Hey guys, I hope everyone is safe and well. It’s a trying time for everyone in the world so hopefully this album can bring a little happiness to you. This is my third time to Japan and I went for two weeks in January 2020, just before all this madness started.
On this trip I went to Osaka, Kyoto, Uji, Tokyo and Fukuoka. Fukuoka has amazing food and should really be on a lot of people’s list in the future.
[My 2016 album](https://imgur.com/a/u8LXY)
[My 2018 album](https://imgur.com/gallery/RPRFCG3)
[My 2020 album!](https://imgur.com/gallery/ojBzHdA)
And here are my top 5 experiences on this trip:
**Spice Chamber**, Kyoto
This is my new favourite Japanese Curry place in Japan. It’s a small little restaurant in Kyoto, run by a nice young couple. All they serve is this, and they do it well. It’s got around 8 bar seats and that’s it. The curry was really nicely spiced, and the cheese on top really balances it well. Also, the owner loves David Bowie and rock and roll, so the music was also pretty good.
**Ganso Tomato Ramen Sanmi**, Ramen Stadium in Fukuoka
This was tomato soup ramen in Canal City mall in Fukuoka. I’ve never seen tomato soup as a base for ramen, but it was really delicious! The cheese on top also adds a lot of flavour.
**Motsunabe Rakutenchi**, Fukuoka
WOW, this was awesome. It’s a giant hot pot with pork offal and random meat. You also get lots of cabbage and green onions and they give you rice. It was one of my favourite meals on the trip, and I think this was around 3000 Yen for the two of us.
**和気藹々**, Dazaifu, Kyushu
This was a little place near Dazaifu shrine in Kyushu. The curry was ok, but the most memorable thing was it run by just one woman. Maybe she didn’t have help that day, but she took customers in, served, cooked and did everything by herself in a restaurant of 20. She had to refuse service to some outside because she didn’t have time to clean the tables. Still, she took every effort to make the food look amazing and still served everything with a smile.
**Kaisen Misakiko Okachimachi**, Ueno, Tokyo
I went here more for the kitsch factor than the actual food. Who DOESN’T want their food delivered by a JR Train? It was just funny to have the train deliver my sushi to me. The quality of the sushi was your average conveyor belt sushi but it was a quick meal and memorable experience.
25 comments
awesome! saving your post so that I can check it later when I have money and when it’s safe to travel again 🙂
Thanks for sharing! It was quite the nostalgia bomb. I can’t wait to go back, try the food again, and explore new places. Funnily enough, I like to take a picture of each of my dishes as well and just take a look through them from time to time and replay the meal in my mind 😛
My favorite shots of yours were the one of the grill in Fushimi Inari in 2016 and the stall in Fukuoka at night. I’ll definitely add Fukuoka to my list of places to visit next time!
Really enjoyed it. Brings back a lot of memories.[Kanazawa castle ice cream.](https://postimg.cc/tYTgWnxH)
I too am a big fan of Todai at Kyoto Ramen Koji. Glorious stuff.
So many delicious things, thanks for posting.
Great post!
More people ought to listen to your advice about going to supermarkets instead of conbini for bento and snacks. It’s way, way, cheaper (especially if you go in the evening when things are discounted). I’ve compared Friday night snack runs and if I spend 2000円 at a supermarket the same stuff will easily be 3000円 at the local Family Mart.
Especially for alcohol; for as much as /r/japantravel likes to talk about Strong Zero I rarely see people mention how much cheaper it is at grocery stores.
Thank you for sharing this! I enjoyed your descriptions of each picture! I’m also impressed at all the different things you tried! I grew up eating home cooked Japanese food and I feel sad when I see people go all the way to Japan and eat nothing but ramen three times a day! We didn’t eat ramen once on our last visit! Okay… to be fair we did go to Coco more than…um… thrice? So I definitely spit some hopefully non-coronavirus laced water out when I read you ordered a seven! Wow!!! Ouch!!!!
Really timed your trip well
Thanks for sharing! I was just there in early March and I miss the food already!!
I sat at that very seat in Narita and had my final sushi!
Thank you for posting this! Now I’m really wanting some japanese food >,<
Genki Sushi in Shibuya is a great mag-lev sushi place too!
That weird ‘drink’ in the vending machine is Jikkurikotokoto corn soup. Just an instant cup of hot soup. They’re very tasty.
You’ve been to Japan three times and haven’t had the corn soup??? If you go again in winter I highly recommend it!
Good stuff. Always appreciate it when someone takes the time to add some context to each photo
Japanese curry is basically my favourite food, so I will have to try out Spice Chamber whenever this whole Covid madness stops and I can go to Japan again.
That being said, I really disliked Go!Go! Curry. I’ve had several other Japanese curries and quite frequently eat at CoCo because it’s pretty much everywhere and always easy to get when going back to my hotel(s) and when I tried Go!Go! Curry, I really disliked the overall taste. The thickness was fine but something about the taste just didn’t sit well with me.
Thank you.
Omg thank you!!
>Motsunabe
If more people could get over their aversion to eating offals, this would become one of the most popular Japanese food.
Hi hello. This was torture, sweet sweet torture. Thanks for sharing. Taking notes.
The “[seafood ramen](https://i.imgur.com/L1rbJqN.jpg)” you had in Kyushu is [champon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champon), an iconic Nagasaki dish
Thanks for sharing! GIves me an idea how much supermarket takeout is.
I enjoyed the photos. I visited Fukuoka in March and had some great food there. Did the original Ichiran shop “because”, but found it meh.
On a prior trip I had the Boss milk coffee for breakfast every day in airbnbs. This trip I stayed in hotels, which had no microwaves but did have Nespresso. I still drank a few bottles cold in the afternoon.
I walked past the Yatai in your pic, but like you I didn’t stop since it was raining a bit. The lack of English didn’t seem much of an issue as I could see what everyone else there was eating.
God I got wistful looking at your food pics. I was just in Japan last spring, and I miss CoCo, Ikinari Steak, konbini cuisne, and okonomiyaki already.
Highlights of the trip for me were soup curry in Sapporo, *gyutan* in Sendai, and a yakuniku place in Hiroshima…I think it was near Fukuromachi Park?
Definitely try going to Hokkaido next time you are in Japan. The food there beats Kansai and Tokyo in my opinion, especially the seafood and produce. Have been to Tokyo / Yokohoma, Kansai, and Hokkaido. Was planning to go to Hokkaido again this June, but because of the pandemic, will have to reschedule.
I also visited Spice Chamber during my visit last summer, small world! I loved their decor of vinyl records and I got a sticker from the owner 🙂 oh and of course, the curry was amazing! Having only one thing on the menu makes it easy to order even when you don’t speak a lick of Japanese