Japan For The Other Half

I have written at some length about how one does not have to spend a lot of money to eat well in Japan. But there is a flip side, and that is that you can easily spend A LOT if you want to.  For example, last night I went to dinner with my friend Ahmed at a restaurant called “Inakaya.”  Inakaya is located in the Roppongi district of Tokyo, which is the nightlife part of town that foreigners tend to gravitate to.  Inakaya caters to foreign celebrities and the proprietors of Inakaya showed me a photo album of the glitterati who had been in the restaurant, including, Matt Damon, Stephen Spielberg, Tom Cruse, Edward Norton and Gwynneth Paltrow.  Add to that illustrious list Brad Kelley and Ahmed Al Zahrani.  They didn't take our picture, for some reason. They were quite busy and probably forgot.  Anyway, the concept is simple.  You take a seat at the counter and artfully arrayed before you are the contents of Whole Foods produce and meat sections.  Whatever you see that looks good you point to.  They take some, clean, skewer and grill it, plate it and pass it to you on a long-handled paddle.  There is no menu.  It is truly “If you have to ask, you can’t afford it.”  But let me give you an idea of what Saudi Oil (ARAMCO) paid for our dinner. 1 grilled giant prawn:$36. 2, 5-inch skewers of (delicious) beef: $47.  2 asparagus spears: $9. 2 skewers of chicken: $11. 2 shitake mushroom caps: $9.  etc, etc.  The atmosphere is fun and lively.  I don't want to know how much the meal cost.  As I got off the subway returning to my hotel I dropped into the convenience store for desert.  A Haagen-Daz ice cream bar for 200¥.  Equilibrium was restored!


INAKAYA  http://www.roppongiinakaya.jp/en/shop.html

So Little Time, So Much To Eat!

Before I ever visited Japan I had heard about how expensive it was. This received truth always seemed to be illustrated by the experience of the hapless business traveler who had to pay $8 for a cup of coffee.  (This was before Starbucks made the 50-cent cup of coffee obsolete.)  As in any new endeavor, things are more difficult and expensive when you don’t know what you’re doing.  Thus I have had the accidental $100 cab ride and the $75 pasta lunch (no alcohol).  If you care what you spend on food the #1 rule is to avoid eating in the hotel.  Hotel food is convenient, uniformly delicious, and service is excellent (and in English), but there is a cost associated with that.  The unfortunate pasta lunch mentioned above was at the Hilton Tokyo Bay.  Today I can easily find a similar meal at a local restaurant for 1/3 of that. One time it was raining and miserable outside the hotel so I thought I’d bite the bullet and see if I could find a “special” in one of the hotel restaurants that wouldn’t break the bank.  I went into the Chinese restaurant in the hotel and found a cashew chicken special for 850¥ (about $8 at the time) and felt quite pleased with myself.  When the waiter asked me what I wanted to drink I unthinkingly asked for a coke.  I enjoyed my meal, congratulating myself that I had beat the system: until the bill came.  The cashew chicken was 850¥ - and so was the coke!  By contrast, last night I went to the restaurant across the street from the hotel here in Nagoya for dinner.  It is one of those places where there is a ticket vending machine at the front door with pictures of the various menu offerings and the cost for each.  I found what I wanted, inserted my money, got a ticket, was met by a waitress who showed me to a seat and took my ticket.  Minutes later I was eating a delicious hamburger steak dinner with roasted potatoes and veggies, miso soup, salad and rice for about $8.50.  Even better, get some tasty udon noodles and tempura for $6.  Let’s see you beat that in LA!