Japanese Dishes: Gyudon

Gyudon (beef bowl) is a popular domburi dish consisting of beef and onion served over a bowl of rice. The meat and onion are cooked in a mixture of soy sauce, mirin, sugar and sake giving the dish a sweet, salty flavour. Many chain restaurants (gyudon-ya) specialize in gyudon making it an informal, inexpensive dining option frequented by students, and ideally suited to travelers on a budget.

Typically, beni shoga (pickled red ginger) and shichimi (red chili mix) are available at the table and added to taste. Tofu or konnyaku (devil`s tongue) may be cooked along with the beef although these ingredients are more common in home recipes than at restaurants. Common restaurant additions are a beaten raw egg stirred into the finished product, or green onions sprinkled on top of the meat.
Between 2004 and 2006, a Japanese ban on imported American beef drastically affected the production and sale of gyudon, causing upset among gyudon lovers. However, the ban increased the popularity and frequency of butadon and tondon, which are both pork variations of beef bowl.

Gyudon ya are numerous and often open 24 hours. These restaurants operate in one of two ways. Either a staff member takes one's order as usual, or the meal is paid for in advance at a vending machine located near the restaurant entrance.

A side bowl of miso soup may come with the meal or be offered in a combo set. Other side dishes are salad and kimchi. Tea and water are offered for free with refill jugs available on the table for customers to serve themselves.

Travel Guide to Akihabara!

Akihabara (short: Akiba) is a district in central Tokyo, famous for its many electronics shops. In recent years, it has also gained fame as a center of the gaming, manga and animation culture. A major redevelopment of Akihabara Station and surroundings is nearing its completion, giving Akihabara a new face.

Electronics

Hundreds of electronics shops of various sizes can be found around Akihabara Station and along Chuo Dori (Chuo Avenue). They offer everything from the newest computers, cameras, televisions, mobile phones and home appliances to second-hand goods and electronic junk.

A few major stores, such as Ishimaru Denki, Sofmap and Laox operate multiple branch stores mainly along the main roads, while many smaller shops can be found in the narrow side streets.

Note that some of the electronic appliances on sale are only suited for use in Japan due to voltage and other technical differences and limited warranty. However, several stores also feature a selection of products for overseas use and offer duty free shopping to foreign tourists on purchases of over 10,000 Yen (passport required).

Manga, Animation and Games

The character of Akihabara has constantly changed over the decades and continues to do so. A recent development is the emergence of Akihabara as a center of Japanese animation culture, as the number of stores offering video games, manga and animation related goods has notably increased.

In addition to conventional stores, various other animation related establishments have appeared in the area, such as cosplay ("costume play") cafes, where waitresses are dressed up like anime characters, and manga kissaten ("comics cafes"), where customers can read comics, watch DVDs and surf the internet.

Dewa Sanzan Travel Guide

Dewa Sanzan ("three mountains of Dewa") are three sacred mountains in Yamagata Prefecture, each with a shrine on or near its peak. The mountains are named Haguro-san, Gas-san and Yudono-san and remain centers of mountain worship. Representing birth (Haguro-san), death (Gas-san) and rebirth (Yudono-san), the mountains are usually visited in that order.

Dewa Sanzan is a center of Shugendo, a folk religion based on mountain worship, blending Buddhist and Shinto traditions. Shugendo practitioners, called yamabushi, perform feats of endurance as a means of transcending the physical world. Training includes such tasks as long pilgrimages and endurance of the elements.

Evidence of Shugendo's most extreme test of physical endurance and religious devotion lies in the nearby Churenji and Dainichibo Temples. Here, two monks succeeded in preserving their own bodies as mummies through extreme diet modification and meditation. Although the practice is now banned, these self-mummified monks are considered living Buddhas for their achievement.

Part of Dewa Sanzan's appeal is its remoteness. Yamagata's heavy snowfall makes travel in the mountains difficult during the winter months when only Haguro-san remains open. The best time to visit is between July and mid September when all three shrines are open to pilgrims and tourists.

Japanese Entertainment: Pachinko

Pachinko is a mixture of slot machine and pinball. The player is quite passive while playing pachinko. He or she is only controlling the speed with which many small steel balls are thrown into the pachinko machine.

Most of the balls just fall down the machine and disappear, but a few find their way into special holes. This activates a kind of slot machine. Like with slot machines, you win if the same three pictures appear. This occurs quite rarely in pachinko, but if it happens, you win countless new balls. When just playing for 500 or 1000 yen, you may likely just lose all your balls within a few minutes.

Pachinko machines can be found in pachinko parlors which are spread over the whole country. Many parlors also offer a corner with slot machines. One can recognize parlors easily because they are bright and colorful. Inside a parlor it is loud and smoky. Both men and women play pachinko and it is said that there are even a few pachinko professionals.

If you win balls, you can exchange them into goods that are available in the parlor's gift shop. But you can also bypass the law that prohibits gambling in Japan by exchanging the balls first into some special goods and then exchange them for cash at a small window just outside the parlor.

Japanese: The Samurai

The samurai (or bushi) were the members of the military class, the Japanese warriors.

Samurai employed a range of weapons such as bows and arrows, spears and guns; but their most famous weapon and their symbol was the sword.

Samurai were supposed to lead their lives according to the ethic code of bushido ("the way of the warrior"). Strongly Confucian in nature, Bushido stressed concepts such as loyalty to one's master, self discipline and respectful, ethical behavior.

After a defeat, some samurai chose to commit ritual suicide (seppuku) by cutting their abdomen rather than being captured or dying a dishonorable death.

Japanese Restaurants

A large number of restaurant types can be found in Japan. Below is an attempt to introduce some of the most popular restaurant types in categorized form:

Many restaurants in Japan specialize in just one type of food.

* Sushi-ya
Sushi-ya are restaurants which specialize in sushi. In most sushi-ya, customers can sit either at a normal table or at a counter (sushi bar), behind which the sushi chef is working.

* Kaiten-zushi
Kaiten-zushi are sushi restaurants, where the sushi dishes are presented to the customers on a conveyor belt. Customers can freely pick the dishes that they like as they pass in front of them or order dishes which are not available on the belt. In the end, the number of plates is counted to determine the cost. There are usually a few kinds of plates (differing in color or pattern), each being associated with a certain price of typically 100 to 500 yen. Kaiten-zushi tends to be less expensive than usual sushi-ya.

* Soba-ya
Soba-ya specialize in soba and udon noodle dishes. Most noodle dishes come either cooled with a dipping sauce or in a hot soup and with different toppings. The menu often changes slightly with the seasons, with hiyashi (cold) noodles popular in summer and nabeyaki (hot) udon popular in winter.

* Ramen-ya
Ramen-ya specialize in ramen dishes, Chinese style noodles served in a soup with various toppings. Every ramen-ya has developed its own soup, the most crucial ingredient for a restaurant's success. Several other dishes of Chinese origin, such as gyoza and fried rice, are usually also available at a ramen-ya.

* Kare-ya
Kare-ya are restaurants that specialize in curry rice (kare raisu) dishes. There is usually at least one kare-ya and one ramen-ya inside or around any major railway station.

* Tonkatsu-ya
Tonkatsu-ya serve tonkatsu, deep fried breaded pork cutlets. Korokke and other deep fried dishes are also available at many tonkatsu-ya.

* Gyudon-ya
Gyudon-ya specialize in gyudon (beef domburi). Gyudon-ya tend to be inexpensive fast food style restaurants.

* Okonomiyaki-ya
Okonomiyaki-ya specialize in okonomiyaki and sometimes monjayaki. Customers are usually preparing their okonomiyaki by themselves on a hot plate which is built into the table.

* Yakitori-ya
Yakitori-ya specialize in yakitori, grilled chicken skewers. They are particularly popular among salarymen after work. Along with ramen-ya, they are also popular places to go as a late night snack after drinking.

* Tempura-ya
Tempura-ya specialize in tempura dishes, such as tendon (tempura domburi) and assorted tempura.

* Unagi-ya
Unagi-ya specialize in unagi (fresh water eel) dishes such as unajuu and unadon (unagi domburi).

* Sukiyaki-ya
Sukiyaki-ya specialize in sukiyaki and shabu-shabu. They tend to be expensive and are not very numerous.