Cheap Eats in Tokyo
Posted: Thursday, February 21, 2008
by Steve Miller
think tip central
When it comes to entertaining in Tokyo , most people think of a city full of spectacular neon lights, expensive restaurants and the famed Geisha. While in certain quarters, this may very well be true,when I was in this enchanting city for five days recently, I found a number of restaurants where you could have a good lunch for under $5 and a very filling dinner for under $10. On any given day, I must have passed no fewer than 25 small store-front establishments serving everything from sushi, tempura, udon (usually served as hot noodle style soup), soba (thin buckwheat flour noodles served hot as a soup or cold with an array of sauces) and set meals with tonkatsu (delicious deep fried and breaded pork- usually served with a sweet thick sauce), katsudon (fried pork cutlet over rice) as well as oyakodon (small pieces of sliced chicken, usually served with egg and vegetables over rice) and no doubt ninety other variations. Set meals often come with a small soup and salad, so for 900 yen or approximately $9, I couldn't complain. Too make things even easier, most of these small restaurants either had a vending style machine in the front of the shop with pictures and prices where you buy a ticket that corresponds to the food you want. If no machine is present, nine times out of ten, there are plastic models of the food restaurant sells in the front case. If your Japanese language skills are not up to par at that exact moment, feel free to point at what you want. There are so many tourists and other foreigners in Japan , that restaurant employees have no qualms about going over to the window with you. The most number of these types of restaurants are often gathered around subway and train stations. But believe me, you don't have to get out your Tokyo metro map to find a good meal.
When you are in Tokyo , you have to check out the lower levels of the large department stores. The B1 levels usually house large food halls. You can't eat in these places mind you. Normally, there are no tables to snack at, but you can buy very good and inexpensive gourmet food that you can take back to your hotel room to eat. Japanese don't walk and eat in public, so I wouldn't recommend doing it either. It isn't thought of as polite. I made great use of these lower level markets when I was a student living in Japan . I even hawked imported fruit in one of these food emporiums. Back in the 80's, as an American college student with blonde hair and green eyes, I was a bit of a novelty welcoming customers and imploring them to buy oranges. Needless to say, I had a lot of fingers pointed at me, but I sold a lot of food and ate very well. Another fun little adventure is going to the local supermarket. You will realize very quickly how much they resemble your own market, but that there are a lot more prepared and fresh foods to choose from, somewhat like Trader Joes and Whole Foods, if these ring a bell. Inevitably, like everywhere else, conversations will be started, smiles will be exchanged and a good will ambassador has been made.
Have fun and eat a lot.
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