Japanese food

Eating is Japan was an adventure in and of itself. Each time we opened the door to a restaurant it was like opening a portal into a an unknown world! We never knew what they served or if they would allow us to stay or how much it would be. But we conquered each level and stayed well fed with sushi, ramen, gyoza, tempura, fish, udon, stir fries, and even some garlic toast for one breakfast. We've had hot sake and cold beer, sweet rice wine and tasty matcha tea. We share all our meals and eat light so that we can eat often, being as food is such a central part of our desire to travel, and a great way to try to understand a culture. 

One of our sushi experiences was at this big open restaurants with small plates of fresh fish circling on a conveyer belt. When we walked in the restaurant everyone yelled and cheered, which caught us off guard, but we learned is somewhat common in restaurants. They shout their hello's and welcoming hoots and hollers for all to hear! 

In Kyoto we found a quant little spot serving up chinese/japanese fusion food, so we had some yummy chinese noodles with and tempura on the side, with several Kirin beers to wash it down.

Udon. Yum yum yum. Osaka had the best udon by far. We were looking for it for the whole trip, and finally found a serious hole-in-the wall spot, late in the evening, with bad lighting and a sweet old woman serving up the local construction workers. Score. 

In Tokyo we descended a long flight of stairs into a cozy spot that served up soups and stir fry, we got some pork belly/tofu soup with lots of veggies and hot mustard, as well as a stir fry with egg and some mystery vegetable that we could not figure out, but it was bitter and the taste grew on us.

 When we saw the kebab stand it was a no-brainer. This kebab was good, like all the other kebabs in the world! We chatted it up with this guy from Bangladesh as he prepared our spicy doner kebab, and after we had finished Josh and commented on how we see these kebab slingers as syndicate of brothers doing their good food business across the globe all the while talking to each other on their blue tooth headsets. They are in every city, haven't you noticed? And I love it....

pretty coffee:

After our long walk from Shinjuku to Shibuyu we were tired and hungry and myriad of options almost made it more difficult to decide where to eat. Finally we decided on a spot with lots of photos on the menu outside, making it easy to order. What a good choice it was! After shedding our shoes at the front door we were seated at a big booth in a dark corner of the restaurant, where we posted up for hours eating small courses of sushi, dumplings, soup, and tempura.

Our hotel in Tokyo was in Asakusa, and next door was this restaurant that we eyed each day, guided by our noses, for the smell was overwhelming! We finally braved up and entered the curtained door on our final day in Tokyo, to find a lovely staff serving up small fish, called doezu nabe, cooked in a thin iron pan over coals and topped with green onions. It was a strange small fish served in all it's entirety, body, tail, bones, and head. We ate it all!

We found this cafe/restaurant in the Shibuyu area on our last day in Tokyo. It had so much charm and was a beacon of light for us! We were cold and our feet were tired, we needed a place to chill for a while and relax, and this spot was perfect! It was empty, they were playing old jazz and blues, it was warm, the beer was cold, and the seats were comfy!

These are just a few of the great meals we had. Japanese cuisine is certainly to our liking!