First Few Weeks in JAPAN!!! Part 2 FOOD!!

Our first week here we went out to a "sushi-go-round" with a family from church. IT WAS AWESOME!! If you aren't familiar with the term, this is how it works: You sit down at your booth and there is a conveyor belt that goes around the restaurant with various plates of sushi on it. The plates that the sushi are on are color coded for price. At this particular restaurant the prices ranged from about $1.00 (pink plate) to $2.75 (yellow plate.) The server counts the plates at the end of the meal and that is how they total your bill. It's great because you can just take whatever looks good to you and you don't have to worry about overeating because you can stop taking plates at any time! We have been to two so far. This one was a little nicer and had an incredible assortment of sushi. We have also been to a slightly less expensive sushi-go-round that is located right out the main gate that was 105 yen a plate for anything in the restaurant. It was pretty good too.
Cliff's happy sushi face :)
Our first weekend here... I think... one of the guys from Cliff's squadron and his wife took us out to a ramen house. Ramen over here isn't anything like the 10cent ramen packages you get in the states. It's really good! The dish pictured above was very spicy and had pork, bean sprouts, chili peppers, and scallions in it. It was delicious. I think we will be eating a lot of ramen when the weather cools down. I don't know if you can tell from the picture but the bowl was HUGE. Cliff and I split it and still were unable to finish it.
We also got some rice and gyoza (Chinese style dumplings) to go with our meal.
Here is a pretty typical boxed lunch/dinner from a grocery store. You can also buy these at gas stations and convenience stores here! I know that sounds strange and I would probably never buy a meal at a gas station if I could help it in the U.S. but it's common here. Everything is very fresh. This meal of sushi and cold soba was about... $3.50 or so.


Thus far into our adventure over here I LOVE the food. We have tried the ramen, the sushi (of course,) the katsudon (breaded and fried pork cutlet,) takoyaki (fried octopus dumpling,) and yakitori. We have also tried the Japanese curry rice and that is really good too. We love going out to eat even with the language barrier. We have learned a few Japanese words and phrases and the people here are so kind and friendly that we never feel uncomfortable. They are delighted when we attempt to speak their language, and we often do! Also, tipping is not customary in Japan so even though the difference is probably factored into the price - you don't feel like you are spending as much ;)