate ship cruise on Lake Ashi, and it was AMAZING. Better than American ice cream, I’d say. And coming from someone who used to work at Dairy Queen (and get a Blizzard nearly every day), that means something.

The amazing Billy with the amazing ice cream.

             Aaaaaand that pretty much sums up the food portion of our trip! Check back soon for more on Japan, including sight-seeing destinations, shopping, and travel tips! ^_~

Japan Series! - Food of Japan (Part 1)

            As expected, the food was one of the most amazing parts of the experience of visiting Japan! I guess I had a lot to say about the food, so this topic is going to be split into two separate posts. Today I’ll be talking about the unique qualities of Japanese restaurants themselves, and about some traditional Japanese foods.

Japanese restaurants

            I’m sure it won’t come as a surprise to anyone that we ate with chopsticks the entire time we were in Japan. I don’t think I saw a single fork for the whole two weeks. But there were some other interesting (and more surprising) things about the restaurants in Japan.


Matt and Trent workin' the chopsticks.

            One major difference from American restaurants was that instead of a glass of cold water, the waiter or waitress automatically brings tea – usually hot, and usually green. This was true of almost every restaurant we visited, regardless of the price range or what type of food was being served. (The only exception I can think of is McDonalds!) In fact, most servers looked surprised if I asked for a glass of water instead. (I can’t drink green tea due to the way caffeine affects bipolar disorder symptoms.)

That little glass is tea, not alcohol, I swear. XD

            Another really interesting feature of some Japanese restaurants is the window display. This features life-size plastic replicas of some or all of the dishes offered there, each labeled with a name and price. The window is located in the front of the restaurant, facing out. This is really handy because it allows you to judge how appetizing the food looks, whether the portion sizes are big enough to satisfy, and whether you can afford it, all before even entering the restaurant. It’s very convenient if you’re trying to decide between multiple restaurants, and I liked being able to choose what I would order before going in.

An example of a restaurant window display. I hope you appreciate this picture, because I got scolded for taking it. -_-' (We were told we weren't supposed to take photos of/in stores, but I forgot. XD)

           At a few of the restaurants, we also encountered a ticket machine with pictures and prices of food on buttons. You simply press the button for the food you want to order, insert your money, and take the ticket that comes out. Then you give the ticket to the waiter, eliminating the need to verbally communicate your order. Anyone who has ever had to order food in a foreign country by pointing at the menu and shrugging apologetically will certainly appreciate the convenience of such a device. It definitely made things easier for those in our group who could not speak or read Japanese.

Billy operating the ticket machine.

Traditional Japanese food

             Billy and I agreed that by far our favorite food that we tried in Japan was tonkatsu. It’s essentially a breaded, fried pork chop. We had learned about tonkatsu from one of our Japanese textbooks, but never had the chance to try it in the States, so of course it was the number one goal on my list of foods to try on the trip. I think Billy would probably eat tonkatsu any way it was served to him, but I preferred it as katsudon – tonkatsu served over rice and topped with egg. It was amazing. We ate it every chance we got while we were there, and we’re trying to perfect the recipe at home. (Look for a post on that someday!)

Katsudon. Oishii! (Delicious!)

            If I had to choose my second favorite traditional Japanese food, it would have to be tempura. Tempura is breaded and deep-fried veggies and shrimp. The lotus pod slices were surprisingly delicious. (Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of my tempura. XD)

            If you are ever in Japan, there are a few other foods I suggest you try. These were good, just not good enough to make it on my “favorites” list. Udon, soba, and ramen are very popular noodle dishes. Don’t let the “noodle” part fool you into thinking they’re bland; all three are served in a flavorful broth with vegetables. (And nothing like the cheap “Ramen” noodles from WalMart!) Although a bit hard to eat with chopsticks, these noodles are worth the effort.

Udon. Wish you could see Billy trying to eat these with chopsticks! LOL

            Another dish I recommend trying is what Peek-sensei called “Japanese pizza” (although I never found out whether that was the official name or just her way of explaining the dish to us). All day she kept telling us that we were going to eat Japanese pizza for lunch. I think we were all looking forward to something similar to American-style pizza, but maybe with different toppings. What we got was this:

The alleged "pizza."

            As far as I could tell it was noodles topped with ham, shrimp, fried egg, and some kind of sauce. It wasn’t at all what I was expecting, but it was still reasonably good.

            And of course, how could I review the food of Japan without mentioning sushi? Surprisingly, I only ate sushi once while in Japan. I think that was partially because I can eat it in America and was eager to try other foods that weren’t normally available to me, but also partially because Billy doesn’t like sushi, so we usually ended up choosing something else. To be honest, the sushi I tried didn’t taste noticeably better than good sushi in Arkansas. There was more variety, but the flavor was about the same.

     However, the method of delivery at this particular sushi restaurant was unique and interesting. The sushi was delivered on a conveyor belt which ran all the way around the restaurant, surrounding the sushi chefs in the middle. Customers sat at a bar on the opposite side of the conveyor belt and chose their sushi as it passed. When we finished eating, we took our empty plates to the cashier so she would know what to charge us. I wish I had taken pictures, but you’ll just have to use your imagination (or Google image XD).

            I would also like to tell you about a couple of food experiences that I did not really enjoy. One was yakitori. I had heard about yakitori in the book Hachiko Waits, and it sounded delicious. I had been told it was basically “chicken on a stick.” However, the yakitori I tried seemed to be chicken liver. I am not a liver person. If you are, you would probably like it, but I am not.

Yakitori.

            The other food that I didn’t find particularly yummy was my bento box. A bento is basically a cold packed lunch, which many Japanese people either buy or prepare themselves. It usually contains a variety of foods, artfully arranged in small compartments in a box.

My bento lunch, plus orange juice.

We bought bento one evening for dinner on a long train ride. There were a few things in the box that I did like, but overall it wasn’t something I would get again. I might try a different type, but I would prefer to know what was in it first. Anyway, the most interesting part of my bento was this little guy:

My little friend. Sorry for the blurriness; it's a bit difficult to take
 a proper picture with the camera in your left hand while holding
 a baby octopus with chopsticks in your right. XD

            At first I wasn’t going to eat him, but then as I was looking at him the others from our group noticed. After that I knew I had to eat him or look like a wimp. (I know… peer pressure… It’s horrible. XD) The flavor was actually okay, although I didn’t like the texture. Still, I was kinda proud of myself for getting out of my comfort zone and trying something I wasn’t sure about.

That’s it for today! Come back next time to read about foods from other countries as prepared in Japan, as well as what we ate for breakfasts and snacks while in Japan! (Or click here for a list of all posts in my Japan series!)