After some grim experiences eating with a group, solo dining has been more satisfying. Surprisingly, I had reverted to eating Chinese food because I got rather tired of eating Japanese food day in and day out.
Sushi at a local sushi restaurant,where the menu is entirely Japanese. Here the chef made for me his choices, including a sea urchin (on the extreme right) which is very much an acquired taste. The octopus is cooked and frankly speaking, is a bit chewy. 8 of these little pieces of food cost around £15. Some rare pieces of shell fish can cost as much as 600 JPN each, roughly £3.75.
A different take on sushi. Here the restaurant offers a choice of 13 pieces for a set price that includes miso soup. This restaurant, on the basement of the Diamond Centre at the Yokohama Station, is almost packed most nights. I feel completely at ease dining solo at Japanese restaurants because no one ever stares at me, and the queuing system is strictly in the sequence the diners appear at the door.
This is probably one of the more expensive tempura restaurants I have eaten at. It's on the 8th floor of the Takashiyama department store. The place is nearly almost empty, although the tables around the cooking area where food starts at 8000 JPY (£50) are almost always fully occupied. I love the freshness of the food and the dash of soya sauce in the rice. I haven't quite figured out how and when to eat the pickled vegetables.
Another tempura restaurant, but offering set meals with soba noodles. It's located also on the 8th floor of the Takashiyama department store, where a series of restaurants form the Rose Dining Room. Mine was hot soba noodles but the other diners were mostly eating the cold variety. There are tempura dishes and tempura dishes, and this one is not a patch on the one shown above.
Ah, Tonkatsu, the fried pork cutlet that is served with shredded cabbage and bean sauce. Most of these shops also serve friend shrimps or a mixture of pork and shrimps. It's a tasty dish, but the sauce at this restaurant was a bit of a disappointment. I remember the fantastic sauce at a restaurant at the Kyoto railway station - there you can make your own sauce and add sesame seeds to the sauce to enhance the flavour.
A simple dish of rice noodles with one vegetable and a few pieces of sea food. I had this at the Pola Museum restaurant at Hakone, where waiters and waitresses were dressed in western attire and have acquired a whiff of the French garcon's stuffiness. This dish is almost a cross over between Chinese and Japanese food; its clean taste and simplicity left me feeling hungry afterwards.
And how about some Chinese food? Here, I had beef brisket pieces in noodles and two red bean paste buns. I forgot what the soup base was, since I was never much of a street food fan. The good thing about a noodle shop such as this is that I can reacquaint myself with Chinese food and eat rather simply. The queue for this restaurant however is often very long, sometimes the waiting was as much as 20 minutes.
Another Chinese dish, won ton noodles and some fried vegetables. I love won ton noodles, it's a dish that I seldom eat in the UK because there are more Chinese restaurants than noodle shops. Food portions in Japan are just about the right size for me, even though I often cannot finish the whole plate. It is much easier to dine solo in Japan than in China simply because the Japanese cater for individual diners than en masse.
A mix of sushi at a restaurant at Osaka. It was the first time that I ate sushi served in this manner. It was also very reasonably priced and the place was packed with office people. In addition to sushi, the restaurant also offered other set meals. When entering the restaurant, all the diners had to remove their shoes and store them in a locker located at the door. No slippers were offered.
My breakfast at JAL Sakura Lounge at Haneda Airport. Often I prefer Japanese breakfast and I've grown to like the pickled vegetables and the fermented beans. The Sakura Lounge (near gate 144) is a very civilized place: the welcome at the door is always warm, everyone talks in a whisper, and there are certain areas where mobile phones are banned. It's just the sort of environment that allows one to have some quiet moments to read the newspaper and watch the planes being prepared for take off.
