Where to Dine
High-Class Restaurants
From the heights of Chinese culinary delights to the peaks
of French haute cuisine, Japan's premier restaurants are
second to none. Most are located in the best hotels or in
fashionable city districts such as Tokyo's Ginza, Roppongi,
Akasaka and Harajuku. Gourmets may discover new taste
sensations never before encountered.
Popular Restaurants
More affordable restaurants abound in downtown office
building basements, the dining floors of department stores,
urban shopping centers, and the underground malls of the
busiest railway stations.
At lunchtime, office workers crowd these dining spots.
Many order teishoku, a low-priced complete meal on a tray.
Most restaurants in the moderate to inexpensive price range
have realistic plastic models of their dishes, with prices, in a
showcase outside the entrance. If you don't know what to
order, point to the dish you want to try. Some restaurants
have bilingual (Japanese and English) menus, and you can
use JNTO's "Tourist's Handbook" as a handy phrase book
for dining out. Paperback guidebooks to inexpensive Japanese
dishes are available at major bookstores.
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- Restaurant display window
For people in a hurry, noodle stands, coffee shops, fastfood
outlets and vending machines provide a variety of food
and drink at very low cost.
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- Stand-up coffee shop
At most restaurants, you receive a bill and pay as you
leave. A few have you buy a meal coupon in advance and
hand it to the waiter or waitress. Payment is made in cash
except when credit cards are accepted. Inexpensive restaurants,
coffee shops and fast-food outlets accept cash only.
No tipping, please.
Novelties
- Box lunches, some unique to a particular area, are sold
aboard trains.
- Dinner on a cruise ship during an evening bay cruise
lets you see city lights from the water.
- Streetside "yatai" stalls, some with stools, offer inexpensive
taste treats.
- Dinner-shows at deluxe hotels combine fine food and
live entertainment for that one evening you may want to
splurge.
- Convenience stores have sandwiches, box lunches and
other cooked dishes you can take out.
- Department store basements are great places to sample
many kinds of food.
- Kaiten Sushi: Customers sit at a round counter and
receive low-priced sushi on a circling conveyor belt.
