Foods and Products, Tokyo

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Favorite thing: the japanese has lots of yummy sweet treats from their cuisine and the Manju is one of them and it is a kind traditional steamed sweet cake that is very popular all over japan that every region and town has it's own recipe and fillings for this sweet icon! Manju is a Japanese steamed cake, and it's a traditional Japanese sweet. A variety of fillings are used in manju. The most popular filling is anko (or sweet azuki bean paste) and green tea (macha) and roast pork but there are also other fillings. They come in different varieties and packagings (korea an china have their own versions of the Manju). A big one piece manju costs about 90 yen and the 2 dozen small ones costs 800 yen and they are available everywhere.

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Favorite thing: the donburi is the exception to the stereotypical expensive japanese food and cuisine as it literally mean rice bowl and rice bowl means cheap but not necessarily poor in taste ok! Usually fish, meat, vegetables or other ingredients are simmered together and served over rice. Donburi meals are served in oversized rice bowls also called donburi. Donburi are sometimes called sweetened or savory stews on rice. The simmering sauce varies according to season, ingredient, region, and taste. A typical sauce might consist of dashi flavored with shoyu and mirin. Proportions vary, but there is normally three to four times as much dashi as shoyu and mirin.

Fondest memory: kinds of Donburi meals include:

Oyakodon (Oyako Donburi) Mother and Child Donburi
The name of this popular donburi dish comes from its two main ingredients, chicken and egg. Very rarely, you may also encounter an Oyakodon featuring salmon and ikura (salmon eggs).

Katsudon (Tonkatsu Donburi)
Pork Cutlet Donburi, Katsudon is served with tonkatsu (deep fried breaded pork cutlet), egg and onions on top of the rice.

Gyudon (Gyuniku Donburi) Beef Donburi
Gyudon is a bowl of cooked rice with beef, is very popular as an inexpensive type of fast food served at chain stores across the country like yoshinoya, matsuya or sushiya.

Tendon (Tempura Donburi) Tempura Donburi
Tempura are deep fried pieces of battered seafood and vegetables. Various tempura pieces are dipped into a soya based sauce before served on top of the rice.

Unadon (Unagi Donburi) Eel Donburi
The eel is grilled and prepared in a thick soya based sauce before served on top of the cooked rice.

Tekkadon (Tekka Donburi) Tuna Donburi
The topping of Tekkadon is raw tuna (maguro). It is served with strips of nori seaweed and sometimes ground yamaimo.

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Favorite thing: Curry was introduced in Japan in the Meiji Era in the late 1800's via trading with the English via the East India Trading Company and since then has caught on and became a hit to the japanese people and since then, the japanese curry or kare was born and that almost ecery town or region in japan has it's own curry specialty like curry rice, curry udon noodles, curry pork, curry breads, curry mochi and more. A wide variety of vegetables and meats are used to make Japanese curry. The basic vegetables are onions, carrots, and potatoes. For the meat, beef, pork, chicken and sometimes duck are the most popular, in order of decreasing popularity. I have pictures of the arroted japanese curry that we tasted here in japan.

Fondest memory: the japanese curries is way so different from the indian or thai variety that is is mildy sweet and not too spicy.

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Favorite thing: warning, cigarettes are dangerous to your health hehehe. One drawback of having cigarette vending machines is that even kids can buy one! since it is autmomated and no one will ask for ID and the age of a customer so I find this peculiar and disturbing. a cigarette pack cost about 400 yen a pack for marloboros and 450 yen for mild 7.

Fondest memory: although the cigarette vending machines are located mainly outside high volume children areas like schools or parks, it is better to stop this kind of vending machines.

Favorite thing: One morning at the hotel we decided to have a japanese style breakfast. A very healthy way to start our morning. It consisted of sushi and numerous food items in the picture that i have no idea what exactly they were. Neitherless it tasted sensational.

Favorite thing: You must taste some local drink in Tokyo!
Most of the drink is served by vending machine. You can notice all round the area in Tokyo. There are actually more than 2000 type of drink offer in this country from soft drink to juice and beers. The packing is special that I ever since in my life! You can find more than 10 different types of Coke in can and bottle which I have it all for my collection. Some may have some funny advertisement. You can notice the price is cheaper compare you get in those convenient shop as they charge for government tax...

Fondest memory: I like the juice and tea! A Coke in 500ml and 300ml is actually selling for same price if you notice...may be is the promotional period.

Favorite thing: O.k., so restaurants may seem a bit expensive, so if you're trying to do Tokyo on a budget, I found the convenience stores to be a Godsend. They have premade food that you can get for really cheap, and I ate the hell out of the triangle things. I have no idea what they are called, but they're a triangle of rice with some meat smeared on top and wrapped up in nori. They cost about 100 yen (a buck) and did me fine for lunch. The stores also have boxed lunches and sandwiches for really cheap too. Much better than popping in a restaurant every time you're hungry.

Favorite thing: Purikura (photo machines) were a major fad about five years ago! They still remain a fun way to capture a part of your day out in Tokyo. You can find them inside any video game arcade....they cost between 300 to 400 yen and will be something that you can keep forever!!!

Favorite thing: Visit a convenience store and buy a beer - you can't really go wrong and now that malt liquor has found it's way onto Tokyo shelves there is cheaper alternative to beer (happoshu). I like JUNNAMA - it is the one with the cute white can with the blue writing - you'll know!

Favorite thing: Visit JINBOCHO,locates at middle of Tokyo,close to KOKYO(emperor's palace).
There are many book shop.(both new and socond hand,even EDO era's UKIYOE picture,old map)
Also there are some good cafe and restaurant.
You can find very old Japanese novels,and art books etc.

Fondest memory: Restaurants in Tokyo. Japanese,French,Italian,Thai,Indian,Chinese,Vietnamese and more,there are a lot of different type of restaurant in Tokyo.
But I really prefer Japanese TEISYOKU.What is TEISYOKU? It's usually set of rice,main dish and miso soup at lunch time. Cheap and dilicious.