I have finally come to this post on what’s to eat in Japan. A list budget food, to be precise, which any working class from Malaysia should not have problem with the expenses.
1. Kaiten Sushi
Kaiten sushi is the conveyer belt sushi, not unlike our Sakae and Sushi King. For roughly around 100 yen to 120 yen, we can get a dish of 2 pieces of rather good sushi.
Our favourite is Musashi in Kyoto train station with large percentage of customer made up of working class.
Name : Musashi
Location : Inside Kyoto train station.
Uobei Sushi which is part of a large food group in Japan.
Name : Uobei Sushi
Address :2-29-1 Dogenzaka, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo.
Like a twin of Uobei Sushi but with larger seatings probably due to its suburb location.
Name : Kura Sushi
Location : 5 minutes walk from Nijo JR Station.
I don’t know what’s its Japanese name as we can only read the kanji, which translated as Yuan Zhu. The place is computer-free, so this scores a little for “human touch” aspect. The only thing I would complain is the cleanliness of its wet kitchen, which we unfortunately witnessed as we sat near there.
Name : Yuan Zhu Sushi Go Round
Estimated GPS : 35.659872, 139.697756
2. Gyudon (Beef Bowl) restaurants
Basically fast food chains service Gyudon, rice with grilled beef topping. For non-beef lover, they offers pork toppings too (Butadon).
Nakau serves Gyudon and Udon sets at unbeatable prices.
Remember Yoshinoya? It used to be in Malaysia but ceased out a few years back. While Nakau triumph for its price, in my opinion, Yoshinoya has better Gyudon and Butadon, as the meat were mostly grilled to perfection.There’s a way to save on Yoshinoya meal though, is to get the discount coupon after your first visit. The coupon will valid for a few days (if I remember correctly) to get certain sets for discounted price.
3. Udon
Udon near University of Tokyo.
While Nakau serves decent udon, there are some very good udon shops in University of Tokyo area. My apology as I could not provide the name, as I forgot to take a photo of the shop front. That’s because we were too engrossed looking at its window, where the chef kneads the dough skillfully. The chef only prepares a handful of udon each day and they are sold out within one or two hours.
If you’re craving for udon in Hiroshima, then Sanuki Udon Hanamaru is the place to go. Good udon, good price and opens till 11 pm.
Name : Sanuki Udon Hanamaru
Address : Kay Ai Building 1F, 4-1, Tatemachi, Naka-ku, Hiroshima-shi, Hiroshima
4. Ramen
Ramen, regrettably, was our least favoured food. We tried twice, once in the supposedly famous in Hiroshima and in Kyoto Ramen Street. Both scream awful with the greasy porky soup.
5. Street Food.
When it comes to street food, Takoyaki in Ueno Market wins hands down.
Tamago sold in Tsukiji Market.Tsukiji is the market that serves sushi as breakfast, provided one is ready to wake up early. We failed miserably in this so we got the after breakfast Tamago, not very cheap but easily the best Tamago around.There are a lot of street food that can be found in Nishiki Market, Kyoto, However they come with a rather hefty price tag minus the comfort of enjoying the food while being seated. Takoyaki at here is more expensive yet not as good as Ueno Market’s.
