Sunday, November 1, 2009

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!

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