Yoshinoya is the bomb! The food is decent, and it’s really fast. We timed their service and all the people in the restaurant got their order within 25-45 seconds of ordering. The staff was loud, yelling things in Japanese, and preparing food swift like ninjas, it was incredible! Their most popular dish is Gyudon (beef on rice) but I went for the pork on rice dish. This + some green tea comes to less than $4.

I’ve never cooked full shrimp before and these suckers were HUGE! They were the size of brats, and it was pretty nasty cutting their heads off with a crunchy snap. They tasted good though.

These tacos were inspired by the blog, All Things Japan. She made a post earlier this year about a Taco Bell care package her friend sent her. I was like “Whaaaaaaat!? No way!” So I had some friends send us some Taco Bell seasonings and supplies too! Sure you can get some Ortega seasoning here for about $4-5 (lame) and  it’s no Taco Bell. I forgot to take a picture of what our friends sent us, but here’s the final result. This made me realize how much I miss Americanized Mexican food.

Yeah, more like “Mmmm… naaaaaasty…” These sea snails were big, had a fishy taste, and a strange texture. They were cooked and came to the table warm. This was my first time eating them, so I thought “what the hell” and I ate them all. You have to dig them out of the shell with a toothpick or small fork and they the end result looks a little disturbing. I’ve never eaten an eyeball, but I’d imagine it would have a similar texture.

Here are a few sea snail videos from Youtube, bleh. Read the rest of this entry »

If you have any questions I’d love to try to tackle them. Maybe they’re about Japan, maybe about living in some other country other than your own. Whatever’s on your mind, feel free to send them my way through my contact form.

Some questions people have asked include… how did I learn Hiragana? How do you make friends, find a job, contact friends and family, get around without knowing Japanese, buy clothes that fit, money, food, health, taxes, bugs, boredom, and so on. By the way I will write up something about Hiragana soon.

It’s strange to see so much graffiti everywhere. It doesn’t matter what kind of neighborhood I’m in, there’s graffiti somewhere. Who does this? Why? And when? Seeing it everywhere gets old.

Maybe this picture I took will explain some things…

Beware of the Yukata Yanki!

(She's actually holding a water bottle... shhh our secret)

Here’s a picture of some bento my wife made for me. I love the variety of food and the presentation! I feel bad because her food is delicious, and that causes me to eat every meal pretty quickly instead of taking my time to enjoy every bite.

I took this picture with my phone. The mall is pretty big! This is where I found the awkward egg rolls.

We were doing some traveling so I we hit up a mall for some shopping and some food. That’s when I ran across this beast! For ¥390 I could have eaten two feet of egg rolls! These are the most awkward egg rolls I’ve ever seen, somebody could use them as weapons.

I thought this sign was funny. Because

1. It was in front of a chain restaurant entrance trying to get me to enter
2. It sounds like I was bartering with them for a while
3. 5% is a discount, not a bargain, and no where close to a final bargain

Now here’s what a Final Bargain should look like, up to 70% off, hellz yeah!