Ever wondered how you could order food in Japan when you can’t speak the language, well don’t worry the vending machine cafe’s are the place for you. There’s no need to go hungry ever again just pop your yen in the machine, select the item you would like for dinner from the photos and out pops a receipt ticket. Take this to the counter and presto your dish will be prepared in a mater of seconds in front of you- it’s that easy. There are plenty of vending machine restaurants around the major cities of Japan and they are amazingly cheap. For only a few hundred yen you can have a soup, rice and meat dish, salad and even a beer all ordered from the vending machine. Most of the restaurants serve ramen (which is noodles) or Gyudon which is a tasty meat stew and there is also a popular pepper steak franchise which serves sizzling plates of spicy steaks. The vending machine cafes are cheap, clean, and very tasty not forgetting the easiest way to order food in Japan. They are well worth a try. Read the rest of this entry »
Tokyo is one of the largest cities in the world and being so big it has a pretty decent transport system. At times like the morning and afternoon rush hours the trains can become overcrowded, sometimes reaching over 200% capacity. Because of this station employees formally known as “passenger arrangement staff” but nick named “Oshiya” (Pusher in English) are stationed on the platform to direct passengers to empty carriages and to help them into crowded carriages. Watch the video above and you will see what we mean. If you also think there may be a chance of getting felt up while in the packed train well the Japanese have a plan for that as well with special carriages for woman only known as Josei Senyo Sharyo. These carriages will have a image of a woman on the door and often feature a pink stripe along side of them and were put in place as many woman felt uncomfortable in the packed carriages due to the amount of groping incidents (known as chikan).
The Doton Bori Canal is the centerpiece of Osaka’s entertainment and nightlife district. The district offers an amazing atmosphere with colour, neon, music, people and aromic smells you can only find in Japan. Many of the city’s night spots, bars, gaming lounges including pachinko, restaurants and shopping can be found in the streets around the Doton Bori. The main meeting place and where Osaka celebrates is the Doton Bori bridge, here huge video and neon walls light up the night sky advertising everything from Pokey Chocolate to the latest Sports drink or beer. For those adventurous, Doton Bori is the place to try the infamous Fugu blow fish, this poisonous fish is deadly if not prepared properly and is not for the faint hearted, other tasty treats in the area include the Takoyaki Octopus Balls and Okinomyaki which is a tasty vegetable and sometime seafood pancake.
The Senso Ji Temple in Asakusa Tokyo is the city’s oldest temple and is one of Tokyo’s most popular tourist attractions. The Buddhist temple which is also associated with the Tendai sect is a Shinto Shrine and the focus of a huge festival held each spring which sees the surrounding street closed off for the festivities. Huge crowds flock to the temple every day, to burn incense and pay respect or to shop and eat at the dozens of traditional shops which sell just about anything especially catering for the tourist. The legend of the temple dates back to 628 when two fishermen brothers found a statue in the Sumida River, this statue was then enshrined with a temple. The temple was bombed during World War II and rebuilt today the temple stands as a monument symbolizing rebirth and peace. To make a day out of your visit a five minute walk to the west of the temple will get you to Kappabashi, Tokyo’s kitchen town where you can buy just about anything to do with cooking from plates to plastic food models. Read the rest of this entry »
Japan has some of the world’s more interesting museums, there the noodle museums, sewerage museums, salt museum…you get the drift but now we have found one which is even weirder…The Kiseichuu Hakubutsukan or Meguro Parasite Museum. Here you can see jars and jars of interesting parasites in all shapes and sizes. The star attraction of the museum in their 45000 item collection is a 8.8 meter long tape worm which once happily lived in a woman. There are all sorts of worms and wriggly things enough to turn you off your lunch and probably tomorrows as well. The museum like all museums features a gift shop at the end of the tour, and yes you can buy your very own parasites one of the best sellers is a parasite key chain- beats that Hello Kitty one they are selling down the street and for only Y210 its a real bargain. The Meguro Parasite Museum is located Shimomeguro, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, and only a few minutes walk from Meguro Station. – Just a word of warning no eating is allowed whilst veiwing the parasite collection. Read the rest of this entry »
Japan has a fascination with all things French, you might remember a few weeks ago we did a story on Tokyo’s Statue of Liberty, well they have a Eiffel Tower Too. Built in the late 1950’s at a cost of about 2.8 billion yen the Takenaka Corporation built a tower based on Paris’ much loved landmark. The tower is actually built with over 30% scrap steel recovered from war damage to the city and being made of steel it weighs in about 40% lighter than the Eiffel Tower. It stands 332.6 metres tall and is the tallest man made structure in Japan. The tower is used for communications and also has viewing platforms, plenty of dining options a huge aquarium and a host of shopping and smaller attractions. The tower is painted in a bright orangey red shade and over 28000 litres of paint is required to paint the structure. It was decided to make the tower this colour instead of the grey as used in the Paris tower for air safety. From Dusk the tower is light magnificently with huge floodlights and can be seen from many points in the city.
Tokyo has a few borrowed land marks, there’s the replica of the Eifel Tower, although in a bright orange paint job, Disneyland and the Statue of Liberty. Sitting proudly overlooking Tokyo Bay and the Golden Gate inspired Rainbow Bridge is a 1/4 scale of New York’s magnificent lady. It was originally only a temporary structure, the French gave it to Tokyo in 1998 to celebrate the French Year in Japan but the Japanese loved it so much a replica of the one the French gave them was commissioned and built on the same site. It is now one of Tokyo’s most photographed monuments. Just like the New York monument the statue is made of iron and green copper bronze, it even has gold leafing encircling the beautiful torch of freedom. There are quiet a few more Statues of Liberty in Japan most are on tacky ‘Love Hotels’ and there is another one in the American Themed city of Amerika-MuraOsaka in the heart of Osaka.
A museum dedicated to noodles may seam a bit odd but it fits right in in Yokohama Japan. When Ramen was introduced to Japan from China the Japanese embraced the food and even developed the instant ramen dish that is popular all over the world whenever you feel like noodles in 2 minutes. You may wonder how you could fill one floor of a museum dedicated to a fairly ordinary food product but the Ramen Museum fills 3 floors with a recreation of Tokyo in 1958 (the year instant ramen was created), a gift shop and of course places to try out you favorite ramen. there even is a small factory exhibit where you can create your own take away ramen. The Shin-Yokohama Raumen Museum and Aumusement Park as its one of those classic quirky Japanese attractions that is worth a visit, its located about 3 mins walk from JR Shin Yokohama station. Read the rest of this entry »
The futuristic city of Odaiba in Tokyo is know for it’s weird and amazing architecture and the Fuji TV centre is right up there with the best. The centre houses their offices and studios for many of their live shows and dramas. The Iron Chef which has a huge cult following was filmed at the centre between 1993 and 2001. Today huge shows like Ainori a dating program, Shikaotoko Aoniyoshi the Fantastic Deer man and 1 litre of tears are filmed there along with countless game shows, news and sport programs. The studios have a little blue dog you might see on some Japanese programs his name is Laugh, if you are really lucky when you visit you might get to see this fury critter mascot greeting the crowds. You can take a self guided tour of the complex and even visit the huge spherical lookout at the top, and on many weekends there are live shows and events being held in the court yards around the complex so you will have hours of fun. You might even be able to get yourself into the studio audience of one of the zany Japanese game shows.
If you were an Iron Chef and wanted to deck out your kitchen stadium the best place to go for kitchen equipment would be Kappabashi in Tokyo. Kappabashi is Kitchen Town and it lies between Ueno and the electronics mecca of Asakusa. Here you can buy anything you would need to start up a kitchen from chopsticks, to uniforms to plates and saucers even those amazing plastic food models you see everywhere in Japan. There are hundreds of shops many specializing in different types of kitchen goods, for example Hashito sells chopsticks, and a shop called Tanaka sells lacquerware, and then there Kamata who sells knives. The plastic food shops are amazing, one good one is Maizuru, you can virtually find any type of food here all in resin, from noodles to steak, from sushi to eggs and even full seafood platters and buffets- the range is amazing- but they don’t come cheap some costing thousands of yen. But for the tourist there are some smaller affordable ones, and they have a good range of novelty fridge magnets and the like. The easiest way to visit Kappabashi is catch the Ginza line train and get off at Tawaramachi Station then its only a few blocks walk from exit 3. Most of the shops are open six days a week being closed on Sundays.
