What’s great about Japan is that everything is fancy and there are always something new. “season specials”, “limited edition”, and almost all shops and restaurant would highlight “No. 1”, “No. 2”, “No. 3” popular items for easy reference. These are all marketing gimmicks but they work!
Ramen is one of the most popular foods in Japan. It’s quick and easy. Starting in Fukuoka in the 60s, Ichiran has been one of the most famous ramen restaurants and now have branches in many prefectures in Japan. There are about 14 branches in Tokyo, more than the number of branches than it’s home base Fukuoka.
Chayamachi is Osaka Kita’s most popular downtown area for young people. It’s a modernized area with trendy stores such as Loft, NU and NU+ shopping malls, HMV, coffee shops, boutiques and many eateries. There is a good mix of young culture and business people. I like this area because there is a good wide variety of things to see, places to shop and eat.
Tofu cuisine is one of the famous delicacy in Kyoto. Like many other types of food, tofu and beancurd (Yuba in Japanese) are cooked in many different ways to create a variety of food. The most common types are tofu in hotpot and beancurd meal. If you like good food, always make a reservation in the famous restaurants, particularly for dinner at the weekends or high seasons such as the cherry blossom period. It’s quite challenging to find the restaurant you like without having to stand in a queue for over an hour because every one wants to have dinner at the same time: after sightseeing and shopping. One of the best possible option is to head over to the JR station (in key cities) which always have some connecting buildings and department stores that have restaurant floors. I noticed that many of the restaurant chains have branches in key JR stations, making it easy to have decent food from well-known restaurants.
Do you know how many vegetables you need every day for a healthy diet? 350 gram according to Camp, a restaurant chain that specializes in vegetable curry in Japan. They serve vegetable curry with their own secret recipe of curry with rice. And you may choose the portion of carbohydrates (rice) and spiciness (from light to very hot).
