Most days, I stop by the convenience store in the morning to pick up some yogurt, small bento or sandwich for lunch and head to school. Our school doesn't have a cafeteria and it's not really practical for me to make a bento every morning for myself, so convenience store it is!
The weeks usually fill up with dinner with friends, dinner in Kashiwa before my Japanese lesson, or various events and outings so I find myself eating out a lot. In the states thats a no-go, super unhealthy and expensive...but in Japan, eating out is the easiest, most delicious, and best way to go for me!
Feast your eyes on what I have been eating lately...
TABLE BEET - Talk about some beautiful vegetables. I grew up eating my grandmothers incredible pickled beets (seriously, so good) so to have a restaurant in my hometown here called TABLE BEET was just so perfect. Along with some beautiful vegetables they also serve a mean cafe mocha.
KAITEN SUSHI-The life of a non-seafood-eating-human in Japan. Yes, yes all of you sushi lovers are shaking your head looking at this photo...but the truth is this is all I eat at sushi restaurants and I am perfectly content! Tamago (egg), corn+mayonnaise, and hamburger sushi!!
BASEBALL GAME BENTO - You know you're in Japan when they sell amazing beef bentos at baseball games. This one came with pickled veggies on the side...and the meat was so good!
ROKURINSHA - classis. This is a hot spot for tourist (mostly foodies) and locals who know a good bowl of tsukemen when they see it. The broth here is a littttttle too shrimpy for me but honestly its so good I don't mind!
GYUKATSU MOTOMURA - once again, the 4hour meal. Literally waited 4 hours for this plate of food. It may look simple, but BOY LET ME TELL YOU THE BEEF WAS OFF THE CHAIN. Next time I am going at an off hour and ordering two filets haha.
THIRTY-LOVE - this cafe is conveniently a 5 minute walk from my house and feels more like your best friend's mom's kitchen rather than a restaurant. It's that cozy! They have this crazy good katsu-donburi (amazing friend pork over rice smothered in delicious sauce and topped with EGGGG YUMMM).
*side note, in Japan it is not common to have to-go boxes. Probably because Japan actually has proper portion sizes so people can actually finish a meal. But this restaurant has to-go boxes so when I order the katsudon I get two meals in one!!
MARUCHO- this is a tiny restaurant down the back streets of kashiwa and is always booked months in advance. My coworker called in for us three of us to go and we got a tiny table there and enjoyed some really really good yakitori! The raw egg with the chicken meatball skewer was out of this world...and ironically, my fav was the bacon wrapped tomatoes which had no chicken at all but was so so good.
These beautiful looking onigiris are from the basement of kashiwa station. These are honestly the most beautiful inari I have ever seen and getting food in the basement of the shopping mall is one of the best parts of Japanese life.
SENJU- Yakinikuuuuuuuu!! My friends Mina and Aki took me here and we feasted on some amazing beef. Beef tongue is super popular here in Japan, it's a little too chewy for me, but this place had pretty good tongue!
On weekdays when I don't have a dinner to go to I usually stop by 7-11 next to my apt and get dinner. The food there is really good and this time I tried the buta tofu (pork tofu). They even warm it up for you at the store so you are good to go. I ate it while catching up on the NBA finals. *also, for size reference, that's my ipad not my phone!!
FESTA MARIO - Paella! Found this new spanish spot earlier this year and they serve a killer paella. This whole giant plate cost like $10 and this cheeze one was amazing. Definitely good to mix up the cuisine every once in a while so I always love coming here.
TRIBE VIBES - what a cool name right? This tiny burger spot is a bit of a walk from the station but they make one of the best burgers I've had. My friend got this one with a MARSHMALLOW INSIDE. YES, A MALLOW IN A BURGER WHAT? I got the super spicy one with jalapeno and hot sauce...amazing.
MOS BURGER- the McDonalds of Japan and the spot for rice burgers! NOMZZZ. You know you're in Japan when you can order a rice-burger at your nearby fast food spot.
This was another basement-floor-of-the-department-store lunch I had. How perfect is it? Two onigiri (love the umeboshi one) two karage, and tamago It cost about $3...so simple, so good.
7-11 TACO RICE!! For those of you who don't know, there is a thing that exists in Japan called TACOS RICE. It is basically all the delicious ingredients of a taco eaten over fluffy white rice. HAHA...I LOVE IT!!
TORIKIZOKU - the every glorious yakitori chain that serves up a plethora of delicious chicken on sticks, plus snacks, and drinks...everything you order costing $2 !!
So there you have it folks...just a few recent things in my food diary. As you can see, I am not lacking in good food options around me. Thankfully, I live in a very active country so the amount of food I consume is quickly balanced out by the amount of walking I have to do just to get around...so there you have it, the secret to a long happy life haha.
But really - come visit me and try for yourself!!