And I don't want to sit 100% on the sidelines .

As you can probably guess - not only do I know very little about food in Japan in general - I know even less about Chinese food in Japan .

But - on our first trip - we dined with the son and DIL of some local friends of ours - the children live and work in Tokyo. And we had lunch together one day. At one of Iron Chef Chen Kinichi's restaurants. The choice of our friends' children - not ours. We asked them to pick a restaurant where we could treat them to lunch - and this is what they chose. Because the restaurant was 2 blocks away from their apartment and they said they liked Chinese food (husband is from the US - wife is Japanese). Even though I still have the restaurant brochure - I can't figure out which of Chef Kinichi's restaurants we dined at (he had a bunch in Tokyo then - and the brochure is in Japanese). All I recall is it was in an office building/store complex at the last stop of a subway line (I think NW of downtown Tokyo). It is certainly well away from anyone's tourist path (I got the impression Chef Kinichi was more of a local celebrity than an international celebrity in Tokyo then).

In any event - the lunch was quite something. Because the staff was basically Chinese and didn't speak much Japanese (or any English). The menu was only in Japanese and Chinese - and only the wife of our friend's son read Japanese. And she was kind of busy with their 7-8 month old son .

We did manage to order and get fed. IMO - the food wasn't memorable - or even very good - but it was adequate - not vile or bad. So - if I had to guess - there are probably some pretty decent Chinese restaurants in Tokyo (if you picked a random neighborhood Chinese place where I live - and I would put this restaurant in that category - it would be awful - forget about eating in Chinese restaurants where I live).

Anyway - like I said - we have no plans to dine at a Chinese restaurant on this trip (because there is so much Japanese fare to explore). But one place I have with a ??? on my list for a snack or light dinner is Gyoza Stadium. Haven't read anything recent and particularly positive about it. Should I cross it off my list (that's my current inclination)? Robyn