Today I was checking out some restaurants in Japan I might go eat at. Besides checking out what was on VVV6 the past year or so, I thought it would be wise checking out a few places I want to eat at as well. The thing is: last time I was there, even though I knew most things, it’s still sometimes hard to know what you’re actually eating. If you want to get the most out of the culinary experience, research required.

I ended up at this site, gournavi. I’m amazed there’s an English version. However! Do not let the budget amounts fool you, usually dishes start from that amount and it is not the average (however else it might say). You know how I know that? Because I traced the same restaurants on the Japanese end and ran them through translator. The Japanese gournavi site provides extensive menu information. Sometimes that is lacking on the English side. The English side promotes itself to be foreigner friendly, you can see that because there’s a lot of hotel restaurants in there ($$$). While that probably is foreigner friendly, that certainly isn’t your best priced meal. *pulls eyelid*. I can be cheapskate (I’m Dutch, it’s inborn), but honestly, them people will just have to bear with gaijin pointing at the damn plastic if I can see better restaurants from here that might not be “foreigner friendly”.

The only restaurant we literally got kicked out of, was an Okonomiyaki restaurant on the 2nd floor on the right side where Daimon station is. It was ran by this old hag of at least 70 years old. I think she panicked and didn’t want the hassle. Of course, I’m going to look that restaurant up and attempt to enter, again. Just so they can get used to it. lol. It sounds funny, but I will pick up a line to say somewhere in Japanese to tell people “as Japanese as possible” they’re fucking rude. I think I will need it once or twice, though overal, restaurant staff and cooks are absolutely friendly when it comes to foreign guests even when they don’t carry English menu’s. So this type of situation is very uncommon.

It’s probably still the most irritating thing about Japan. Not that they have more trouble speaking the language, but they’re too afraid of communicating with westerners and the nerves might lower their manners a bit. That is possibly because they think every white person is Amerika-jin and it is their primary language. *drumrolls* So how about I start talking Dutch or German to the first adult that manages to ask me that? lol. Wouldn’t want to scare the school kids you know, I have a heart.