« Spot the Contradiction | Main | Why do ethicists write such long papers? »
Tokyo impressions
There are more small things to notice here than anywhere else. People elevate their cameras on long fishing poles to get better shots in a crowd. The water container has a separate compartment so that, when you pour, the ice cubes do not spill into your drink. Or you may wonder: why did I have to order my food by paying into a vending machine? None of the faucets works in an intuitive manner for me.
I hadn't been to Tokyo since 1992. What was once futuristic has now become retro and it has made the city more charming and ultimately more convincing.
Even with the weak dollar it isn't that expensive here. Hotels are cheaper than in NYC -- not to mention Europe -- and you can eat a great meal for $10 or less if you frequent neighborhood restaurants. At the fish market world class sushi costs about as much as mediocre sushi in the American suburbs. I have also ventured into the horrors of real Japanese food, including The Creamy Sauce and Worcestershire sauce. It's not all hamachi and gyoza, believe me.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on May 19, 2008 at 01:38 PM in Travels | Permalink
Comments
Or you may wonder: why did I have to order my food by paying into a vending machine? My thoughts were as follows. This arrangement is most common for small places like Ramen shops, where all the staff are involved in food preparation. Cash notes are thought to carry bacteria and it may be that they are separating handling of cash from the handling of food. Another plus is that the ticket itself becomes a record of the order. Lastly, it may reduce the temptation for staff to dip into the till.
I have also ventured into the horrors of real Japanese food, including The Creamy Sauce and Worcestershire sauce. What are these? I've been here in Tokyo ten years and I don't know what this could be. Whatever it is, it doesn't sound like it could be called real Japanese food.
Posted by: Simon at May 19, 2008 2:03:44 PM
Japanese sōsu (put on tonkatsu etc.) is Worcestershire sauce.
Posted by: KenF at May 19, 2008 2:42:24 PM
You forgot to mention the sloppy, gooey mess that is Japanese pizza!
Posted by: Daniel at May 19, 2008 2:55:42 PM
You should not miss yakitori, one of the rare food items you can't find outside Japan. And I'm not talking about the restaurant variety, I mean the 'street food' kind: under the steps of a train station with just stools and tiny tables inside. Enjoy the starter: a (very) soft boiled egg in something like diluted sweet fish sauce. Awesome. Enjoy!
Posted by: Ben at May 19, 2008 3:12:20 PM
Hello nice to meet you.
KO-N-NI-CHI-WA (^_^)v
I am Japanese.
I saw your wonderful site.
Please link to this site !
【Website】http://food-of-japan.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Yasuyuki Maeda at May 19, 2008 4:57:09 PM
Horror and Japanese food mentioned in the same sentence without mentioning natto has to be a first! What I don't understand is why Japanese bread is so much better than American bread. It's much more inventive and stuff you get in the convenience store is generally of higher quality than you find in your average supermarket.
Posted by: Mike at May 19, 2008 5:06:24 PM
Geez Mike, things must have changed in the last 20 years. When I lived in Japan the pan was horrible. All white flour, too much sugar.
Posted by: vanya at May 19, 2008 6:05:00 PM
Glad you made it over here, Tyler. I think you've summed up the draws of Japan for me (well, along with the ability to walk around at night without getting mugged). The potential cheapness of Japan is sadly lost on many visitors who are being entertained on expense accounts. Tokyo is really one of the few places where you can find anything if you dig hard enough...
Posted by: Joe Jones at May 19, 2008 6:48:37 PM
I was in Tokyo last month and very pleasantly surprised at how affordable the hotels and food were. Nothing like costs in London. It was interesting to see the young men in suits huddled around the magazine rack reading manga comic books.
Mexico has very good prices on food and hotels, but electronics and books? Forget it! I now understand why the Mexicans never read on the airplanes, the reading material is too expensive.
Posted by: Bill N at May 19, 2008 6:58:29 PM
Yakitori is available in NYC at a couple of different spots. I agree that the most tasty incarnation is that served on a Tokyo street.
As far as nasty and authentic Japanese food, I recommend trying a rice omelet with barbecue sauce. Its MUCH worse than it sounds.
Posted by: PoN at May 19, 2008 7:38:05 PM
"Or you may wonder: why did I have to order my food by paying into a vending machine?"
There's a good reason: this is to help cleanliness and remove a position. In small restaurants, where the staff has to do everything, with a self-serve ticketing machine, the restaurant staff don't have to handle the money, which is a good thing for food preparation. It also negates the need for someone to handle the register.
Posted by: Gen Kanai at May 19, 2008 9:35:19 PM
Among other foods, I notably loved the Teriyaki Burgers they had in McDonalds when I visited Japan for a month in 1999.
Also, if getting wasabi ask for Hon-Wasabi (which is supposed to be the real stuff)...
Posted by: Recep at May 20, 2008 2:15:50 AM
If you get a chance, there are three things I'd highly recommend if you haven't done them before:
1) Seeing a Sumo match. There's nothing quite like it and no Western parallels.
2) Visit Kamakura. It's the closest thing to Nara in the Tokyo area. (An easy day trip.) Lots of ancient sites, including Daibutsu, a giant statue of Buddha that used to sit in a temple that was destroyed by a tidal wave. Only the statue remains.
3) Stay in a ryokan -- a traditional style Japanese inn. You sleep on a futon at night and roll it away during the day. I've had some of my best experiences in Japan while staying in these.
And a fourth that might be of interest:
4) Investigate the new fugu (poisonous blowfish) that is being grown to be poison-free. I've had traditional fugu before. I can't say I understand the full appeal, but it is worth trying at least once.
As a side note, here are five mistakes made by first timers in Japan. I'm sure we don't need to worry about you making any of these, although I must confess to having made several of them during my first few trips to Japan.
Enjoy your trip! I miss Japan tremendously...
Posted by: Brian Hollar at May 20, 2008 3:53:08 AM
As far as nasty and authentic Japanese food, I recommend trying a rice omelet with barbecue sauce. Its MUCH worse than it sounds.
R-really? I kind of like that stuff myself. When I was an intern in Tokyo, there was small local restaurant I went to in Ikebukuro that served all that kind of stuff, like the hamburger patty with demi-glace and all that. It's Japanese-style Western food you just can't get in the US.
I also sometimes have a craving for Japanese curry rice, for cheap yakisoba -- real cheap, roadside yakisoba, not the stuff you get at Benihana's or whatever -- yakisoba-pan, onigiri, curry-pan, croquette(? I mean コロッケ, but I don't know what that equates to in English), manju, daifuku, nikuman, etc. Cheap snack-style Japanese food was one of the best things about Tokyo.
Posted by: Taeyoung at May 20, 2008 10:59:46 AM
Tyler, try the pizza. I double-dog dare you.
Does the toilet talk, like on the Simpsons?
Posted by: Tom T. at May 20, 2008 11:09:03 AM
Sounds like you made it to Tsukiji.
Very good and very Tyler Cowen.
Great food at great prices.
Posted by: Barkley Rosser at May 20, 2008 12:46:20 PM
I think Japanese pizza is great, just too expensive. I'm not so fond of mayo so that limits my options a bit, but just because westerners don't put corn or fish eggs or squid on their pizza, doesn't mean it can't be done. I'll second the thought about Japanese bread being crap though. It's difficult to find bread that could be considered healthy. Japanese in America would think the rice is terrible, so it makes sense.
Posted by: Matt L. at May 25, 2008 1:20:47 AM
Many people now use the Internet to do business, after receiving the business should be the best as far as possible, to allow customer satisfaction. But some Internet companies, not to start on your money to begin with, so on and then close the first half, resulting in Juankuan flee. Not only did not complete 租車the project, customers would also like to once again spend money and time to decoration. Dear Customer: This is no guarantee as the company not to find the.
Posted by: 抓漏 at Dec 3, 2008 11:56:56 PM
You can buy and gain very cheap holic money.
Posted by: holic money at Jan 1, 2009 7:40:24 PM
Mabinogi online gold
Mabinogi money
Mabinogi Gold
cheap Mabinogi gold
buy Mabinogi gold
2moons dil
2moons gold
buy 2moons dil
2moon dil
cheap 2moons dil
Flyff gold
flyff Penya
flyff money
buy flyff penya
cheap flyff penya
cheap flyff gold
aion gold
buy aion gold
cheap aion money
aion money
cheap aion gold
Dofus kamas
buy dofus kamas
cheap kamas
dofus kama
dofus gold
dofus money
Knight Online Gold
Knight Gold
Knight Noah
Knight Online Noah
Posted by: aion at Jul 7, 2009 8:53:35 PM
