A Trainspotter in Japan - The Return - Part 15 - Going home and final thougths

[kevin_cambs_uk]

Originally Posted by DisneyBlonde

Really enjoyed reading your report, thank you for sharing.

My DH has always wanted to visit Japan so we are going November 2018. The one thing that bothers me is the food when it only has signs in Japanese, did you find it an issue to know what you were ordering?

There are certain things we don’t eat and it worries me!

See more...

This is a rather a difficult question to answer! Myself and my wife will eat anything, the only things I will never eat are tomato ketchup and marmite. So as far as the food in Japan was concerned, we were excited every time cause we were never sure what we would get!

Now the majority of restaurants in Japan are run in a manner to make them quick and efficient. For example, most will have a plastic version of the dishes outside in the window, the description will almost certainly be in Japanese. The reason for this is that when you go in, after studying the window you know what you want almost immediately. This makes for a very efficient way of doing food, especially when you consider how many people there are Japan, and how many want to eat.

A few restaurants will have an English menu, however you cannot guarantee that, some will advertise this outside, especially in the more touristy places, but some will not, however they know you are not Japanese, and they will bring you an English menu, but only if they have one. So if they bring you a menu and its in Japanese then don't bother trying to ask for the English one cause there wont be one!

This is the really cool thing about Japan, they have thought of all of this and worked it out before you even set foot in the place!

Now almost every menu you will be given, will have pictures for the food, so its quite easy to work out what things are etc.

However... Generally you cannot alter the dishes. So if you want a dish but you don't want with a particular ingredient, then you will struggle. It is not in their nature to alter menu items, really what you see is what you get. Also you will have to be pretty good at Japanese to understand what they may say if you can even tell them in Japanese that you don't want a particular thing.

I hope that helps!

If its any comfort we only had one meal where what we thought we ordered was not what turned up! That was in Kyoto in the least touristy restaurant ever! It was cold soba noodles, with a hot broth and what I think was eel. But I still ate it, as its not their fault, and I feel its rude not to eat it.

Plus don't tip!, don't suggest to tip, don't leave money on the table as a tip, it insults them and they will run after you with the money to give it back!