sea monsters (a food review)

There’s no doubt about it: Japanese cuisine is way different than American food. If you have read my previous post then you already know about my dining adventure the first night. This post will recap some of the strange and interesting delicacies I tried throughout the trip.

A common type of restaurant is the hibachi, where you cook the food on the table yourself. We went to several hibachi, and they were all a little different.

[chicken noodle soup]

At this restaurant, the food was pre-prepared, but we still cooked it ourselves at the table. It was basically a huge pot of chicken noodle soup on a single gas burner. We got to add our own spices, which was fun.

[cabbage dinner]

Another restaurant featured a flat grill like I would use to make pancakes at home. But instead of pancakes, we had squid and sausage.

[squid]

We also had several courses of cabbage and full shrimp, which was enough to send a few people back to the hotel feeling a little ill.

[Korean grill]

One other hibachi restaurant we went to featured itself as a Korean grill. This grill was inset into the table and had a mesh top with a fire underneath. We were served a lot of meat with rice, which I liked. By the way, the room that 10 of us were sitting in had two grills in a space of approximately 5′ long by 12′ wide by 4′ tall. Yes, I had to crouch and I couldn’t stand up without bashing my head. In order to serve us, the waitress had to crawl through a low hole.

Some of the other strange food I tried included octopus dumplings, raw duck sushi, aloe vera (think soybean and coconut gelato), and fried cuttlefish.

I did my best to try everything; it’s important to go to Japan with an open min.

yakitori

On our first night in Tokyo, we went out to eat at Onijyu Maru in Tokyo’s Roppongi district.

The food was obviously very different, but so were the customs while eating. We had to take off our shoes to go in the dining room, where four low tables were sunk in to the floor. Blowing your nose is not allowed in the dining room, and sneezing in general is frowned upon. Of course, everything is eaten with chop sticks. It is considered rude to gesture with your chop sticks, and you are not supposed to use them to stab your food.

Sunken tables are a Japanese tradition

The menu was completely in Japanese. Fortunately, our group member Emiko was able to tell us what most things were. Everybody ordered a beer, but after that no one could decide what to get, so we had Emiko order an assortment of local cuisine.

As with most Japanese restaurants, many small portions of different foods are split among everybody.

We started off with a small bowl of carrots and string beans in vinegar. My goal for this trip is to try a little bit of everything no matter how strange it looks, so I tried the dish. It wasn’t bad! My friend Riki from Ann Arbor taught me the basics of taking close-up photos of food, which helps to show off all of the subtle details.

Pickled string beans and carrots

Next, we had salted pea pods. To eat them, you bite the pod and suck the pea out. These were really good – they tasted a lot like edamame (which is what they probably are).

Salted pea pods, or possibly edamame

The seafood salad was also pretty good. It had raw tuna, shrimp, roe (fish eggs) and assorted vegetables. Many Japanese foods have a lot of complex, subtle flavors as opposed to American foods with a few bold flavors.

Seafood salad

The egg cake with grain sauce had a very strange texture and taste; I couldn’t decide whether I liked it or not.

Egg cake with sweet grain sauce

If there was one thing I was scared to try, it was octopus. Little did I know, these delicious dumplings pictured below actually contained octopus meat and sauce. I tried one, and really liked it. After eating several more, I asked Emiko what they were; lo and behold, I found out they were yakitori, or octopus dumplings.

Octopus balls!

I assumed these small, fried bits were popcorn shrimp. I tried one, and it was strangely crunchy but tasted pretty good. Apparently, they were chicken bites.

Possibly chicken…

Pieces of fried pork were also delicious. These tasted like something that an Asian restaurant in the United States would serve.

Fried pork, American style

Next came the sashimi sushi plate containing tuna, salmon, shrimp, yellowtail, and of course wasabai. Interestingly, wasabai is not served for its flavor; rather, it helps kill bacteria so raw fish can be eaten safely.

Sashimi sushi (raw fish) with wasabai

We finished up with some steak, which was undercooked by American standards but delicious nonetheless.

Steak tips with green onion and bean sprouts

Between the beer and all the plates we shared, my portion of the dinner cost about 1200 yen ($12). Not bad for a night on the town! My fellow traveler Mariam summed it up pretty well by saying, “Live like a king right now, because you’ll be rich with experiences when you get back.”

After dinner we returned to the hotel, ready for sleep after being up for almost an entire day. Kom ban wa!

ready, set, go!

Hi everyone, and welcome to my Japan trip blog!

Let’s start with a little info about me. My name is Jeff, and I am a senior/alum of Michigan State University, studying Telecommunications, Information Technology, Web Design, Management, and a bunch of other topics.

I’m taking a two-week trip all over Japan as part of a study abroad program. Our plane takes off this weekend! I’m really excited and a little nervous because I have never traveled overseas before. I’ve also never been to a city as big as Tokyo.

I just got a new digital camera for this trip, and I’m planning on taking a lot of pictures and maybe even capturing some videos as well. I’ll be updating this blog while I’m in Japan and a little bit afterward too.

Here’s the rundown: we’re spending a week in Tokyo visiting various technology and telecommunications companies. After that, we’re using Osaka as a home base to visit a bunch of different cities, monuments, and historical sights in order to experience different aspects of Japanese culture.

Pagoda overlooking Mt. Fuji

A street in downtown Tokyo

A torii in the water

There are a couple things I am really excited to experience. First, I think downtown Tokyo will be completely amazing because it is so futuristic. Second, I would like to visit a video game arcade, because they are much more popular and expansive than in they are in the United States. Third, I am really excited to go to the headquarters of Square-Enix because they have created some of my favorite video games.

Tidus and Yuna in a scene from Final Fantasy X

And finally, I really want to see the Honda Asimo, arguably the most advanced robot in the world. I’m going to own one of these some day!

Thanks for reading. Dewa mata!