Food

Published: at 07:20 PM

I will have quite a hard time structuring this page. I would like to start with bringing up the various dishes that I would recommend you to try while you are in Japan. The Japanese cousine is quite extensive and many of these might be unknown to you. I will also explain what they are, and if I have some specific recommendation, I will list that as well. There might be some overlap in the recommendations that I list here and the individual location guides that I have on this website.

Let’s start with the thing that you will visit most frequently during your trip, the convenience stores. There are three main ones that you see in the inner city. They are 7-Eleven, Family Mart and Lawson. In general all three offer similar things in terms of what you can buy, but they differ quite a lot in specific items. What I mean is that you might find drinks, foods, rice balls, magazines, but the variations that you will find in each differ quite a lot. I will list what I recommend you to try at least once. I have a slight bias towards Family Mart as I used to live close to one, and as I have some favorites there.

Family Mart

The things that you need to try at Family Mart is their fried chicken called “Famichikin” and their meat buns called “Nikuman”. Both you will find at the cashier. The nikuman can be quite difficult to find during the summer months as it is something that is most often sold during the winter, but there are Family Mart’s that have them during the summer, you will simply have to look around. These are amazing. The Famichikin are available almost any time, apart from very late hours such as past 12 am. If you get a fresh Famichikin, it will most likely be the juiciest chicken that you will have eaten. The also sell both in 7-eleven and Lawson, but I really recommend you to try the Family Mart first, even if you happen to find them at the other convenience stores first.

7-Eleven and Lawson

I really don’t have any particular recommendations in either. The riceballs at seven might be better than the others. I’ve heard that Lawson has the better sweets, something I cannot confirm as I’m not the biggest sweet tooth. If you ever are in the situation that you will bring home food from the convenience store to your hotel and have a convenience store dinner (something that I recommend to try once), I recommend you to go to the frozen section in 7-eleven and get the soupless noodles that you put in the microwave. I can’t seem to remember exactly what it was called, but it was something like “Taiwan soupless ramen by ramen shop KOKORO” with emphasis on “by ramen shop KOKORO”. It is a little bit spicy, but it is crazy how they have perfected the noodle’s firmness when this is microwave food. I haven’t had better quality microwave food (beware as it does give off quite a smell and might have quite a lot of garlic flavors). Seven also has very nice microwaveable dumplings.

Drinks

At all three convenience stores you will find a variety of drinks, from water to soft drinks to alcohol and more. I will be going over the alcohol section here. Basically all three usually have very similar selection of alcoholic drinks, and they all are quite cheap. Before going into drinking, there is one thing that is a requirement that you do. That is to buy something called Ukon no Chikara, aka the power of Ukon. This is basically a small shot of curcumin. For some magical reason, this prevents hangovers, and I am not exaggerating. 9 times out of 10 this simply prevent me from having a hangover the next day. I really don’t understand why this is not a thing abroad. It works for me, my brother and my friend, and most likely for you as well. The last 1 of 10 is when you really drink a lot, and I mean quite a lot. They have a stronger version of the normal Ukon no Chikara that might be worth a try, I usually get that. It basically says “Stronger” on the can. Just be careful to not get this on your clothes as you will most likely not be able to remove it. Read more about it here (and see pictures of how it looks like) (link)[https://nymag.com/strategist/article/ukon-no-chikara-drink-review.html].

Now that you have had your shot of Ukon no Chikara, we can go to the beverages. The Japanese beer is quite nice. The ones that you find in the convenience stores are not as good as the draft beer that you get at the restaurant, but they are not bad. I recommend Sapporo or Kirin, Asahi is also quite good. If you want to go the sweeter route, I really like one called Otokoume, it is like sweet sour cherry drink. Although I like it, some of my friends don’t seem to eager to get that. Then you have the Strong. Aka the Gaijin killer. This is a 9% alcoholic beverage. Why is it called the Gaijin killer? Because tourists usually gets this and think that they can handle it, but really can’t. You can buy these in 500 ml cans as well, and they are quite cheap. If I’m not mistaken, the 500 ml cans go for about $2. If you take two, you have a good start of the evening, as soon as you hit three, you are going towards a dangerous situation. I haven’t been with someone taking four. They usually don’t taste so good, the only one I recommend and drink is the one with lemon (make sure to not take the one with grapefruit, as they are very similar in appearance).

If you want to go a different route, you can buy so called cups with ice. They are in the freezer. These are usually used for iced coffee, but they can be used for various situation, i.e. alcohol. They are quite cheap at around $1 and double as a dilutant as time goes. If you are two or more, you can each get one of those, a couple of RedBulls or cola, and a spirit of your choice, something that the convenience stores have. Then you can simply mix your own drink that is cold. Pretty good bang for your bucks.

Types of dishes to try

Bikkomon

[TBC]