Japan, where the dining experience is not only about the actual food consumed, but also the presentation, the design, the sheer beauty of what you’re eating. Japanese cuisine, where the food canvas employs color, where form truly follows function.

From the traditional to the modern, from the quick to the drawn-out, and from the haute to the street — with a few unusual (and necessary) ideas for limited budgets to help your yen go a bit further — this is our take on Japanese food.

Japanese Cuisine: A Taste of Ritual

In traditional Japanese cuisine, as in Japanese life, there are rules. Food rules. Meals are divided into bowls and dishes, which are then further subdivided, all in an effort to separate flavors so that they might not touch each other.

This is precision on a plate.

In Japan, aesthetic is critical, from the many porcelain plates and bowls from which you might take one meal, to the landscape of the tray upon which it is all served. There’s logic, there’s purpose in every facet of the dining experience, in each item in the meal. By design for design. Contrast this with other East Asian cuisines where large pots are shared from the middle of the table.

Japanese food is careful, that is, full of care. (We’re certain we horrified our share of hosts by sharing with each other tastes from our respective meals.)

Rice: As in other Asian cuisine, rice is the guiding force, a requisite. In fact, the Japanese word for rice, gohan, is also the word for meal. In other words, you can’t have one without the other. Or perhaps in Japan, one is the other.

Pickled vegetables: The Japanese seem to be able to pickle just about anything and everything that grows. And they make it all taste good. Japanese picked vegetables (tsukemono) are to be eaten on their own or in condiment fashion. Beware: portion sizes are usually inversely related to the strength of the pickle.

Their artistic arc begins with their shapes and colors accenting serving plates and bowls and ends curled astride one of your courses in complement. Perhaps best of all — and we are running on intuition here — pickled vegetables serve a function to the body in better absorbing or processing the food they are served with, balancing all the protein and rice, cleansing the palate between bites.

Japanese pickled vegetables. Small, but they pack a punch.

Soup: Often a miso soup, but you may also be served another lighter broth or clear soup.

Meat/Fish: Japan is an island, so it’s not surprising that fish is abundant and the go-to source of protein. Raw is the chosen method of preparation, but in multi-course meals you’ll find an occasional piece of steamed fish topped with a light sauce.

However, a perfectly marbled beef such as Kobe beef (or the new king, Hida beef) will be served beautifully raw with the expectation that you’ll cook it to taste on your own individual tabletop hibachi grill.

Take a look at this traditional meal at a restaurant in Takayama specializing in Hida beef. Can you find all the components?

Japanese Breakfast

You’ll find the same deliberate practice in a traditional Japanese breakfast as well. Your tray will contain many small plates, each with a different flavor and purpose. They all come together to provide a substantial – and protein rich – start to the day.

A Japanese breakfast landscape.

Where to find a Japanese breakfast: The best place to try a traditional Japanese breakfast is to stay in a ryokan (Japanese inn). Our two favorite ryokans for breakfast: Oyado Iguchi in Takayama and Tagaoogi in Kawaguchiko near Mount Fuji. Our favorite breakfast treat in all of Japan: hōba miso, grilled miso paste served atop fish on a dried magnolia leaf.

Bowing to the Alter of Raw Fish: Sushi and Sashimi

To get to the heart of raw fish, sushi and sashimi heaven, be sure to make a trip to Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo.

Smiles and sashimi for breakfast at Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo.

Many of you are probably familiar with the different styles of sushi – nigiri (slice of raw fish on top of rice), maki (rolls) and sashimi (slices of raw fish, no rice). We also became fans of sashimi don – a bowl of sushi rice covered in slabs of freshly cut sashimi.

After learning how Tokyo manages tons of fresh seafood each day, grab a sushi or sashimi don breakfast of champions at one of the tiny sushi restaurants in the market.

Tuna sashimi on top of a bowl of rice (don).

Our favorite sashimi dons: We did not have time to wait in line for three hours at Sushi Dai (Daisha) but we did enjoy a great sashimi don at a small place a few doors down called BenTomi Sushi in Building #6.

Mixed sashimi don, breakfast of choice in Tokyo.

Conveyor Belt Sushi
Sushi purists may snub their nose at conveyor belt sushi or sushi trains, restaurants with moving belts of sushi plates where you serve yourself and pay at the end based on your pile of empty plates. However, we found that in Japan the quality of fish in these establishments could be exceptional, especially when you consider the price.

Sushi go-round.

Instead of being held prisoner by what was goes around the conveyor belt, you also have a choice of ordering sushi directly from the chef for the same price. Once we figured out this trick by watching locals in their routine, we rarely picked anything off the conveyor belt and ate exclusively from custom orders.

Often, we would be stuffed to the gills with sushi goodness for around $25-$30 for the two of us. In Japan terms, that’s considered a steal. And a win.

Favorite Conveyor Belt Sushi: Tototoriton Sushi Go-Round near Shinjuku station (south exit), Tokyo. Not only were most plates 130 Yen (under $2), but the custom order menu was 40+ options deep with sushi and sashimi options.

Blowfish Sashimi
Blowfish (fugu) is delicious, but it’s one of those delicacies that can kill you if it’s not properly prepared. Do your research to find a trusted fugu den (i.e., a restaurant that focuses only on fugu). We opted for a sashimi plate and found the fugu to be subtle flavor, slightly sweet, a tad numbing, with the consistency of very tender squid.

Thinly sliced tender fugu sashimi.

For even more fugu fun, be sure to get a glass of fugu sake – hot sake with fugu fins set on fire and infused into the brew. Fugu sake: intense, tasty, and also very fun to say ten times fast.

Where to find fugu sashimi: Osaka, they’ll even let you hold the fugu afterwards. Just beware that the fish might begin to blow up in your hands.

Kaiseki Dinner: Traditional Japanese Cuisine at its Best

We often sing the praises of cheap eating as we travel, but we are making an exception here for a traditional kaiseki meal. If you plan to splurge somewhere in Japan, consider doing it for this. Our kaiseki meal at a ryokan near Mount Fuji was one of the most memorable and unique meals of our lives.

Kaiseki is a multi-course (6-15 courses) traditional dinner, served in the manner of samurai (we’re not kidding). But it is more than just a meal, it’s an entire cultural experience. Each course is tiny, but delicately prepared and served in bowls and dishes that are well-suited to the food. And no two dishes will be the same; everything has a purpose. The presentation and service is an unforgettable experience, sheer joy.

The start of our kaiseki dinner, the first of many dishes.

The courses of a kaiseki meal will change based on the seasons and what is fresh, but they’ll often represent all the different styles of cooking – raw, boiled, grilled, and steamed. The experience will pull influence from the mountains to the sea. There’s a pace that ensures that the meal moves along, but it’s slow enough as to enable the full appreciation of presentation, design, and flavor.

Recommended Kaiseki Dinner: Tagaoogi Ryokan at Kawaguchiko near Mount Fuji. Just amazing, from the quality of the food to the presentation and service.

Japanese Cheap Eats

It is true that the words cheap and Japan don’t often go together, but there are thankfully a few tasty, healthy Japanese options that are easier on the wallet.

Okonomiyaki
A friend living in Japan told us the style of okonomiyaki is a reflection of the city where it is served. Some places are more orderly with straight streets, others are messy with curved roads. You can find this personality in the local okonomiyaki.

Okonomiyaki, roughly, is a savory pancake stuffed with sliced vegetables, seafood and other bits. Although its roots go back centuries, its popularity dates from the days of U.S. troops and post-WWII deliveries to Japan of wheat flour (used in the pancake batter). Usually, okonomiyaki is cooked on a big griddle or at your table in a cook-your-own style. Top with hanakatsuo — dried, fermented, and outrageously thin bacony looking smoked bonito (skipjack tuna) flakes that curl like mad when you place them atop hot food.

Hiroshima okonomiyaki in the making.

Trust us, it tastes much better than the description makes it sound. It’s usually an inexpensive meal as well, especially if two people can share one portion.

Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki: This was the first okonomiyki we enjoyed, and it was massive. Noodles (choice of soba or udon), grated vegetables and seafood are served on top of a thin fried pancake. Usually it is topped with a sweet Worcestershire style sauce and topped with mayonnaise.

Where to get Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki: Just near the Hiroshima train station is the main street Johoku Dori. If you walk past the Post Office you’ll find this place on the right side in a brick building. All locals, lots of fun.

Osaka-style Okonomiyaki: In contrast to Hiroshima’s signature okonomiyaki, Osaka okonomiyaki does not include any noodles, its veggies are more finely chopped, and the whole package is more tidy.

Where to get Osaka-style okonomiyaki: There are lots of places along Dōtonbori Street in Osaka that specialize in okonomiyaki. If you ask nicely, they’ll even draw Hello Kitty on top in mayonnaise.

Tokyo style, okonomiyaki: Officially known as monjayaki, all the ingredients are blended into the batter so that it is all cooked together, almost like a pancake-omelette. Our server came to the rescue when he realized we had no idea what we were doing on our grill and piled the cut cabbage and other goodies on the outside and while much of the liquid batter cooked on the inside. Then you mash the whole thing together with little metal scrapters. Rather messy, not very orderly, but really satisfying.

Where to get monjayaki in Tokyo: Just at the main crossing at Shibuya station in Tokyo, look up to find this sign across the street and left from the metro. You’ll have your choice of monjayaki or okonomiyaki that you cook yourself at your table. Lots of fun, terrifically social and inexpensive.

Takoyaki
Takoyaki, you say? Hot octopus and herbed dough balls. All part of the experience: watching takoyaki masters quickly turn their takoyaki balls in something that looks like a cupcake pan with long toothpicks to that they are cooked evenly on all sides. Takoyaki is often topped with a sweet sauce, oregano, and ample helpings of hanakatsuo.

Takoyaki from the streets of Osaka.

Where to get takoyaki:

• Nishiki Market, Kyoto: There’s a bustling stand in the covered indoor market serving up piping hot takoyaki for a great price. Fun atmosphere with lots of students hanging around.
• Dōtonbori Street, Osaka: Several vendors sell takoyaki fresh from the grill along this busy street.

Izakaya restaurants
Izakaya are technically known as drinking restaurants, but there’s usually a large menu of dumplings, salads, fried chicken and other snack bits to nosh as you drink your beer. Izakaya sometimes even offer karaoke so you can sing off all the calories. If you look around, you can find some good deals at Izakaya restaurants with dishes that run $3-$5.

Japanese Curry
Although we’ve heard that Japanese curry originated with the British, it’s nothing at all like a British or Indian curry. The best way to describe Japanese curry sauce: brown. It’s a smooth sweet and savory gravy. Although not on par with Indian or other curries, it can be a nice food break from typical Japanese fare, and it’s usually pretty inexpensive.

Mixed seafood Japanese curry from Coco Ichibanya.

Where to get Japanese curry: Most major cities feature inexpensive curry restaurants. We tried Coco Ichibanya in Kyoto and enjoyed a large plate of mixed seafood curry for about $10.

Japanese Soups
There are quite a few restaurants specializing in soups. Often you can choose your noodle (thick udon or the thinner soba), style of broth and the meat or vegetable inside.

Where to get Japanese soups: Although a chain restaurant, Tenkaippin (or Tenka Ippin) serves a formidable bowl. Ippudo is another popular and apparently reliable soup chain.

Ootaya Restaurant
Ootoya is actually a chain restaurant, but one that features high quality food at very reasonable prices (e.g., around $8-10). A great option when you want a hearty, good-looking meal without breaking the bank. You can find Ootaya restaurants all around Tokyo, especially in and around the business disticts. We went to the one in the Subaru building in Shinjuku.

Regional and other Favorite Japanese Eats

Conger Eel, Miyajima
Much of the eel that you’ll find in Japan is unagi, meaning freshwater eel. But in the Miyajima and Hiroshima area, the eel of choice is anago, or saltwater eel. It’s grilled slightly and then topped with a sweet sauce. We ate our anago as a rice bowl (don) just near the train station in Miyajimaguchi. Standard price is around $25-$30 per bowl.

Anago meshi on top of a bowl of rice.

Grilled Oysters — Miyajima
You would think that with all the raw food Japanese eat they’d throw oysters into the raw eating basket. But they don’t, at least during certain times of the year when water temperatures are too high. So during the time of our visit in May, oyster vendors on Miyajima island grilled their oysters. While the oysters were not petite, they were tasty and rich, massive guys, a perfect complement to a good dry sake.

Grilling oysters is a hot business on Miyajima.

Tempura
Tempura always struck us as an odd Japanese food — it is fried, whereas most Japanese food is light on oil. Dig into the history of tempura and you’ll find out why: thank the Portugese influence for tempura in Japan.

While tempura is often done badly – meaning overly fried or not using fresh oils – there is a beauty to it when done well. The exterior of excellent tempura is just slightly crunchy, protecting the tenderly cooked interior. And there’s no better way to appreciate the skill behind perfectly prepared tempura than by eating at a bar where you can watch tempura masters at work.

Serving up freshly fried tempura at Tsunahachi in Tokyo.

Where to eat tempura in Tokyo: We went for the lunch menu at Tsunahachi Restaurant in Shinjuku ($15-$30). The cheapest lunch menu available, while missing some of the special seafood bits, is an excellent value. Their tempura is exceptionally high quality. We also enjoyed sitting at the bar watching the chefs do their magic. This restaurant will give you eating and dipping instructions in English to be sure you eat everything correctly. Helpful, cute and delightfully Japanese.

Hida Beef
Many people have heard of Kobe beef, but few have heard of Hida beef. This is the new top beef in Japan according to the latest food competitions. The meat is marbled with fat, making it melt in your mouth when you grill it. Not inexpensive at $25-$30 for a set meal, but worth trying. Since the town of Hida is just north, Takayama is full of restaurants specializing in Hida beef.

Chunks of marbled Hida beef ready to go on the grill.

Drinks and Desserts

We had no idea that Japanese people had such a sweet tooth, but if you look around the basement food floor of any department store you will be amazed by the array and selection of sweets. Many are made with rice flour doughs and bean paste or other bits of regional fillings. The sweets that take the cake (and we almost made ourselves sick on all the free samples in Kyoto) were the Yatsuhashi sweets — rice flour dough pillows tucked with various sweet fillings.

Yatsuhashi sweets with bean paste filling in Kyoto

Sake: Made from fermented rice, sake is a traditional Japanese alcohol that pairs nicely with sushi, grilled oysters and other bits of traditional Japanese fare. Obviously, not all sake is created equal, so if your first experience is not great, don’t dispair. To get a sense of the range of sake available, taste and sample as much sake as you can. If you find yourself in Takayama, be sure to take part in free sake tasting in the old town near Sanmachi (or Kamisannomachi). Look for the sugidama (large cedar balls) hanging outside, indicating that sake is brewed and served inside. The best tastings include an array of sake, and also indicate which sake is best served cold or warm.

Free sake tasting in Takayama. Dangerous in the middle of the afternoon…

Green tea: We had never really been big fans of green tea prior to visiting Japan. Much of what is passed off as green tea in the West, can be less than noteworthy, especially in the bottled iced tea arena where tastes border on the syrupy and tea-free.

In Japan, however green tea is everywhere, and it is often exceptionally good. There is a smooth, smoky flavor that is to be appreciated without any sugar or additives. Take the opportunity to attend a Japanese tea ceremony and you’ll appreciate the culture behind tea drinking even more.

Water preparation in a Japanese tea ceremony, Kyoto.

A note for coffee drinkers: Knowing that Japan is mainly a tea-drinking society, we were surprised by the prevalence of coffee shops and espresso machines. Getting your coffee fix is possible, however, but it is not cheap (i.e., $4-7 at a Starbucks or similar type of café).

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By no means is this an extensive Japanese food guide, but it should help you navigate the Japanese food landscape and offer a few options for budget eating in Japan.

Japan: eat it, live it, enjoy it — and share with us your favorite features and dishes in Japanese cuisine.

いただきます Itadakimasu!

Environmental note – BYOC (Bring Your Own Chopsticks): Most restaurants in Japan will provide you with disposable wooden chopsticks. Consider bringing a pair of your own portable / foldable chopsticks or just regular chopsticks for your Japan travels to avoid all that wooden chopstick waste.

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Disclosure: Our Discover Japan tour was provided by G Adventures in cooperation with its Wanderers in Residence program. Some, but not all, eating expenses, were covered. As always, the opinions expressed here are entirely our own.

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 34 comments

The shrine under the canopy is in silence and stillness, magic and mysticism. The wide trunk of a tree over 1,000 years old is carefully sashed with a thick rope called a shimenawa, a Shinto symbol indicating purity and respect for the spirits inside.

For the trailhead of a traditional pilgrimage route up Mount Fuji, a spectacular opening to a mountain journey, you’d figure this place would be mobbed. Save for a couple of Shinto priests and their assistants, there’s no one here but us.

“People don’t climb from the base of Mount Fuji anymore,” Pascal, our guide, fills us in on the empty space. “They take the bus up the mountain directly to Kawaguchiko Station 5.”

Time is precious and efficiency is king, but the missed opportunity strikes us as a little sad.

Mount Fuji: A Sacred Mountain Climb As Meditation

Climbing Mount Fuji once represented travel from the world of the living to the world of the dead and back. It was believed that a walk up the mountain, taken by Shinto and Buddhist pilgrims for over 1000 years, would enable the devout to cleanse themselves of their accrued sins and impurities.

The opportunity is ours: this place is on loan to us for a moment. We are about to embark on the path of pilgrims. They began here. And so would we.

Occasional shrines peek out and ema prayer boards placed by other climbers remind us how some travelers still regard this path. We are struck imagining the first monks who climbed Mount Fuji in the 7th century, clearing paths and erecting shrines along their way.

Most of first half of the Mount Fuji trail consists of pleasant forest. There’s nothing especially noteworthy unless, of course, you consider simple beauty exceptional. None of our group begrudges this at all. Our climb of Mount Fuji is in fact one of our most joyous moments of many as a group. No drama, just fresh air, companionship, space, and time to think. With Japan and all its modernity, an escape valve in the form of nature is just what’s needed.

Another lesson underscored, this one connecting travel and meditation.

Climbing Mount Fuji: When Pilgrims Climb, What Do They Wear?

After a couple of hours’ brisk walk, our group stops for lunch, setting down in the grass next to a Japanese trekking group. Everyone smiles and nods, using body language to communicate a non-verbal “we climb this mountain together” sort of comraderie.

The group was mixed, male and female. This is nothing notable except when you consider that women were not allowed access to Mount Fuji until the late 19th century. The irony could be no greater: Konochana Sakuya Hime, the deity associated with Mount Fuji, is a goddess. Modernity, with all of its questionable trappings, has also brought about some good changes, too.

Amidst bites and shares of green tea and smoked green tea Kit Kats, our minds wander. We imagine those old pilgrims and their once loose clothing — robes and tunics and hand-made shoes — now all bound tightly to keep them warm when they encounter the snowline.

Contrast this with how we are dressed – light and supportive hiking shoes, waterproof and windproof clothes to protect us from the elements. We often think first about having the proper gear before considering why we’d even climb. In this way, the why of our modern lives is susceptible to being lost in the how.

In one movement, the Japanese hikers are off. We watch as they file into a single line and move together seamlessly up the hill, like a human Nordic Track, each step forward, together, spaced almost perfectly apart.

We laugh at how our group of six could barely keep it together. We are also grateful.

After lunch, the path grows steeper; we can feel the change in mountain contours. Robert, an accomplished trekker in his late sixties, begins to feel the nag of his arthritis. He slows down, but he keeps on, one step at a time, visibly working through the pain. The Japanese group apparently also feels it, their synchronized movements slowing with the pitch of the path.

Rounding the final turn approach as Station Five comes into view, we remember the parting words from our morning bus driver: “Don’t forget, the last bus from the top leaves at 3:35.”

Having developed an appreciation of the Japanese tendency to promptness, we understand that arriving even one minute past would be too late.

We pick up the pace.

Minutes later, just after 3:30, we leave behind the last stretch of peaceful mountain path for what looks like a strip mall. This is the famous, or perhaps infamous, Kawaguchiko 5th Station. It’s also our bus stop.

Unfortunately, the morning bus driver at the base was five minutes off in his estimate of the last bus down. It left just minutes before, at 3:30.

Mount Fuji Station Five: From Naked Geisha Towels to a Shrine with a View

In a matter of minutes, our guide secures another ride down the mountain, one that doesn’t leave for another hour.

We have time. We gaze at the souvenir palace before us. It’s cold.

In contrast to the previous five hours of trekking in tranquility, a whopping shopping center feels like a slap in the face. We enter anyway and have fun with (or rather, we make fun of) the overpriced tchotchke: Blueberry Cheesecake Kit Kat and the “blow dry it to make the geisha naked” towels.

Needing a retreat, we poke around for views and find the Komitake Shinto shrine tucked behind the shopping complex. Several visitors are praying and making offerings.

As we take this in, we turn around. Sure enough this is what we’d come for. A shrine with a view: the beautiful, open sky Mount Fuji summit.

We are thankful for the service of two shrines — one that showed us the way from the base, and the other that gives us the view. To take the bus, the short way, just wouldn’t have been the same.

The cliche goes that life is short. And with that, we speed up. And with that speed, we sometimes miss the opportunities that shouldn’t be missed — like the opportunities to slow down, to connect, to catch up, to enjoy the journey — and to truly see Mount Fuji.

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Details on Climbing Mount Fuji

We visited Japan in May. During this time, the path to Mount Fuji summit was closed because of snow and trail conditions. The hike from Fuji Sengen Shrine at the base to Kawaguchiko Station 5 (2,300 meters) takes approximately 5-6 hours at a manageable pace. The hike is free.

Mount Fuji summit is only open to climbers in July and August. Most people take a bus to Kawaguchiko 5th Station and begin their climb there, spend a short night at a mountain hut between 7th or 8th station, and rise very early the following morning to catch the sunrise at Mount Fuji Summit.

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Disclosure: Our Discover Japan tour was provided by G Adventures in cooperation with its Wanderers in Residence program. As always, the opinions expressed here are entirely our own.

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 31 comments

So where to get started?

Our recommendation: begin with Buddha — more specifically, the Great Buddha at Kotokuin Temple. Dating back to 1252 and weighing in at 121 tons, this massive bronze Buddha sits meditatively, eyes partially closed. Perhaps he meditates for all of us (especially those of us who don’t meditate enough), and shoulders a few of our concerns.

Pause for a moment. It’s oddly calming.

Panorama: Great Buddha (Kotokuin Temple) in Kamakura, Japan

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Disclosure:We extended our stay in Tokyo at our own expense, including the experience above in Kamakura. However, the rest of our trip to Japan is provided by G Adventures in cooperation with its Wanderers in Residence program. As always, the opinions expressed here are entirely our own.

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 22 comments

A G-rated reality wrapped in the potential for a XXX-rated fantasy.

As Bill Murray said in Lost in Translation, “This is hard.”

What Is a Japanese Maid Café?

Maid cafés first entered our realm of interest when one of our Japanese readers suggested we seek one out to appreciate the finer points, or perhaps the further reaches, of modern Japanese culture.

To vet the idea further, we asked our guide, Pascal, if he could recommend any maid cafés. His response: he whipped out a frequent visitor for one.

An interesting sign.

We dug deeper. “What’s it like?”

You go there and you order food or a drink and the maids do things for you, special things for you, they take care of you. They stir your drink, maybe bring you extra ice cubes.

I’m picturing gymnastics, fireballs and all sorts of nudity. My interest growing, pitching and heaving, by the second.

He intimated, however, that it’s all clean.

Interest waning. Clearly, we were lost, lost again in translation.

Seeing my disappointment, he continued, “But they can do a ‘shaka-shaka’ dance for you.”

We were confused.

There, in the middle of the high-speed train from Kanazawa to Hiroshima, Pascal stood up, formed a heart by ringing the fingers of each hand, joining them together into the shape of a heart against his chest, and bobbed back and forth singing “shaka, shaka.”

Those maids clearly made an impression. Our interest: maxed out. I got that interplanetary feeling.

We asked him to do it again so we could take a video. Rather wisely, he declined.

Maid café. Now on the “Tokyo, before you split” bucket list.

Searching for a Maid Café in Akihabara, Chasing Young Girls in Bunny Suits

We met Soness, our newfound friend and the official English-language voice of Hello Kitty, at Akihabara station. In all her years in Japan, she’d never been to a maid café. It was time to do something about that. Engulfed in a sea of electronic pop culture, Sega and Taito buildings, games and sounds, beeping and buzzing, streams of humanity rippled deliberately in all directions and we struck out to find ours.

“Where should we go?”

Then we saw two women in French maid-meets-bunny outfits, bunny ears and all, pasteled as if they’d crawled out of a giant Easter basket.

“Let’s follow them.”

They were fast bunnies. We trailed them down the main street, across a big intersection, onto a side street and finally up the stairs inside an unmarked building. They ducked into a nondescript white door and disappeared. A video production company? Maid tryouts? Porn? Nobody knows, but clearly they weren’t doing the shaka-shaka dance for us anytime soon. Comic.

We pressed our ears against the door. Silence. No din of customers talking, women singing, anime music blaring.

No shaka-shaka. Tragic.

We realized we probably looked like stalkers. We were done with the bunnies, this chapter of our Alice in Wonderland Tokyo adventure was over.

Inside a Maid Café: Maidreamin’

Back on the main street, we looked up amidst the flashing lights and signs and saw this:

Up to the fourth floor we went; we knocked on a white door with a small sign pasted on it: “Maidreamin”. The door opened and a group of Japanese girls with high-pitched voices welcomed us with warbles, claps, cheers, bows and a whole lot of jumping. No, not ordinary jumping — that sort of jumping where the legs scissor out like a pocket knife and the feet never leave the ground.

Never had we felt so popular, except maybe in Bangladesh.

Inside and to our left stood a three-tiered bar with pink benches. Men sat scattered, drinking glasses of juice. It reminded me of Hollywood Squares. To our right stood a tiny stage, empty. Further back, a booth of young Japanese men with giant hair snapped photos of bowls of eggs and rice. A table full of young Japanese women, perhaps university-aged, gathered nearby.

We’d been warped to another world. There was nothing high tech about the place; just simple white tables and an oozing, bubble-gummy pink décor. This warp came, however, with a price tag. We could take a seat in the Hollywood Squares section for a fee, fetch a table for a premium or sit on a couch for the highest. We chose the table, middle of the road.

A young woman with cat ears took our order, a package deal of an omelet over rice, a juice drink and a photo with our favorite maid. She had us write our names down so she could draft personalized cards for us.

As our food arrived, our maid stepped back to teach us a song. She motioned for us to cup our hands together to make a heart and urged us to move side to side, like we were doing a slow wobble — not quite a shaka-shaka dance.

I was certain this was a cult. A Japanese French maid worshipping cult. Kool-aid was likely being stirred in the back as we shimmied.

Then our maid led us in song, something about how delicious our food would be. “Yum!,” we chanted as a sort of anime-inspired blessing of our food.

At our request, our maid drew Hello Kitty in ketchup on top of our omelet, squirting out something vaguely cat-like onto the yellow puck of egg in our bowl.

Each time our maid approached, there was a flutter of claps and a high pitched cheer. Before we knew it, our voices rose a couple of octaves and we found ourselves clapping, meting out the occasional cheerleader-type “Yay!”

“But what about the shaka-shaka dance?” I asked.

Our maid looked puzzled. She even called another maid over, inquiring as to how we might get our own special shaka-shaka.

Nobody here knew the shaka-shaka.

I needed a drink. Several, actually. Throw in a few mind-altering substances so I could catch up with what was going on.

At the next table over, a young man spoke to his maid through a Teletubby hand puppet. The bounce policy is very loose at this maid café.

When I am benevolent dictator of the universe, all troubled beings will be given a Teletubby hand puppet.

Just as we were beginning to become one with the universe, our maid reminded us that our hour was up. It was time to have our photo taken with the maid of our choice. After a prolonged deliberation: “She looks more real….No, maybe that one, she’s cuter…No, maybe that one, I like her hair.” We landed on our maid and were called to stage.

One of the other maids grabbed the instant camera. “Act like a cat,” she said.

Audrey and Soness did as they were told. I however, acted like a ram. Clearly I need some remedial animal impression lessons.

And some help.

Smiling for the camera at Maidreamin’ Maid Café.

Maid Cafés and Japanese Culture?

So where does all this fit?

This is a point of great speculation in our household. I’ve even considered taking a sabbatical. Were I to spend seven whole years in Tibet contemplating this, I’m certain I would be no closer to understanding why. But I can speculate.

Japanese society is conservative, traditional, strict in its own ways, which is perhaps why fantasy, of which anime is perhaps the most prevalent manifestation, is everywhere. It’s why you see men in business suits reading anime porn on the subway, it’s perhaps why young girls dress up in cosplay costumes on the weekend in Harajuku.

So maid cafes? A curiosity? A release? An escape? From the pressures and expectations of society, work, family, of life, perhaps.

You look for your temporary suspension of what is in exchange for what can be. You look for the shaka-shaka dance and you hover over ketchup-decorated omelets dished out by young Japanese girls in short skirts.

It doesn’t matter if you are male or female, you watch your fantasy unfold in real life – if only for a short time. At the maid café.

How very Japanese? How very Japanese.

——

A few notes on visiting maid cafés in Akihabara, Tokyo

Tokyo’s Akihabara district – the center for computer game parlors, electronics, and all things anime – plays host to the greatest concentration of maid cafés. Take a stroll down Chūō-dōri street and you’ll find women in maid outfits on the streets advertising their cafés, each sporting a slightly different outfit or character angle. For the uninitiated, just go with whatever looks like fun, or better yet, make them sell you on the street so you can get a feel for what the café might hold inside.

Once you enter the café, charges will begin to rack up. You’ll pay an entry fee. In our case, how much we paid was based also on the style of seat we chose – community bar, private table or couch – by the hour. Fun, quirky, puzzling, but by no means inexpensive. Most cafes forbid personal photos inside, except of the food. Entry fee for three, a table for one hour, an unremarkable meal of an omelet on rice, two juices and a beer ran about $65.

Disclosure: We extended our stay in Tokyo on our own dime, including this experience above. However, the rest of our trip to Japan was provided by G Adventures in cooperation with its Wanderers in Residence program. As always, the opinions expressed here are entirely our own.

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 36 comments

After you’ve visited Tsukiji, you may never look at that piece of tako (octopus) or toro (tuna) in quite the same way ever again. Outside of the seas themselves, it doesn’t get any fresher than this.

Once the famous tuna auctions wind up in the wee hours of the morning, the wholesale market opens to the general public.

As with many things Japanese, the market features a confluence of efficiency and quality, with a dose of matter-of-fact, what-you-see-is-what you get freshness. Vendors move quickly and deliberately, packing their fish and shellfish in ice while scooters and seafood lorries buzz through the main corridors. All this action underscores that this place is the heart of Japan’s fresh fish distribution network.

Amidst the commercial, there’s also a family feel that runs deep. We’re told some Tsukiji market family-run businesses go back over 20 generations (take a moment to do the math). The person — often the family matriarch — stays perched in a little booth at the back of each stall, handling the money.

When you’ve reached a point of market saturation, take a walk outside to sushi alleys six through nine. Some bars feature waits of up to three hours, but don’t be deterred — even the lesser known ones offer generous dons of dazzlingly fresh sashimi sculptures over mounds of sushi rice.

This is our breakfast of champions.

Open the panorama below to get a sense of what it feels like to be amidst the bustle of Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo.

Panorama: Tsukiji Fish Market, Tokyo

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Articles About Japan

From Remote Control Toilets to Konbinis: Japan First Impressions

Next Up: Going Big in Japan

A Mother’s Day Slideshow and Message of Peace from Hiroshima

Photos from Japan

Japan travel photos

Disclosure: Our trip to Japan is provided by G Adventures in cooperation with its Wanderers in Residence program. As always, the opinions expressed here are entirely our own.

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 29 comments

No business is too big to be thankful to Inari, the Shinto god of rice, sake and prosperity. Although it may be tempting to take rice for granted or to see it as digestive filler, the traditional association between rice (and sake, a rice-derivative alcohol) and prosperity endures. In Japan, rice is of both symbolic and real importance. It’s rare to have a meal without it.

Before you find yourself fighting the urge to speed through the tunnel of vermillion, be sure to spend some time below the gates at the actual Fushimi Inari Shrine, Japan’s most significant Inari site, founded in 711. There you’ll witness the flow of Japanese people of all ages praying, paying homage, writing their wishes on colorful ema boards, and buying special charms called omamori in hopes that their aspirations of finding a spouse or succeeding in an exam will someday be fulfilled.

If you are visiting Kyoto, we highly recommend taking a few hours to visit Fushimi Inari Shrine in the early morning. The light is spectacular. On your return to the station after climbing through all those torii, be sure to stop off at the Zen Buddhist complex at Tofuku-ji for a hefty dose of serenity as you gaze at its Zen rock gardens.

Now, open up the panorama below and get lost in the wonder, color and light of 10,000 vermillion gates.

Panorama: Torii (Gates) of Fushimi Inari Shrine – Kyoto, Japan

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Articles About Japan

From Remote Control Toilets to Konbinis: Japan First Impressions

Next Up: Going Big in Japan

A Mother’s Day Slideshow and Message of Peace from Hiroshima

Photos from Japan

Japan travel photos

Disclosure: Our trip to Japan is provided by G Adventures in cooperation with its Wanderers in Residence program. As always, the opinions expressed here are entirely our own.

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 20 comments

But I digress. (Why I am here on the topic of Japan, talking about toilets? After all, toilet talk is rather un-Japanese.)

Travelers and tourists are often taught to look to historical sites for cultural insight, but Japan evinces plenty of culture in the seemingly everyday. It’s clear that the country has a long and deep history — complex, with nooks and crannies, cultural twists and turns, and sweeping evolutions. However, while I’m tempted to share my first impressions of Japan’s Buddhist and Shinto shrines, I’ll instead first share the cultural bits in the current, the white spaces of travel.

1. The world’s most advanced toilets.

Ah, my first remote controlled toilet. My first heated toilet seat. And specially placed water jets to clean places you never thought to clean with a specially placed water jet. That’s a first, too.

Audrey muses that the Japanese invest so much money in their toilets because it’s their only alone time. OK, that and hygiene, and an appreciation for all things French, including the bidet. Or maybe this focus satisfies a Japanese inclination to innovate and perfect — in this case — all imaginable bathroom experiences into one unit.

When you gotta’ go, there’s never a dull moment in a Japanese toilet.

2. Salarymen: work hard, play hard.

In Japan’s cities, at any hour of the day or night, you’ll find men in dark suits and ties making their way. They are the Japanese version of businessmen, they are salarymen.

You’ll see them at pace making their way to work. You’ll see them consuming anime pornography on the train platform. Maybe you’ll even see them stumbling red-faced out of an izakaya (beer restaurant), giggling, on their way to the last train home that evening.

Japan: Work hard, play hard?

3. The konbini, the Japanese convenience store.

The konbini is the Japanese incarnation of the convenience store. From the outside, one might appear ordinary, but in Japan there’s something different.

Portable food, hand-packed and replenished multiple times a day. Onigiri, triangular rice parcels, bento boxes and an entire wall devoted to energy drinks. There’s even a section for plastic-wrapped white button down shirts for the salaryman who didn’t make it home from last night’s business-and-beer bender.

Japanese people spend a lot of time at work and on the go. Konbinis, their stores of convenience, fuel them.

4. Create space where there is none.

One of the prevailing images of Japan: a lot of people, and little space — particularly in the Tokyo subway. But even inside a Japanese train full of humanity, the atmosphere never quite felt claustrophobic. Nothing like in so many other places the world over, where noise pervades and people bounce off each other like pinballs.

In Japan, all those people seem to create space where there should be none. But how?

Quiet, respect and order. Mobile phones are turned to silent; no one talks on the phone in enclosed spaces. People speak in soft tones. There exists a respect for the space of others, and a willingness to do what it takes to maintain that order.

Just witness the disgorging of a packed train at rush hour and the hum of all those shuffling feet.

You just have to be in it to fully appreciate it.

5. Politeness and consideration first.

While bicycling in Takayama, Audrey almost ran into a young schoolgirl crossing the street. In response, the Japanese student bowed and smiled rather than becoming upset.

Even the elevators are trained. In one, after a crowd of people piled on, the LED display read “Sorry! This elevator is crowded!”

There’s a lot of “sorry” in Japanese discourse. No need to get angry where there is no need. No need to blame.

To some, this politeness and courtesy may seem robotic. To us, it was deliberate. In one instance, Audrey and I took the remaining seats on a train, on opposite sides. A Japanese woman next to me looked up from her book, said “change” and pointed to Audrey, indicating that she would move so we could sit together. In a flash, the woman moved and was immediately reabsorbed into her book, while Audrey and I were reunited yet again.

We witnessed this level of courtesy repeatedly. It was the rule, in no way the exception.

Some might find all this respect and consideration boring. We found it refreshing. And after a couple of weeks amidst it all, we felt spoiled. There’s only one catch: in order to feel like you fit, you must show it, too.

Fortunately, that’s not very difficult.

6. Pachinko: gambling with steel pellets.

The Pachinko parlor, where the pinball machine and slot machine collide. You’ll know you’ve found a Pachinko parlor when you open the door to find rows of people seated at vertical pinball machines, boxes of metal balls at their side, loading them amidst a deafening roar.

We went inside a Pachinko parlor to try it out. We were confounded. You purchase silver balls (reminiscent of large BB pellets) and insert them via a tube slot into the top of a machine with arcade controls. It’s supposed to be fun, we hear. And money supposedly flows if you figure out how to work the machines. We never did.

7. Everything is a process.

In a previous life, I taught statistical process control, a practice whose roots can be found in Japanese manufacturing. You’ll see the cultural manifestation of this art-meets-science everywhere in Japan, no less so than on high-speed trains. We sat in the forward car of one to get a clear view of the driver. He checked his plan, he drove his train, he checked the tracks. Then he repeated it all, sweeping his hand across his field of view to somewhere on the side of the tracks, to an end we never quite figured out. In any event, the motions were all deliberate. The checks all deliberate, too.

Little, if anything, is left to chance.

This isn’t about being robotic, but about doing things deliberately and understanding the process, as well as how that process influences the result.

8. No garbage cans. No trash, either.

How can a country with public spaces so clean feature almost no public garbage cans? This takes some getting used to. It also takes filling your pockets with a bit of rubbish or carrying your own little bags of trash.

In Japan it’s one’s personal responsibility to take care of one’s trash, meaning that you typically carry it with you until you return home or to a hotel. This is why you almost never see trash left behind on subways, trains or in other public spaces.

9. Vending machines galore.

The colors and design of Japan’s vending machines mesmerized us. Almost any drink imaginable is available: energy drinks, collagen drinks (for beauty, of course), beer, even little sake boxes.

Everything to drink, but nothing to eat. Why?

Drinking on the street is acceptable, while eating on the street is looked down upon.

10. A whole lot of words.

When it comes to their own language, the Japanese are a people of many words, especially it seems for the smallest of transactions or questions. Buy a bottle of water or ask for the location of a bus stop and you may be sitting there for several minutes listening to a sort of conversational routine that includes a summary of what is happening, what question is being asked, what the solution is, an alternative repetition of the solution, a third way, and then an offering of thanks and good day.

It confounded us at first to watch our guide have long conversations in Japanese, only to report back something as simple as, “The bus stop is across the street.”

11. Trains really do run on time.

You know the old chestnut about how you can set your watch based on when your Japanese train passes Mt. Fuji? Well, it’s true.

In two weeks of frequent train travel, only one of our trains ran late, by two minutes. Our guide, experienced in the ways of Japan, was shocked. We’re certain the employees responsible for the delay got a talking to.

12. Sidewalk braille.

Upon our arrival in Japan, one of the first features we noticed were all sorts of texture-coded yellow strips on sidewalks and inside buildings. We figured these lines were intended to draw walking lanes, to help provide order to the way people moved.

Our guide later clued us in that these were for blind people so they could walk comfortably through cities; different patterns and textures under your feet to signal stops, crossings, turns, traffic lights and the end of train platforms.

Brilliant. And considerate.

13. Presentation and design are king.

Head to the basement of any large department store to the prepared and specialty food area and you’ll know what we mean. Everything from the smallest piece of fruit to the most elaborate sushi bento box is beautifully displayed. If you’ve ever wondered whether it was form or function that came first, ask the Japanese and they might fairly tell you both.

The importance of presentation manifests itself most perhaps in Kaiseki dinners and Japanese tea ceremonies. In the Kaiseki dinner ritual, value is not only found in the beauty of what is being served, but it in the beauty, size, color and pattern of the plates and bowls in which it’s all displayed.

This is also echoed in the Japanese traditional tea ceremony, where the host takes an opportunity to leave the room so guests can discuss the merits of the instruments being used to serve the tea.

14. Onsen

For those of you who’ve been Japan, the word onsen is code for something special. For those of you who’ve never been, this is motivation. Onsen is the word for hot springs, but also describes communal bathing facilities. You can find them not only in nature, but also in many hotels and Japanese Inns. We enjoyed onsen several times along our trip, so much so that we almost took it for granted. When our hotel no longer featured onsen, we missed our twice daily dose of bathing.

With onsen, as with all things Japanese, there’s a process, there’s etiquette. There’s also relaxation and unwinding. And there’s a whole lot of cleaning going on.

15. Shy, but not closed.

Before traveling to Japan, we held an image of Japanese culture as one that is very reserved, almost closed. What we found during our travels, however, was something different.

Language can be a barrier, as many Japanese feel uncomfortable speaking foreign languages, especially English (or perhaps they feel unnecessarily imperfect in their mastery of it). However, if you initiate engagement you will find people who might at first come off shy, but who are eager to interact and do whatever they can to help.

Perhaps there’s no better example of this than the school children we met along our journey through Japan. Some needed a little coaxing, but most would eventually smile and laugh (and sometimes jump up and down and clap) when we would interact, answer questions and join in a photo-taking session.

Admittedly, this only barely scratches the surface of Japanese culture, a culture we could easily spend a lifetime trying to comprehend. But hopefully this gives you a taste of what a couple of interlopers — whose ideas of Japan were once confined to ink stamp vending machines and Lost in Translation — believed they learned in a short time.

—-

Have you been to Japan? What were some of your first — or lasting– impressions?

Disclosure: Our trip to Japan is provided by G Adventures in cooperation with its Wanderers in Residence program. As always, the opinions expressed here are entirely our own.

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 45 comments

Open up the 360-degree panorama below to see for yourself.

If you visit the island of Miyajima near the city of Hiroshima, be sure to carve out several hours to spend at Daisho-in Buddhist temple. Its grounds are covered in Buddhist statues of all shapes, sizes and decor. They’re not only a photographer’s dream, but they also tell the story of the diversity of symbols in Japan’s versions of Buddhism.

Be sure to hang around long enough, as it will increase the likelihood that you’ll catch a ceremony or two along the way.

Panorama: Henjyokutsu Cave at Daisho-in Buddhist Temple — Miyajima, Japan

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Articles About Japan

Next Up: Going Big in Japan

A Mother’s Day Slideshow and Message of Peace from Hiroshima

Photos from Japan

Japan travel photos

Disclosure: Our trip to Japan is provided by G Adventures in cooperation with its Wanderers in Residence program. As always, the opinions expressed here are entirely our own.

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 13 comments

Audrey has, but she enjoys the distinction of having eaten a hamburger there. In fact, she requested it. Insisted even. Forgive her though, she was only seven, it was her birthday and she was tired of noodles. But she did wear a blue kimono to make up for it.

No, this is not Audrey.

When people inquire about where we’ve been and we tell them that we haven’t yet been to Japan together despite having spent almost two years across Asia, they express disbelief: “How have you not been to Japan?!?!”

In turn, we feel a void, a gap, like we really missed something and passed over a place we should have visited long ago.

Now it’s time to correct that.

Why Japan?

Our fascination with Japan goes back, in part, to an outing in San Francisco’s Japantown in the late 1990s. It began in a row of addictive Japanese vending machines, including a booth that spat out a custom-made ink stamp based on a photo snapped of us. The image of our faces was then framed by and filled the windshield of a car — as if we were driving, on the road again. That stamp transformed us back into little children, full of the glee of simplicity and novelty. We applied that stamp to letters, random pieces of paper, anything we could get our hands on. I’d include a photo of the stamp here – it was silly and entertaining and frighteningly lifelike – but it has long since been tucked into a box somewhere.

Cheesy photo stamp-making vending machines as motivation for a trip to Japan?

Yes. This and a host of other pop culture goodies, history and personal advice all helped to plant and tend the seed.

In 2007, at the beginning of our trip, we met a travel and tour consultant that specialized in East Asia, including Japan. Why the focus there? To him, Japan represented “the perfect society.” Courtesy and respect amidst human compression and tight spaces of modern day population density.

Japan, however, always eluded us.

Then in early 2011, we made plans to live in Japan for a couple of months. But, the tsunami and earthquake struck.

We vowed to keep Japan in our sights and visit as soon as we could make it happen. We also hoped to see how it has bounced back.

What Means Japan?

I feel a bit sheepish when trying to describe what Japan means to me. Outside of a reading of Ian Baruma’s then freshly published Inventing Japan: 1853-1964, much of my mind’s image of Japan has been back-filled from a collection of dated bits of pop culture and grade school superficiality.

Speed and light. Moments and tableau. Lost in Translation, loneliness amidst a sea of humanity. Bright lights, big city. Seinfeld gave us the image of Japanese men sleeping in drawers with Kramer. Japan speaks traditional and modern. Geishas, white faces, bold colors. Pokemon and Hello Kitty. Fashion and custom, twisting and temporal. Propriety, formality, and the ultimate in organization to sustain a population stitched into a societal fabric spread across islands. On the flip side, an apparent suppression of emotion so strong that it’s said to produce some of the most profound pornography on the planet. (I am also told by Audrey that I will not consume such content while we are there. Maybe when we return?)

I was recently asked in an interview about where I most wanted to photograph, and answered that although India is likely at the top of my list in terms of places I’ve been it’s Japan – my personal unknown — that I now have a taste to capture.

But the real challenge will be to understand the story, the people, and the culture behind all those images. Clearly, this trip is just the beginning.

Our Japan Itinerary

We take off for Japan this weekend! We’ll start off with G Adventures‘ Discover Japan tour.

The tour will take us from Tokyo to Takayama, Kanazawa to Hiroshima, then Kyoto before setting us down at the foot of Mount Fuji for a climb. Our route will be dotted with temples, mountains, sake breweries, and a dose of sobering history. The trains, we’re certain, will run on time.

We’ll follow that up with 4-5 days of hanging in and around Tokyo on our own.

I want to see those Japanese cities of organized compression, people pushed into and subsequently disgorged from subway trains in as timely a fashion as possible. I want to be among those people.

I want to sing karaoke. I want to lavish red-faced in a steam bath.

And of course, there’s the food. Massaged beef, udon and sushi so sweet. And yes, we’ll go to that famous fish market that is scheduled to close sometime soon. I can assure you: astounding amounts of sushi will be eaten.

In spite of these few “musts” I have in my head, I’m not quite certain what I will find. I’m leaving myself open to Japan and I’m thrilled by the opportunity to explore.

I also know that Audrey has come a long way. This time, she tells me, she won’t be eating any hamburgers. But she may just look for another kimono.

——-

Join us on our journey through Japan! You can follow along on Twitter at #dna2japan or on our Facebook page. Don’t worry, we promise not to post too many photos of sushi.

If you have Japan suggestions- food, sights, karaoke bars or otherwise – for any of the places mentioned above, especially Tokyo, please let us know!

Disclosure: Our trip to Japan is provided by G Adventures in cooperation with its Wanderers in Residence program. As always, the opinions expressed here are entirely our own.

Photo credits to G Adventures

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 40 comments