Eating

When traveling to Tokyo, finding delicious and interesting food is important.  When speaking of Japanese food one tends to think about sushi and tempura, however, there are other Japanese foods that are just as good. Prices can be expensive, however if you search for it you can find really good food at good prices.

In general Japanese food tends to consist of rice, different kinds of beans, vegetables, agricultural food, and seafood.

For example a typical Japanese breakfast will consist of rice, grilled fish, Chinese cabbage, cucumber, Japanese pickles, and miso soup.

Whereas in America and Europe there is a certain order to the way one eats such as starters, for example salad and soup, and then the main meal, in Japan everything comes out at once. In Japanese cooking the left over raw food is collected the very things flavor becomes better. This simple artistic form of cuisine is very respected.
Recently, America’s fast food trend has become very popular in Japan.  Especially among younger Japanese, pizza and hamburgers have become very popular.

We realize that you want to eat good food at cheap prices, and therefore, want to introduce some cheap options.

♦ Convenience Stores

Convenience stores are often shortened to Conbini.  Japanese people depend very heavily on conbinis.  They sell sandwiches, onigiri (rice balls with fish and other things inside), and various bentos (Japanese style lunchboxes). Everyday young businesswomen and men buy their lunches from conbinis.  You can buy lunch with a drink for only about \500.

There is also Instant Cup Noodles. When buying them at the conbini there is also hot water available. If you choose to eat it immediately you can use the hot water, which is free, you will receive chopsticks for free too, however, it is not proper etiquette to eat inside the store, so please exit before eating.

♦ Fast Food Japanese Style
Fast food places are also an easy, fast, and cheap option. Gyudon, which is a beef bowl (beef and onions on top of rice) is also very popular.
Yoshinoya is a Gyudon restaurant that is famous all over Japan.  The average cost of a beef bowl is aroun¥380.

Gyudon fast-food stores:
Yoshino
Matsuya
Sukiya
Nakau

♦ Ramen
Ramen is originally from China, but has been adopted into Japanese cooking.  There are different variations of ramen all over Japan.  Japanese people usually eat ramen at least 1 time a week.  For the popular ramen restaurants there is usually a line.
There are basically 3 types of ramen soup, they are soy, salt, and miso.  In the old times in the outskirts of Tokyo they used to eat a basic ramen made from chicken and several vegetables that were cooked together.

Kyushu is famous for a ramen soup made from pig bones, and Hokkaido is famous for miso ramen.

♦ Hamburger Chains

Mos Burger
The meaning of MOS is Mountain Ocean Sun Burger.
There are also Mos burgers in Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong, but the ones in Japan are different because they have the chili dog and onion rings on the menu.

KUA’AINA Burger
This burger shop is originally from Hawaii and there are currently 12 shops in Japan.  Their burgers are big and juicy, and they also have various kinds of Delhi sandwiches including turkey, which can be hard to find in Japan.  Enjoy a traditional Hawaiian style burger without making a trip to Hawaii.