Another Day, Another Yen

The title of this entry is misleading, as I have no job in Japan. I am pretty sure I can't even get one, since I dont have a visa or an alien registration card. This also precludes me from joining a gym, which sucks, because now I'm going to get fat. Fat on Japanese food served from Japanese restaraunts (hows that for topic transition.)

Restaraunts in Japan are entirely unlike ones in the US or Canada. Maybe other places, too, but I havent been anywhere else. In Japan there are a few different types of eateries, heres the rundown.

Bar Style - Bar style restaraunts are just what they sound like. All walls of the establishment are lined with high counters and high stools and in the center is the main cooking area, also surrounded by counters and stools. You go in and sit down, and are given a glass of water and a wet nap. Wet naps are considered quite the niecety, since paper is rarely used unneccesarily (most bathrooms dont contain toilet paper.) Someone walks to your corner of the counter and you tell them what you want and they make it right there. No tipping is expected.

These types of restaraunts are among the most frequent and will always feature a speciality, with a menu that offers a few options only, all based around the speciality. Examples are ramen bars, curry rice bars, udon noodle bars and a few others. Quick, cheap and good, they are a staple of any Japanese diet.

Grill Style - These restaraunts are extremely common as well, especially in the Korean section of Tokyo. Here all dishes are shared between everyone at the table, and consist of raw food. A grill, sometimes brought to the table but mostly built right in to the center, is used to cook your own food. Sometimes employees will cook it for you, while you watch and wait. One problem with these is that sometimes real estate on the grill becomes scarce, and since it takes several minutes to cook a piece of meat, it can be a long wait to get a full stomach. The community nature of the meal, however, is worth the compromise. I always get a sense of joviality as I am passing food back and forth between everyone, and everyone almost always gets drunk! Things I have grilled: squid tentacle, vegetables, pork, beef, Japanese beef, scallops, fish and a few other things I am forgetting. Grill style meals always ensure a good time.

Western Style - The western style restaraunt compared to an actual restaraunt in the west, is like comparing Superman to Captain America. Same basic concept, but entirely different execution. You are seated and handed menus in this type of restaraunt, then abadoned. If you are ready to order, there is a button sitting on the table that you press, sending a waiter over. You order and then wait for the food. If you want to get a drink, you can go to the drink bar, which has all kinds of soft drinks, and often free refills. After you get your food don't expect any more service, however. Japanese waiters don't work on tips, and don't receieve them, so beyond what they are required to say, they could care less about your dining experience. Bills are always paid up front, never at the table.

Traditional Japanese - These restaraunts often have no chairs, with you sitting directly on rice mats, called tatami. When you first walk in you are met with large oaken drawers with Japanese symbols on dozens of drawers. Place your shoes in an untaken drawer and take the key out, so you can remember which drawer is yours. Waiters are often more traditionally dressed, and the atmosphere is much more "Japanese", than in a western style restaraunt. Eating here reminds you that you are not just in America with a different language.

Ticket Restaraunts - These are the most uniquely Japanese eateries. Me and Sanjiv ate our first Japanese meal at one of these, and it took us ten minutes to figure out what to do. When you enter you see tables or counters everywhere, with spices and utensils lining the walls or middles of the tables. There is no register, no kitchen and no waiters. Looking to your side when immediately entering you will then notice a large vending machine with 30 or 40 different buttons. Each button is marked for a meal, with a price. Insert your money and press your button, and a small ticket falls down to the open slot at the bottom of the machine. Go sit down and with in seconds someone will run out from the back, grab your ticket, and redeem it with the food of your choice. You will never see them again. When you're done just leave your food where it is and leave. These places are everywhere, probably because of how cheap they are to staff and maintain. The entire wait staff is replaced by a vending machine.



Now these arent all the types of restaraunts in Tokyo, but they are the ones I visit most often. I still want to go to a conveyor belt eatery, where you sit at a bar next to a conveyor belt with every type of food imaginable on it coming at you. I havent mentioned the traditional bars, or the grill shops that line up dozens in a row, each only about 5 feet wide, enough for one bar going directly vertical to the road and a long grill. I'm tired right now, though, and its night time in tokyo.

I leave you with this, in this food themed post:
All Soy sauce is, was, and always will be made in the American midwest. Japan imports it.

Wondering when the next earthquake will be,
karl arthur