Route246

Japan is hardly starving and butter is not that popular in Japan. Rice may come under pressure but since it's a protected industry it's highly unlikely.

This is a little late since I was there a month ago but I went, I tried, I enjoyed, I'm happy. It's a small place, extremely friendly and best of all, Ivan is behind the counter and very willing to speak to anyone who wants to make English conversation. Basically, you sit, order, pay and then wait. He collects the money before you're served to avoid holding you up when you're done. This place has a very high turnover of people with people usually waiting so he said he does it for efficiency's sake. You're not more than 2-3 meters away from the woks so you get a good view of how everything is prepared. The noodles are hand made everyday by Ivan and are truly delicious. Apparently Mr. Orkin, an American expat living in Japan with his Japanese wife, was inspired by Momofuku in New York: Has anybody been to Ivan Ramen? ← ←

Do you know who does the rating? How are they chosen and are they experts in Japanese cuisine?

Sounds like it's worth a try. I will be in Kami-Kitazawa in December so I'll definitely make an effort to try it out. http://www.ivanramen.com/aboutus.html Apparently Mr. Orkin, an American expat living in Japan with his Japanese wife, was inspired by Momofuku in New York: Has anybody been to Ivan Ramen? ←

Is this 5-hours net of transportation to and from the airport, check-in time, passport control, immigration, etc.? Figure about 2 hours on each end so that would mean at a minimum of 9 hours layover?

It's difficult if you have a child who is a picky eater in my experience. With our son, we don't even try to go to places that have unfamiliar things. Unfortunately, the picky eater in the group, child or adult, is going to be the gating factor in your opportunity to enjoy new things. I know about the sauce thing, my nephew used to be that way when he was younger but he outgrew it. I was a picky eater when I was a child but I usually got around it by eating snacks or something that my parents could bring along to tide me over while everyone else enjoyed their meals. Your best bet is going to probably be department store basements where she can choose something she likes or perhaps a family style restaurant like Skylark where there is significant variety of choices.

"Ebi katsu naka maki set" might mean: Ebi, Katsu naka maki, Set (including kappa and tekka maki, etc.) Just a gaijin perspective. I don't understand the Japanese on the label, even though I'm a native Japanese... Ebi katsu naka maki set Ebi katsu = Shrimp cutlet? Naka maki = Roll with something in it? ←

Fugu is definitely in the winter. I think o-toro is fine all year round. The others, I'm not sure about. In general, I prefer the fishes that seem to be in season during the coldest part of winter for some reason.

Hiroyuki-san, Thank you for discussing this. Even my wife (from Yamanashi) did not know about the softer water. She knew about the salt and stronger taste, though.

I live in Northern California and we have a few "authentic" restaurants, frequented by Japanese expats and a handful of non-Japanese. The problem for these restaurants is survival. Do you Americanize to broaden your customer base? If you decide to do that, can you still preserve your expat customer base? These are difficult questions. For the most part, Japanese food in the US (I've sampled it in at least 50 US cities) varies from pretty authentic to outright fraud, the worst being the large mall food courts which serve something that I wouldn't even feed to a dog or cat. Many "Japanese" restaurants are owned by non-Japanese and they always share one characteristic, that being cutting corners in terms of quality and freshness. (I'm not even including service and cleanliness into this discussion.) Let me say that there are exceptions to this rule that come to mind and one of them is the Furaibo franchises in Southern California owned by an American musician who enjoyed it so much while touring Japan he setup franchises in the US. The Americanized places are easy to spot. The first clue is the lack of a Japanese name. But, sometimes, they fake it and use one, anyway. I don't fault the Ministry for going after these places. I hope they succeed.

For me, drinking as much water as I can before going to sleep, getting as much of the poisons out of my system as possible using this method and avoiding dehydration from the alcohol always seems to work well. In fact, I've been almost dead drunk before and just force myself to drink water and stay up until I can sober up a little and that seems to be the best treatment. For me, the dehydration effect of alcohol seems to cause the most headache and stomach upsets. If I don't do this, by the next morning, it's too late.

Read this book: Japanese Women Don't Get Old or Fat: Secrets of My Mother's Tokyo Kitchen by Naomi Moriyama. She defines exactly what you are looking for.

I have some pictures from a trip a few years ago here: http://sotobori.com/tsukiji/index.htm where you can see extensive shots of the auction halls and auctions (now closed to the public).

I will be in Japan in December, perhaps in Niigata. I want to bring home (to California) 10kg of rice for my wife. It seems like there are many varieties of koshihikari. What's good and what's not so good? Is there something specific I should target or just get Niigata koshihikari and that should be good enough?

There's a ramen shop, more like a stand, at the Tsukiji outer market, I think on Shin Ohashi Dori near the National Cancer Center that I always go to when I'm at the market. It's around the corner from Tsukiji Shijo subway station. I found it almost by accident many years ago. I was leaving the market after a sushi breakfast and I was still pretty hungry. This little stand has maybe 3-4 seats with more standup area near the street. What struck me was how crowded it was. This is in an area where there are many booths lined up serving everything from oden to yakisoba to unagi. This ramen shop was by far the most crowded. Here I was, pretty hungry (first morning in Japan after a flight from California) so I tried it and understood why it was so popular. The soup (shoyu ramen only) was just plain good. The couple that runs the stand seems so perfectly in sync with each other, churning out bowls of shoyu ramen as fast as people could order them. Nothing is better on a cold winter morning than a hot bowl of ramen, outside in a little booth. I'm sure there are hundreds of little stands like this that are all over Japan. Charming little shops that serve a competent product and they really focus on what they're doing. I'm wondering how much this place makes, how many long hours this couple puts in. Oh yeah, one other nice feature of this place is the ceramic bowls, no plastic bowls here like the portable ramen stands.

Hiroyuki-san, I tend to agree whole-heartedly with you. The only mayonaise I've ever had that rivals Kewpie is home-made Vietnamese mayonaise, whipped up with a fork in a bowl right at the table. Western style mayonaise tastes fine with western foods like charcoal broiled burgers but not much else. I'm afraid that you're mistaken. Hellman's Mayonnaise is in fact the only decent mayonnaise available in Japan. Kewpie has the advantage that you can leave it out at room temperature and it won't go bad, but that simply proves that it's not real mayonnaise. ← I'm afraid that I'm not mistaken! I just stated my opinion, that's all. As for Kewpie mayo, I checked the package and found that it needs refrigeration once it's opened. Believe it not, it contains no coloring agents or preservatives. ←

It's easy to have a nice dinner under Y2000. Try tonkatsu, curry rice, okonomiyaki or ramen fried rice combination. These aren't fancy but if you pick the right place, it's quite a nice meal.

Nice topic. I really find this interesting. Personally, to me, class C is something like a ramen shop/booth, curry rice shop, kaiten sushi shop or some other sort of quick, tasty place to eat. Class B is anything up to about Y2000 or so, as you say. Since I don't dine Class C much anymore, due to a lack of time when I'm in Japan for work, it's there on my list but not something I focus on. I'm not sure where Izakaya fall into. Most probably Class B, but I've run up some pretty expensive bills there. My focus for my next leisure trip is Class B and Class A places.

Hiroyuki-san, Thank you very much for this reference.

I've been to both of these places. Uosan is really good if you're on a budget and want good value. Kaikaya is really good to get some specialty fish dishes. I like both very much but they are really polar opposites in their approach. Both are difficult to get seating for dinner. Uosan Sakaba in Monzen Nakacho 03-3641-8071 Kaikaya in Shibuya http://www.kaikaya.com/ Personally, I like Uosan because I like to eat and drink a lot without spending a lot of money. Kaikaya is great because of the exotic preparation of the seafood dishes. Any other ideas for unique, eclectic fish restaurants (non-sushiya) like these two in Tokyo? Thanks for the help.

Thank you for this reference. This place looks fantastic.

Hiroyuki-san, I don't see this as a risk. I see it more as a challenge and adventure. If it's that good then it will certainly be worth it. I plan to put this on my list of "must-go" places based on this discussion here. If I fail, then try again some other time. Thank you for the comments. It makes me that much more motivated to try it. I checked other webpages concerning this restraunt, and I found there are certain risks involved. For example, they do not accept reservations, there is a line of people depending on the day and time, they make you wait for 30 to 90 minutes after they take orders, they close as soon as their unagi are sold out for that day, etc. http://www.tocera-sky.co.jp/dt_obana.htm http://tokyo.gourmet.livedoor.com/restaurant/info/51.html But the restaurant is attractive. It is said to be No. 1 in Kanto (Eastern part of Japan), and they serve tennen mono (natural ones, not cultured)! ←

Any recommendations for a nice shop to get unagi or anago prepared in a traditional style in the Tokyo/Yokohama area? I'm looking for a well-established shop that's been around and hasn't changed, preferably in the Tokyo area but Yokohama is OK, too.

I think I will target Tsunahachi. As I stated in the original message, I am really looking for competent eateries and not necessarily fancy or high end. If you know Katsutetsuan, then you will know exactly what I'm talking about. Hopefully, Tsunahachi will meet those simple criteria. I like Tsunahachi - I think they have good quality for a discount chain - but if someone were coming all the way to Japan for tempura I think I might recommend one of Tsunahachi's "upper-class" branches, like Tsunahachi Rin in My City Shinjuku, or maybe Tsunahachi Sui in Caretta Shiodome. By the way, their website is www.tsunahachi.com, and they do have a Shibuya branch, which is still in business. ←

(My first post...) If you were told that you would only be able to dine at one or two restaurants in the Tokyo/Kawasaki/Yokohama area for the rest of your life, which one(s) would you choose? This is akin to asking what book would you take with you on a desert island if you could only have one book to read. I've been travelling regularly to the Tokyo area and there are two places that I never fail to visit. Oddly enough, both are in Yokohama. First favorite has to be Katsuretsuan (muliple locations in Yokohama) http://www.katsuretsuan.co.jp/ and my second favorite is Yukichi Honten (Konandai) http://www.yukichihonten.yokohama.walkerplus.com/ Katsuretsuan - Tonkatsu is one of my favorite Japanese foods. There is great tonkatsu available all over Japan. It's not that difficult to prepare, the pork and panko (bread crumbs) are pretty much available to any shop so the key differentiator is the oil and the sauce. Assuming that the competence of the preparation is also easily matched, the areas where Katsuretsuan have every other place beat is in their combination of oils and their sauce. One day, I watched them mix up their oil at the Yokohama Diamond store while sitting at the counter. I counted seven different oils going into the fryer. They didn't like my watching but they had no choice in the matter since I was eating dinner at the time. All I can say about the sauce is, you have to try it to believe it. The sauce is as close to a perfect taste as I have ever encountered. Very understated, moderately fruity and extremely delicious over the shredded cabbage (extra helpings, no charge). Yukichi Honten - Sushi is also one of my favorite Japanese foods. Yukichi Honten is all about the fish. The fish here is on par with any of the high end places in the Ginza or Akasaka without the Y50000 omakase price tag. Just one taste of the saba here will convince you that something special is going on. I have never tasted saba that was so free of that fishy, oily aftertaste. Both of these places are long time established, have not varied much at all in their presentation, menus and storefronts. If you were to sum up both establishments, the word would be "competent" to describe them. I would like to hear others' favorites in the Kanto area. I'm especially interested if someone knows of a very good tempura shop and a very good eel shop.