For those of you who are thinking about where to go for lunch, dinner, dinner date or just plain hanging out with friends, I have found something really useful online for you. It’s a Gourmet Navigator around Japan. It’s a pretty cool link actually, it covers practically every major city around Japan like this:

Navigation Page 1

And when you click on Tokyo-Yokohama, it goes to different spots around the city to which you can choose from:

Navigation Page 2

People should have something like this everywhere!

Check out the Gourmet Navigator.

Food Theme Park

Did you know that aside from the fun theme parks with rollercoasters and what not, Japan also has a Food Theme Park with all the different foods from around Japan? And just like a theme park, it pops up here and there and people just throng the place to participate in feasting on delicious meals off the counter like that. Now the meals are not prepared by just anyone but by chef from famous restaurants so you can pretty much guarantee that you’re paying for some pretty high grade stuff here.

Pricing is not cheap as it ranges from 1000-2000Yen per person. And English information tend to be limited in this Japanese Food Theme Park. I have a list of some food theme parks in Tokyo and Yokohama that you can visit and lookout for if you’re around the area:

Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum
5-10 minute walk from Shin-Yokohama Station
Hours: daily 11:00-23:00
Admission: 300 Yen

Yokohama Curry Museum
5 minutes from Kannai Station, JR Negishi Line
Hours: daily 11:00-21:30
Admission: Free

Ikebukuro Gyoza Stadium
15 minute walk from Ikebukuro Station
Hours: daily 10:00-22:00
Admission: 300 Yen (Namjatown)

Ice Cream City
15 minute walk from Ikebukuro Station
Hours: daily 10:00-22:00
Admission: 300 Yen (Namjatown)

Jiyugaoka Sweets Forest
5 minute from Jiyugaoka Station, Tokyu Toyoko Line
Hours: daily 10:00-20:00
Admission: Free

Yokohama Daisekai (Daska)
Motomachi-Chukagai Station, Tokyu Toyoko Line
Hours: daily 10:00-22:00
Admission: 500 Yen

Daiba Little Hong Kong
Daiba Station, Yurikamome
Hours: daily 11:00-22:00
Admission: Free

Source: Japan Guide

Looking for a hip, moderately priced restaurant (around the 1000-2000 yen range) with a fusion of Western and Japanese, the atmosphere of a buzzing cafe, house music in the background, and a chance to check your e-mail? Check out the Wired Cafe. Locations include two branches in Shibuya, and Shinjuku (click on the map–also check out the “SHOP TOUR” to get a quick idea of what the atmosphere is like before going).

What’s great about Wired is that it’s a very decent cross between a full-fledged restaurant and a place where you can just grab a cup of coffee, chill, and browse the internet a bit. In other words it’s a nice, trendy spot to grab dinner on a date, and an equally suitable spot for hanging out with your friends in the afternoon or evening over coffee (alcohol also available).

The food menu is an interesting mix of Japanese and Western tastes blending into each other, and I myself was pleasantly surprised by how well they turned out. The beauty of it is that while there’s nothing exotic on the menu, everything’s at least a bit “unorthodox” (i.e. Shrimp & Avocado w/ Tar-Tar Wrapped Sandwich, or SPAM & Egg Pizza), which is great if your in a slight mood for something adventurous, but nothing too far into the wild side. Check it out for yourself.

As is advertised on the website’s frontpage banner, the restaurant’s atmosphere tends to be buzzing with activity and chatter, and as such I would recommend it as a no-go if you’re looking for somewhere more eloquent or relaxing. Also, try arriving a little before lunchtime during the weekend as it tends to fill up really quickly with the younger crowd (20-something and up) and you might be put on a short waiting list. However that might not be such a bad thing at the QFront location, as the Wired Cafe is incorporated right into a bookstore on the 6th floor with plenty of easy chances to kill time looking at something interesting.

My favorite location out of the two locations I have thus far visited among the QFront building in Shibuya and the one in Shinjuku has to be QFront for its convenient location in the heart of Shibuya and it’s incorporation into Tsutaya. The website describes that particular location as a place where you can “relax and enjoy a book, look up movie listings on the internet, meet up with friends or have dinner together, and be able to make use of a variety of ’scenes’”. As a general “chill-out” or dinner spot, I highly recommend the Wired.

Bento Lunch

If you’re working in Japan, you’ll be very familiar with the term Bento Lunch. Bento is very popular with students and adults a like in Japan. For some people, taking a bento lunch box is an everyday thing. Bento used to be a students or low working class people’s way of eating lunch. But now, bento has redefined itself – you can now order bento boxes from restaurants to enjoy a home cook lunch.

A traditional bento consists of rice, fish or meat, and one or more pickled or cooked vegetables as a side dish. Containers range from disposable mass produced to hand crafted lacquerware. While bento are readily available at convenience stores and bento shops (弁当屋, bentō-ya) throughout Japan, it is still considered an essential skill of a Japanese housewife to be able to prepare an appealing boxed lunch.

Bento 2

The origin of bento can be traced back to the late Kamakura Period (1185 to 1333), when cooked and dried rice called hoshi-ii (糒 or 干し飯, literally “dried meal”) was developed. Hoshi-ii can be eaten as is, or can be boiled with water to make cooked rice, and is stored in a small bag. In the Azuchi-Momoyama Period (1568 to 1600), wooden lacquered boxes like today’s were produced and bento would be eaten during a hanami or a tea party.

Bento 3

A bento is traditionally made in a 4:3:2:1 ratio: 4 parts of rice, 3 parts of the side dish (either meat or fish), 2 parts of vegetables, and 1 part of a serving of pickled vegetables or a dessert. However, almost anything can be used to make a bento.

Several precautions should be taken when making a bento. The most important thing is to avoid food poisoning, especially in summer. Foods should be cooked well and the bento must be stored in a cool, dry location. If sushi is a part of the bento, it should be prepared with more wasabi than normal. Foods covered with sauce should be carefully packed, or avoided altogether, as sauce may spill over on to the other foods. When cooked rice is a part of a bento, it should be cooled by leaving the bento open first. If a bento is closed before it is sufficiently cooled, the steam from the rice will condense inside the bento and make the food soggy.

I think I’ll be posting some recipes for a perfect bento meal that won’t cause any food poisoning in Food..:)

Bento is an everyday thing in the Japanese culture. I really love the lacquered box that the food comes in.

Source: Wikipedia

I love ramen/instant noodles, in all forms – packets, cups, in a polystyrene bowl, in a plastic bowl……and when I read that the Cup Noodle Guru has passed away, i thought it was only fair that I mention something about his passing.

He is the Japanese inventor of the modern day instant noodles and that snack, since its invention has sold over billions world wide since its launch after WWII. His name is Momofuku Ando founder and chairman of Nissin Food Products Co. Ltd. and was 96 years old when he passed on last Friday. As a fan of Nissin, the Japanese brand noodles i love after korean’s Shin Noodles brand, I am stocking up my pantry this weekend with Nissin seafood ramen as a sign of respect for the guy.

You can read more about his passings here: Cup Noodle Guru dies

Momofuku Ando even has an instant noodle museum named after him, that pretty much sums up how big he is in the instant noodle world. After all, like Siegmund Freud is father to psychology, Momofuku Ando is father to instant noodles.

image courtesy of cnn.com

Convenience stores, or kombini, are the epitomy of Japanese, errr…convenience. There are a few major ones: 7-Eleven, Lawsons, Circle K, am/pm, Family Mart and ….umm…that one that only seems to have heart and star symbols as a shop name. I’m sure it has a real name. Comment if you know!

There was recently a survey which said 24-hour kombini are actual a vital part of many people’s lifestyles. I tend to agree. The local grocery had real meat and vegetables and was open until midnight. But my 7-Eleven was there 24 hours a day if I needed water, or a cheese fix, or if I suddenly remembered at 2am that I hadn’t paid my internet bill.

Or, even, if I was bored and wanted to browse through the magazines.

The food is relatively healthy but you can easily find hot and greasy junk to satisy your cravings too. In winter, you can buy oden, which is basically assorted foods that have been wallowing in some sort of soup broth in the open til it’s at the point of disintegration. Many Japanese and gaijin swear by it as a warm pick-you-up, but personally I’ve been too terrified to eat it. Honestly! They’ve been sitting there for days!

Two good blogs to read up on strange kombini food are yongfook.com, which in the past had food reviews, and Konbini Life, which is a moblog dedicated to reviewing the strange foods found in a konbini. Or kombini. Or combini. Or conbini…whatever!