Re: Japan trip report, with pics
 

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It took us a while to figure out "Makudonarudo," but we had a good laugh once we did.

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This place has a scary looking clown as it's mascot, right?

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You got it.

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I walked into the one on Takeshita dori intending to grab a coffee. I looked up and saw a big ad for a "McPork". had to have one. since i was at McD's, I decided to try the fries to see if they were the same as back home (they were). McPork was ok-kind of like the sausage from the breakfast menu, but not as spiced. if I could do it again, i'd have tried the fliet-o-shrimp, but I saw it too late and never got the chance to order one later. that actually looked like it had potential.

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"Ebi Filet-O" is actually very good (but the one at mosburger is better, IMO)

Re: Japan trip report, with pics
 

Just want to pile on in the "thanks for the awesome trip report" crowd. Really good stuff.

Re: Japan trip report, with pics
 

very cool....did you go to one of those restaurants where you sit at a bar and all the raw food is in front of you and a couple of guys are kneeling there cooking whatever you want on little grills? I forgot what they called this.

There'd be a waiter behind you YELLING what you're pointing at for the griller guy to make. Then your food gets served to you from the griller on something like a long pizza paddle. Even the beer was served this way!

One of my all-time restaurant experiences. Tokyo was amazing for food.

Re: Japan trip report, with pics
 

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It took us a while to figure out "Makudonarudo," but we had a good laugh once we did.

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This place has a scary looking clown as it's mascot, right?

[/ QUOTE ]

You got it.

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I walked into the one on Takeshita dori intending to grab a coffee. I looked up and saw a big ad for a "McPork". had to have one. since i was at McD's, I decided to try the fries to see if they were the same as back home (they were). McPork was ok-kind of like the sausage from the breakfast menu, but not as spiced. if I could do it again, i'd have tried the fliet-o-shrimp, but I saw it too late and never got the chance to order one later. that actually looked like it had potential.

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"Ebi Filet-O" is actually very good (but the one at mosburger is better, IMO)

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oh, man, I wish we had a mosburger in the bay area. we had one in waikiki when i was in high school and it was a damned fine fast food joint. haven't eaten there in over 15 years, so i'm not sure if my positive recollection is mostly nostalgia with a bit of teenaged "eat anything appetite" mixed in, or if they were actually good. I remember them to be great, though.

Re: Japan trip report, with pics
 

WOW, i would love baseball so much more if we learned to do it how the Japanese do. The organized cheers are AWESOME.

this is truly an excellent trip report thus far and I'm psyched to one day visit Japan.

Re: Japan trip report, with pics
 

Never been to Japan but Asia is great. Hope to go their next [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: Japan trip report, with pics
 

trip report keeps getting better.

Re: Japan trip report, with pics
 

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very cool....did you go to one of those restaurants where you sit at a bar and all the raw food is in front of you and a couple of guys are kneeling there cooking whatever you want on little grills? I forgot what they called this.

There'd be a waiter behind you YELLING what you're pointing at for the griller guy to make. Then your food gets served to you from the griller on something like a long pizza paddle. Even the beer was served this way!

One of my all-time restaurant experiences. Tokyo was amazing for food.

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This is called robotayaki. I really wanted to go to one of these, but we ended up not having time.

Re: Japan trip report, with pics
 

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trip report keeps getting better.

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i hope this report never stops.

Re: Japan trip report, with pics
 

Food Part II: Kyoto

Kyoto was a fascinating city, but the coolest part was that we stayed at a ryokan. This is a traditional Japanese inn: no shoes allowed in the building, you sleep on the floor on a futon mattress, and the staff prepares traditional Japanese dinners which are served in your room. (This means you can eat dinner in your yukata, or robe.) Here's what the main part of our room looked like; at night, the staff took away the table and layed out the futon bed.

http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/4331/kyo1bp8.jpg

We even had our own mini-garden:

http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/944/kyo2rf0.jpg

The service here was ridiculous. We had our own dedicated attendant (who I think was assigned only to our room), and she had an assistant. They brought our food, prepared our bed at night, drew our baths, even brought cookies before bedtime. It was like having my own Japanese grandma for four days. When we were leaving the hotel one morning, the staff wouldn't let Mrs. Weir tie her own shoes; one of them swooped in, kneeled down and did it for her.

The first night we were there, we had a traditional kaiseki multi-course dinner in our room. There were 13 courses, most of which consisted of three or four small plates arranged by theme (grilled food, simmered food, sashimi, etc.). And everything was served on beautiful china and laquerware; according to the owner, some of the china was over 200 years old. Here are a few of the highlights:

http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/7493/dsc01611xc1.jpg
Sashimi course: tuna, sea bream, largehead hairtail.

http://img474.imageshack.us/img474/6403/dsc01623uo8.jpg
Grilled food course, clockwise from top left: shrimp pickled in salt; grilled sweet fish in miso and water pepper; grilled foie gras wrapped in beef, served with okra with miso; salt-pickled miniature peach in gelatin cube.

http://img474.imageshack.us/img474/2596/dsc01633qo7.jpg
Cold dishes course: thin wheat noodles with squid ink, squid and sea tangle, Japanese ginger.

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Dessert course: dragon fruit with pineapple sauce.

Altogether, probably one of the top three best meals I've ever had.

Our next morning, we had a traditional Japanese breakfast. This was kind of a culture shock; while it was good, I can't imagine eating this kind of stuff every morning:

http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/2269/dsc01663yc0.jpg

Rice, miso soup, pickled veggies, two types of tofu, some braised beef, a shrimp dumpling, and a big grilled fish (about 6 inches long):

http://img474.imageshack.us/img474/8707/dsc01660mn6.jpg

Our second night, we had a shabu-shabu dinner that our attendant prepared in our room. She basically brought in a huge hot pot filled with broth that she added veggies to: onions, mushrooms, water chestnuts, etc. Then she took very thin slices of raw Kobe beef and dipped them in the broth to cook them. You eat the broth and veggies like a soup or stew, and dip the cooked beef into soy or mustard sauce:

http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/5272/dsc02177bn8.jpg

http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/2503/dsc02186lj5.jpg

http://img474.imageshack.us/img474/2141/dsc02180ur4.jpg

This was a totally different experience from the kaiseki: much more hearty and simple. But it was totally delicious.

We had some other great meals in Kyoto, including lunch at a yudofu restaurant, a vegetarian tofu place located outside the gate of a Zen temple that's popular with the monks. But I'm starting to get food fatigue, so I'll spare you all.

Hope you guys are enjoying this; I'm out of town for the weekend, but if you want to see more, I'll post some people and sights on Monday.