In my article on Japanese food I wrote about some of what I deem to be the coolest foods in Japan. Confessing to being a great lover of obentoo, karaage and yakisoba will probably be enough to make you look like a rock star in the eyes of the Japanese, who are so obsessed with food that their ability to remain as thin as they do is nothing short of miraculous. But enjoying food is not always just about the food. Think about the times that you’ve gone to a Chinese restaurant, or a steakhouse, or McDonalds, with family and/or friends. The food in these places is normally pretty tasty (not to mention cool, at least in the case of McDonalds), but is it always just the food that you remember? Or do you also remember the ambiance of the restaurant, or the quality of the service, or the way the food is presented to you? These aspects play a role in making food enjoyable, and there is no doubt that Japan has some of the coolest dining experiences that you will ever, for lack of a more imaginative word, experience. I am going to attempt to introduce you to a few of the Japanese dining experiences that have stood out for me in particular.
Ramen Stores
Ramen as a Japanese delicacy has an interesting history. It is a dish of Chinese origin that the Japanese took and made their own. If the popularity of the ramen museum (yes, you read that correctly) in Yokohama is anything to go by, the Japanese are endlessly fascinated by the dish, which consists of noodles in a flavoured broth served with pork, seaweed, bamboo shoots, green onions and a myriad of other possible toppings. Ramen stores are everywhere in Japan, and going to one of these stores is a delicacy in itself.
How it generally works is, you enter the store and are either led to the table, accompanied by the cheerful cries of “Irashaimase!” (“Welcome!”) from the shop’s staff, or you approach the shop’s special order-placing vending machine, accompanied by the cheerful cries of “Irashaimase!” (which still means “Welcome!”). After taking a moment to peruse the menu/the buttons of the vending machine, you either tell the waiter your order, or present the ticket that you bought at the vending machine to the staff. You wait for five minutes, sipping the refreshingly cold water provided at every ramen store by unwritten Japanese restaurant law, and the ramen then arrives. You look into the enormous bowl that has been laid before you and wonder how on God’s Green Earth all of this delicious noodle-y goodness could have only cost you 500 yen. If you finish your food, you deserve a medal. Or maybe not, because ramen is another of those Japanese dishes that is so simple, but so delicious, that you will have no trouble eating it until you are full, and then some. Most of these stores offer other dishes as well, like gyouza (Chinese-style dumplings), various soba dishes, varieties of donburi (meat, vegetables and other proteins like egg, served over a bed of rice) and my beloved karaage (praised in detail in my Japanese food article). All of these other dishes are well worth trying, but if you only have the time to visit one of these stores once, go with ramen. It is an experience that you will not soon forget.
Ramen Stores
Ramen as a Japanese delicacy has an interesting history. It is a dish of Chinese origin that the Japanese took and made their own. If the popularity of the ramen museum (yes, you read that correctly) in Yokohama is anything to go by, the Japanese are endlessly fascinated by the dish, which consists of noodles in a flavoured broth served with pork, seaweed, bamboo shoots, green onions and a myriad of other possible toppings. Ramen stores are everywhere in Japan, and going to one of these stores is a delicacy in itself.
How it generally works is, you enter the store and are either led to the table, accompanied by the cheerful cries of “Irashaimase!” (“Welcome!”) from the shop’s staff, or you approach the shop’s special order-placing vending machine, accompanied by the cheerful cries of “Irashaimase!” (which still means “Welcome!”). After taking a moment to peruse the menu/the buttons of the vending machine, you either tell the waiter your order, or present the ticket that you bought at the vending machine to the staff. You wait for five minutes, sipping the refreshingly cold water provided at every ramen store by unwritten Japanese restaurant law, and the ramen then arrives. You look into the enormous bowl that has been laid before you and wonder how on God’s Green Earth all of this delicious noodle-y goodness could have only cost you 500 yen. If you finish your food, you deserve a medal. Or maybe not, because ramen is another of those Japanese dishes that is so simple, but so delicious, that you will have no trouble eating it until you are full, and then some. Most of these stores offer other dishes as well, like gyouza (Chinese-style dumplings), various soba dishes, varieties of donburi (meat, vegetables and other proteins like egg, served over a bed of rice) and my beloved karaage (praised in detail in my Japanese food article). All of these other dishes are well worth trying, but if you only have the time to visit one of these stores once, go with ramen. It is an experience that you will not soon forget.
Okonomiyaki Restaurants
In my Japanese food article I mentioned sukiyaki, but did not mention that suki literally means “to like”, so sukiyaki means “cooking (what you) like”. Funnily enough, okonomiyaki means the same thing, as okonomi means the same thing as suki. Okonomiyaki is a completely different dish, however. Often known as a “Japanese pancake”, okonomiyaki is a mixture of a batter made from flour, grated yam, water or dashi (fish stock), egg and cabbage, and other ingredients like meat (pretty much any sort of meat), green onions, kimchi (a spicy korean cabbage-based dish), mochi (pounded rice cakes) and cheese. This mixture is poured onto a hot pan and cooked just like a pancake. Okonomiyaki is very tasty, but more importantly in this case, it is very easy to cook. Because of this, in many okonomiyaki restaurants you cook the okonomiyaki yourself. You sit in small groups around a table (this table can be either a standard western-style table, or a low table where you sit or kneel on a cushion on the floor) with a hot plate in the middle. You select your desired okonomiyaki combination, and after some time the waiter brings you the raw ingredients, which you mix together and poor onto the hot plate. Once you’ve cooked the okonomiyaki on both sides, you cut it up, top it off with okonomiyaki sauce and/or mayonnaise and/or bonito fish flakes, and eat it. Sitting and cooking with friends and family makes for an immensely enjoyable experience, well worth checking out while in Japan.
In my Japanese food article I mentioned sukiyaki, but did not mention that suki literally means “to like”, so sukiyaki means “cooking (what you) like”. Funnily enough, okonomiyaki means the same thing, as okonomi means the same thing as suki. Okonomiyaki is a completely different dish, however. Often known as a “Japanese pancake”, okonomiyaki is a mixture of a batter made from flour, grated yam, water or dashi (fish stock), egg and cabbage, and other ingredients like meat (pretty much any sort of meat), green onions, kimchi (a spicy korean cabbage-based dish), mochi (pounded rice cakes) and cheese. This mixture is poured onto a hot pan and cooked just like a pancake. Okonomiyaki is very tasty, but more importantly in this case, it is very easy to cook. Because of this, in many okonomiyaki restaurants you cook the okonomiyaki yourself. You sit in small groups around a table (this table can be either a standard western-style table, or a low table where you sit or kneel on a cushion on the floor) with a hot plate in the middle. You select your desired okonomiyaki combination, and after some time the waiter brings you the raw ingredients, which you mix together and poor onto the hot plate. Once you’ve cooked the okonomiyaki on both sides, you cut it up, top it off with okonomiyaki sauce and/or mayonnaise and/or bonito fish flakes, and eat it. Sitting and cooking with friends and family makes for an immensely enjoyable experience, well worth checking out while in Japan.
On top is a nice-prepared and presented okonomiyaki. On the bottom, a child slicing up freshly-made okonomiyaki.
Kaiten-zushi
Known in English as a “sushi train” or a “conveyer belt sushi bar”, kaiten-zushi is a unique way of experiencing one of Japan’s most famous delicacies. In these restaurants, customers sit at a large, bar-like table. In the middle of the table are the sushi chefs, who work busily preparing different styles and flavours of sushi. As they make the sushi, they place the little plates on a conveyer belt that travels around the table. As all of the different types of sushi travel slowly in front of the customer, the customer grabs whatever plate looks appetising to them, and enjoys. The final bill is calculated by counting the number of plates the customer has taken from the conveyer belt. Kaiten-zushi is making its way into foreign countries as well, with franchises like Sushi Train in Australia, and Yo! Sushi in Britain, offering the kaiten-zushi experience to its residents. Because sushi is served cold and in small servings of generally only two or three pieces, this is a style of dining that can be used with few other foods. If the coolness of the kaiten-zushi franchises in other countries is anything to go by, kaiten-zushi is definitely a cool dining experience.
These are just a few of the amazing dining experiences Japan has to offer. There is a belief amongst foreigners, from my understanding, that Japanese cuisine is limited and has little to offer the foreign palette. Hopefully you can see from this article and my article on Japanese food, as well as the dozen or so other articles written by the other contributors to this site, that this could not be further from the truth. Nowadays Japanese food is rich and diverse, and offers some of the most interesting dining experiences that I, and my family and friends, have ever experienced. Even if food is not something that you care about or think too much about, I hope that you will at least give some of these foods and restaurants a try. There is no doubt that food and dining are some of the coolest things about Japan.
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