Meal during the tour

You will find in Japan, a wide range of different types of restaurants which offer cheap food, accessible to everyone. Here are examples of some typical restaurants you could find :

- Teishoku-ya : Those restaurants offer a cheap cuisine very popular in Japan with a rice bowl, a miso soup, a salad. A true complete meal for a very cheap price.

- Donburi-ya : donburi-ya is a rice bowl topped by meat, vegetables or other ingredients. It is often the main dish of a teishoku-ya.

- Ramen-ya : ramen  noodles served in a meat or (occasionally) fish-based broth. It is most of the time prepared with miso or soja.

- Curry-ya or Kare-ya : Japanese curry is a meat, fish or vegetables recipe prepared with curry sauce.

- Soba-ya : soba are buckwheat noodles often served with tempura (Battered and deep fried vegetables or shrimps.) it could be eaten hot in a broth or cold served on a bamboo plate.

- Udon-ya : Udon are wheat flour noodles often served in a broth. There are many recipes of Udon.

- Kaitenzushi : rotating sushi in Japanese. Those are served on a rotating belt that passes in front of you. The price is count regarding the number and types of plates you have collected.

- Okonomiyaki : kind of omelet cooked on a teppan (warming plate). This recipe mixes plenty of ingredients and is usually prepared with octopus, meat, or vegetables. This meal is one of Hiroshima’s specialties.

- Fast food : There is plenty of fast food in Japan like McDonald's. There are also others as Mos burger, Lotteria, Freshness Burger. It is possible to pay by credit card.

For a more expensive price you could find :

-Yakiniku : perfect place for anyone who loves meat. Usually, it is beef meat thinly sliced that you cook yourself on your table equipped with a grill.

-Shabu-shabu : Thinly sliced meat boiled in water with vegetables

-Sukiyaki and Nabe : the Japanese stews. Sukiyaki is most of the time consisting of beef meat. Nabe could be meat or fish.

Western style cafe. It is served sandwiches, snacks… Although Japan is a country well-known for its tea, you will find also a very good coffee. Japan is world’s third importer after Europe and United States, importing more than 430 000 tons each year, Japan counts plenty of “kissaten” (the place to drink coffee in Japan). There are numerous chains as Excelsior caffe, Starbucks, Tully’s café; but also a wide range of little and pleasant coffee shops where you could discover local coffee roaster’s products. You can also take out a coffee in a konbini (mini-market).

Named Ryoutei or Kappou in Japanese.

Those restaurants are most of the time sushi restaurants, high-end tempura restaurants, traditional cuisine, or starred cuisine.

It is possible to pay by credit card.

Called also fami-res, these are cheap chain restaurants with a wide range of different meals : Japanese, Chinese, Italian, American… It is possible to pay by credit card. On the menu, the meals are most of the time present with a picture that will help you to choose easily.

Izakaya are kind of bars where are served small plates of different kinds of food, as the manner of tapas restaurants. It is the favorite place for Japanese Nomikai, when co-workers come to drink and eat together after work. Izakaya means in Japanese the place of sake but you will also find the delicious Japanese beer (Kirin, Sapporo, Asahi, Yebisu, Premium Malts).
 

There are two kinds of different izakaya : locals and franchise

- Local Izakaya : It is friendly, sometimes equipped with tatami rooms. It is served plenty of small plates which prices averaging 300 or 500 yen. You could find for example Yakitori (chicken skewer), fried chicken (karaage), takoyaki (snack that is in the shape of little round balls, the main ingredient is octopus), eggplant cooked with soya and ginger,  yakisoba (buckwheat noodles made cooked with meat and vegetables), fried fish, and plenty of other recipes that you could taste while drinking Japanese sake, shochu, beer, wine, whisky...The menus are rarely translate. You would sometimes find pictures to help you otherwise you will have to follow your instinct.

- Franchised izakaya : We often see the staff of these izakaya equipped with signs, attracting passers-by in the street and offer discounts. There is a wide choice of dishes on the menu, it is also a kind of family restaurant in the evening.