One easy url: http://www.bento.com/

Should be sufficient to serve your craving for food.

Sanosuke!

reikkonen san

You are quite right, those are completely wrong ways to order these breaded and fried seafood dishes - I hoped the extra bit I added would stop anybody from looking foolish by actually asking for any of these. Still, it's good to get the message drummed in further :) - and I'd forgotten that you can use the word "furai".

And yes, I can imagine that in some establishments you could end up with a lovely crispy patty of 'kaki age' :D .

Perhaps there are places that do what you say - but I am happy to report that we didn't find any in our 3 weeks in Japan :) . We found that everyone we dealt with everywhere was polite - friendly - and honest. I cannot remember a single unpleasant experience - even when we were dealing with huge language problems.

Of course - we had a couple of things in our favor. First - my husband did speak a little Japanese. He was a great favorite with the young women everywhere (from the concierge desks to the servers in the food basements - they would always giggle when he spoke to them in Japanese). Second - we were not traveling on a budget - and we had a very good idea of what things cost before we bought them. Japan is not a cheap country. Although it is possible to get a nice lunch for $6-8 (about 600-800 yen) - it is also possible to walk into a place that doesn't look very fancy where lunch is $100 (about 10,000 yen). A drink at our hotel bar was about $10-14 (same prices you'll find in New York hotels). So - if you're on a budget - it is always best to ask before you get into a situation where you are spending more money than you care to spend.

As for the names and types of foods - I think it is good to spend many hours in department store food basements where you can see what things look like - ask what they're called - and get samples so you can see what they taste like. I can't tell you how many hours we spent in food basements during our trip - but I think every minute was well spent!

Note to original poster - if you are indeed traveling with children - going out for every meal can become a chore. When you're too tired to go out (especially your first few days - you'll be dead on your feet in the evening after a trip from MIA) - hit the department store basements and do takeout. The kids will love the tonkatsu (fried pork cutlets). I know I did :) . Robyn

I'm betting you didn't go for a quick bite in any of those locales with the sign "SNACK" on the outside. ;) :)

Or anyplace with a big tanuki out front. ;)

JR

We actually had our FT dinner in April in a place with a tanuki.... :eek:

(The owner, Takahashi-san is from Shigaraki, the land of many pottery tanuki.)

If there is no tanuki I won't go in! :D

Laplap san,

Yeah, I had looked your eddition, and just wanted to tell you the "farai" term :) My English make my native/ multilingul English speaking friends fun, because I make "new" English words :) . I shocked that I had wrote "warMing" :eek: It is the very warned :D

Oops, you might also love "Ten-pura" :)

Tanuki! Tanuki! Lovery pottery Tanuki!

Pon poko pon!!!

All those years of reading about shape shifting Japanese badgers turning into kettles, and tricking greedy priests. :mad:

I lost out on a childhood aquaintance with tanuki thanks to an evil cartel of publishers/translators deciding that a foreign mammal was just too difficult a concept for kids to deal with :td: :td: :td:

I hope all your tanuki are anatomically correct! They love to drum - but they don't use their bellies...

I'm not quite that militant, but they DO tend to be my kind of places. You won't, however, find 20,000 yen kaiseki dinners there. :p

JR

And party and drink. Don't forget the drinking!!

Miyazaki-sensei certainly did change a lot of our perspectives on the little party animal. :)

JR

I only eat at 20,000 yen kaiseki places if Pickles is paying! ;)

:D :D

Now there's a discriminating diner!

For the record... I will allow any flyertalker to buy me a 20,00yen kaiseki meal.

I'm going to a 20,000 yen/head sushi place tonight, if you're around. Q Shoe? You said you were in Q Shoe? Sorry, next time!

Thanks for the invite P, rain cheque? ;)