ICHIYA’s POP Eye – Restaurants

  From Kyary Pamyu Pamyu Moshi Moshi Nippon’s “ICHIYA’s POP EYE”.
  Today’s topic is Restaurants!
  My office is in Akasaka, Tokyo. Within 100 meters, there are several restaurants from different countries with food other than Japanese food. China, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, America, Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Turkey and Nigeria.
  Surely, there is no other country that has as many international restaurants as Japan. There isn't another country with so many French and Italian flags, either.
As for Japanese restaurants, there are many kinds of specialty restaurants. Within 100 meters from here, there is Sushi, tempura, ramen, udon, soba, yakitori, gyudon, eel and blowfish,
  There are many restaurants that sell local dishes from Japan's rural areas. Again, within 100 meters from here, there are stores selling lamb from Sapporo, beef tongue from Sendai, soba from Niigata, fish from Toyama, omelet from Kyoto, kushikatsu from Osaka, udon from Takamatsu, bonito from Kouchi, chicken from Miyazaki and pork from Okinawa.

  Japanese restaurants are entertaining as well.
  Many places show the customer how the food is prepared. In French, Italian or Chinese restaurants, it's common that the preparation takes place away from the customer. But for many Japanese restaurants, it's common that the counter for food preparation is near the customers. The roots of the three representative Japanese foods, sushi, tempura and soba, lie in preparing the food at stand-up stalls, right in front of the customer. It probably spread from there.
  Japanese restaurants cherish to entertain and communicate with their customers. It's said that the width of the board for the sushi counter is decided so that the best possible communication can take place between the customer and the sushi chef. Showing how the food is prepared and which ingredients are used results in customer trusting the chef.
  There are also a lot of restaurants where the customers cook themselves. Foods like okonomiyaki or shabu shabu are prepared by the customer himself, just like a barbecue. Do you think they could just cook at home? Well, there are certain tastes you can only get at a restaurant.
  Another characteristic is that there are many magazines about restaurants. They publish a variety of articles featuring ramen, bowl-dishes, sushi and so on. Ever since 150 years ago in the Edo-period, there have been guidebooks telling people what to eat in which store. Japanese have been trusting guidebooks for a long time.
  Nowadays, people thoroughly look up restaurants online as well before they go there to eat. Japanese people somehow can't complain to the restaurant clerks, even if the food tastes bad. Maybe they look into guidebooks to avoid such  experiences?
  Speaking of restaurant books, the Michelin Guide is known all around the world, but there are 64 star-restaurants in Paris, 243 in Kyoto-Osaka and 266 in Tokyo. Tokyo is the biggest gourmet-city in the world.
  But it's not just full of high-class food, you can eat cheap and tasty food as well. In a survey comparing the Big Mac prices around the world, Japan was cheaper than the USA, Europe, China and South Korea, as it ranked the third cheapest of 56 countries.
  So? Do you want to come to Japan to eat?