Japan, Part 1

When ew and I were debating on where to go after the wedding, we looked at two very different places: Japan and Chile.  Both seemed enticing, Japan for its cuisine and modern cities, and Chile for its spectacular scenery.  But the weather wasn’t quite right for a trip to Patagonia in October, and ultimately, Japan was picked out of a hat more times.

We only had a week to work with, so we decided to limit our visit to two places: Tokyo and Kyoto.  I think in general, staying 3-4 days in a city is probably too long, but we didn’t want to be in a rush due to time constraints, and that’s what always seems to happen to us when we try to do everything in a limited timeframe.  It’s also somewhat comforting knowing you don’t have to check in and out of a different hotel every day.  I’ve discovered that with travel, everything seems to sound interesting, so usually decisions must be made on what not to do.

As a caveat, ew and I usually use Lonely Planet guides when we travel.  Lonely Planet tends to do well with developing countries, as information is not readily available on the Internet, and we typically aren’t familiar with the culture of the places we visit.  The maps are usually the most invaluable tool, as well as lodging suggestions.  But in developed countries, I’m not sure the Internet isn’t the best resource.  We did pick up the guide for Japan, but we found most of our lodging online, with several of the places we booked ultimately not in Lonely Planet, and we rarely used the guide for food options.  (Quick tangent here: Lonely Planet food options tend to be the least helpful in my opinion; they are very cognizant of the need for Western palettes, so oftentimes, you may end up in a restaurant that is strictly visited by tourists using the Lonely Planet guide.)  We did use the guide to figure out some of our day to day activities, though the hotels we stayed at were actually very accommodating in providing maps that have popular tourist attractions on them.

With that said, our trip was mostly revolved around food anyway, and sampling the many different types of food that Japan has to offer.  Ew made a bold claim beforehand that she could likely eat Japanese food every day, but after spending a week there, I think she realized how maritime Japan actually is and how much fish is a central part of their diet.  One good thing about Japan is that even though they hardly speak any English, all the menus typically have pictures!  So you can just point and you usually end up receiving what you think you ordered.  The bad part is the cheapest meal will cost you around 700 Yen, and that’s a cheap bowl of ramen.  Unless of course you eat fast food type meals.  Below is a breakdown of the different types of cuisine we sampled:

Ramen

Coming from Chinese culture where noodle soup plays an integral part of our lives, ramen was obviously at the top of the list for ew and me.  This was actually the only thing we ate more than once in Japan, and to confirm what others have said, it is much better in Japan than the states.  I think the most noticeable difference is in the noodle quality.  This was evident in both places we tried, Da Yei in Kyoto and Mutekiya in Ikebukuro in Tokyo.  The other difference is the broth.  I think most ramen broth that is favored in the states is the rich, tonkotsu broth.  This was Mutekiya’s broth, and the Japanese version is actually similar to the version in the states.  But what the states really lack are the simpler broths, like the Shoyu one we had at Da Yei.  Shoyu in the states lacks the same depth of flavor as in Japan, and that’s a shame because who is always in the mood for such a rich tonkotsu broth?

Tempura

The good thing about Japanese cuisine is that restaurants tend to specialize.  There isn’t a whole lot of variety on the menus, as restaurants tend to only serve tempura, soba, ramen, etc.  Ew and I only went to one specialty tempura restaurant (at Seibu department store in Shibuya in Tokyo), but did have tempura as part of some other set meals.  The first noticeable part of tempura in Japan is that you always get the grated daikon for the tempura sauce.  Why can we not do that here?  It adds a nice subtle flavor to the sauce.  The other noticeable part is that you can actually taste what has been battered and fried.  The panko on tempura is very light, and the focus is really on the main ingredient.  It also helps that when they bring the tempura out, the chef himself brings it out to your table and places the tempura directly from his fryer to your plate.

Izakaya

Ew and I went to izakaya the first night we arrived in Tokyo, to a place called Toriyoshi in Ginza that specializes in chicken (the Tori part).  As many of you know, I have a special place in my heart for San Tung chicken wings, but the wings at Toriyoshi may be even better.  It’s a much subtler flavor than the San Tung wings, but still very complex and very delicious.  I also think the ambiance here was delightful.  The taking off of shoes with the tatami mats, the sliding screen doors … it felt very traditional yet modern Japanese.

Kaiseki

One of the most fun and elegant meals I’ve ever had.  This is more about experience than food itself, and I will describe in more detail later on.

Shabu Shabu

From a food perspective, the best meal that ew and I had in Japan (and actually is way up there for one of best meals of my life).  My aunt r happens to live around Tokyo, and she took us to get Shabu Shabu in Shinjuku (will update soon with a name, but it is a local chain I believe with a location at least in Akasaka, though the Shinjuku appears to be the only non-smoking location).  We began the meal with some delicious first courses centered around matsutake mushrooms, followed by sashimi and tempura.  At that point, ew and I were already getting a little full and wondering whether we were actually still doing shabu shabu.  But the shabu shabu finally did come, and I’m not sure anything is better than marbled beef dipped in peanut sauce.  Follow that up with tofu and vegetables in yuzu, ramen noodles, and chestnut ice cream, and I’m not sure if Chinese hot pot can even compare anymore.

Sushi

Japan has a lot of the conveyor belt sushi that we didn’t try, but we did go to the Tsujiki fish market the first morning we were in Tokyo and engaged in a 7 AM sushi breakfast.  While the fish was very fresh and very good, I’m not sure our bodies were accustomed to eating fish that early in the morning.  It basically ruined us for lunch, as we ended up just eating bread on our train from Tokyo to Kyoto.

Bentos

Technically, we ate this meal twice, as we brought one on the plane back to the states, but these are essentially boxed lunch sets that we discovered on the bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto.  After seeing everyone eating one, we vowed to get one for our return trip back to Tokyo.   They aren’t actually very cheap (around 800 to 1,000 Yen), but they come with a variety of fish, vegetables, sometimes meat, and rice, and obviously the biggest draw for ew is that everything is compartmentalized.

Tonkatsu

On a recommendation from ew's cousin, we went to a place called Tonki that specializes in tonkatsu.  Tonki is in Ebisu in Tokyo, and they only serve two things: hire-katsu and rohsu-katsu.  Hire is a lean cut of tenderloin, rohsu is a fattier cut.  It's an open kitchen with essentially bar seating around it, and it is a magical place to have a meal.  Seeing the presumed owner seemingly memorize the order of guests and their order (no need to sign in), and then having probably the best tonkatsu you'll ever have: lightly breaded, not too oily, with the focus on the tenderloin accompanied with some tonkatsu sauce and mustard.  Top that off with finely shredded cabbage that the staff is very willing to refill (as well as the rice and miso soup apparently), and you have that great balance of freshnesss with the cabbage and the meatiness of the fried pork.

If you don’t like it in the U.S., you won’t like it in Japan

Lonely Plant really pumps up certain cuisines that you feel obligated to try.  But I think this may be for people who haven’t tried those cuisines at all, because what I did learn in Japan is, the food is not so different where if you don’t like it in the U.S., you will suddenly like it elsewhere.  (The one exception to this may be soy milk, which somehow tastes unbelievably good in Asia but unbelievably bland in the U.S.)  So with apologies to unagi, yakiniku, and soba, they are pretty much what they are. And after discovering this fact after eating unagi, we opted not to eat okonomiyaki.  A quick word on yakiniku and soba: it’s not so much that we don’t enjoy those cuisines, but with yakiniku, Korean bbq seems like such a better deal, especially since you get the small dishes, and with soba, we’d just rather eat ramen.