Food in Japan and Kyoto grandmother's small cafe

 

Garden of a shinto temple (Picture is mine)  .  

First Blog Post: On the way to Japan Tokyo -Day 1

Second  Blog Post : On the way to Japan - visiting Fuji-san 

Third Blog Post: Tour to Mount Hakone and Ashi Lake

Fourth Blog Post: Tokyo Skytree and Model train shop 

I've written about Japanese food, specifically breakfast, before, but I didn't go into much detail, so I decided to write this article. We usually eat at places where locals eat, rather than tourist-only spots. In Venice, Italy, for instance, we realized that the food at local places is really delicious.

One evening in Tokyo, we went to a small restaurant run by a Malaysian-Chinese woman , thinking it was a Japanese place. There, we met another Malaysian-Chinese man, struck up a conversation, and drank two Asahi beers. The Malaysian-Chinese man said that in Malaysia, they are treated as "second class," while the Bumiputras (indigenous Malays) receive better treatment. That's why he came to Japan. His family and home are in Malaysia, and he sends money there. I don't know if it's true or false.

This restaurant had large bottles of sake. You could buy them, drink a portion, and if you couldn't finish it, you could leave it there. They'd label it with your name. You could then come back another day and drink it. It's a great way to keep customers coming back. Those bottles on top of the fridge are examples of that. We ate something like noodles there.

In Kyoto, we went to a shopping mall and saw a Chinese girl eating some sushi there. We decided to eat from that spot because they had bluefin tuna. They made it fresh right then and there. I got a soup and a sushi set with an Asahi beer.

This is the bluefin tuna dish Ines had.  

We spoke with the Chinese girl who was nearby. She said she was there for two months for work and would be leaving soon, but planned to return for a longer stay next time because she loves Japan so much.  

While in Japan, something our European guides mentioned is that Japanese work long hours and people are struggling. They work late into the night, which leads to a higher suicide rate. Although I plan to discuss this at length later, it's worth noting that when it comes to suicide rates, countries like India, Russia, Sri Lanka, the United States, Finland (the happiest country), Burkina Faso, and Sweden rank above Japan. Japan is 49th, while Britain is 117th. Japan has a custom called Harakiri, where samurai commit suicide if they are defeated, considering it an act of honor. During World War II, Kamikaze pilots also died by suicide. If a Japanese person is unemployed or has no work, it's considered a dishonor, and committing suicide is seen as an honorable act. This is the exact opposite of the European perspective. 

 

So, on the second day, after visiting temples (I'll write about this in the next article, with the picture at the very top), we walked around looking for a place to eat dinner. We saw a small cafe-like place and went inside. There was an older woman there. Since I'm sixty yeas old  myself, she seemed young to me now. She was talking to a few Japanese men and women while preparing their food. She couldn't speak English. Fortunately for us, there was a couple from Tasmania sitting at a table. The husband had a translation app. They showed us the dishes they had eaten and said they were good. One had pork and beef fried with cabbage. The other was just like an omelet.

We then told them to order  us the same thing. The Tasmanian couple translated that for us and then said goodbye and left. Even foreign tourists help each other in Japan.

The little cafe could only seat about seven or eight people. The person with their back turned is the cafe owner Hikido.

For the dish Ines ordered, it was something like flour, with miso sauce, and some kind of milk added dough, then fried. On top of that, she put bacon and beef slices, and then the omelet-like topping was added again. On top of that, she kept adding something like matcha powder made from green tea. It had a unique taste. We both got a jug of warm sake.

The Japanese neighbors who were there took a couple of dishes for takeawy and left. Now we had no way to communicate. I spoke to the Japanese person next to me. It turned out he was Chinese. He's the one pictured below. He also had a translation app, but he could speak a little Japanese too. It turns out the man is a data engineer, and his English was good.  

For my meal, I asked for Soba noodles (I guess I learned about these from watching Netflix shows) which shechopped up with cabbage and stir-fried on the hot iron griddle like kottu. This was a cool thing! She doen't give you plates, so you don't have to wash them. You just need to wipe the steel griddle.

However, for some reason, she found a plate and brought it to me. The dish had plenty of meat pieces, and she sprinkled that green stuff on top of the noodles again. It was really delicious! 

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This is the sake jug and some fruit juice. 

We chatted with the old lady (the owner). She said she was happy to work until 10 PM. Friends come to talk and eat (we saw that). Otherwise, she felt her life would be meaningless, that's how we understood her words. 

This is how you eat by cutting with a crepe spade type thing here. 

She took a photo with me. She's a very lovely person. We were the last three customers for the day. She said she wakes up early and goes to the market. She does everything by herself. If you go to Kyoto, visit her cafe. It's on Shijo Machi Street, in the Minami-ku area. 

They say one reason people on Okinawa island live over a hundred years is that they consume less salt than other parts of Japan. The second reason identified by scientists who surveyed them is working. Even after retirement, they find some kind of work to do.

The third factor is socializing with others, maintaining community or social connections.

We were in Kyoto for three days, from May 22nd.. 

Ajith - 10/06/2025  

Tokyo Skytree and Model train shop

First Blog Post: On the way to Japan Tokyo -Day 1

Second  Blog Post : On the way to Japan - visiting Fuji-san 

Third Blog Post: Tour to Mount Hakone and Ashi Lake

On our second day in Tokyo, we went to see the Tokyo Skytree, which is located in the Sumida area. It was within walking distance of our hotel. Our slot to go up was exactly at 10 AM. If we hadn't made that time, we would have been out of luck. Since we had booked tickets in advance, we were able to go up to the 350-meter deck and then the 450-meter deck within about half an hour. The total height of the Skytree is 634 meters (around 2000 feet). This means it's the tallest television broadcasting and observation tower of its kind in the world, but it's not the tallest building (Burj Khalifa in Dubai is the tallest building at 828 meters).

It was clear that a significant number of people come to see this. That's why everyone is given a specific time slot. They are very well-organized in taking people up. Staff members were assigned to monitor, operate, and provide information for each elevator. Even though having someone in every elevator might seem old-fashioned, it effectively manages the crowd. Seeing the organization there made me feel a bit like I was in Germany. You can get a good view of the entire Tokyo area. We took quite a lot of pictures. Here are just a few. I've uploaded videos to YouTube if you'd like to watch them.

The inner walls of the upper observation deck are adorned with illustrations of characters from a major Japanese anime story.

Looking down from such a height, it becomes clear that Tokyo is like a concrete jungle. It's also apparent that most people live in apartment buildings. This is truly due to Japan's population density, which is 338 people per square kilometer (compared to 370 in Sri Lanka and 287 in the UK). Japan's population is 123 million, the UK's is 69.5 million, and Sri Lanka's is 23 million. Japan is about five times larger than Sri Lanka and 1.5 times larger than Britain. Even though Japan addresses its housing problem this way, it still seems insufficient. Most of Japan's population lives in cities.

Tokyo isn't a green city like London. London has large parks like Victoria Park, and tree planting is done well there. There are big gardens and trees planted wherever possible. Tokyo is now making efforts in this regard, but it's still not enough. The largest green city I've seen is Moscow, which has parks covering about 100 square kilometers. However, the few parks in Tokyo are incredibly beautiful.

There's a large shopping complex at the base of this tower. I'm not sure if it's due to the peak development of capitalism or because it's Japan, but you find various types of the same food. It's a paradise for people like me who love fish.

After seeing this, we walked to the Asakusa area. We didn't know the way, and we didn't have internet. Even though most Japanese people didn't speak much English, they were incredibly helpful. At one small shop, the owner even drew us a map. However, you can find free Wi-Fi at phone booths or near shopping malls. Since things were a third cheaper than in London, we went to buy a "Tomix" model train set. 

On the day we went, there was a festival at a nearby Shinto temple. So, almost everyone was dressed in traditional Japanese attire (kimono). The Japanese family below was very happy to pose for the camera. I asked if it was okay to post them on Facebook, and they said "Hai, hai!" (Yes, yes!), so I guess they understood.

On our way, there was a small café that only served tea and sweets. We bought something like a cheesecake and a small fruit tart of the kind called "British Tart." There were two lovely Japanese girls working there. They gave us directions using the English they knew. These people eat a lot of matcha tea and matcha ice cream. There's no place without matcha! Matcha is powdered green tea. You can make tea, ice cream, and sweets from it. We bought two iced matcha teas. The good thing about it is that it's an antioxidant, so you don't get unnecessary gas or acid in your stomach. In fact, I slept really well for eight out of those ten days, without waking up. I decided I should drink more green tea.

While walking, we saw two people collecting discarded plastics and other items. Apparently, these can be sold. There are such people in Japan too.

 After getting the train set we wanted, we went to the Sumida River (not "White Mom") for a boat tour. From the river, the Skytree tower we had climbed was clearly visible. They sell white and gold models of the Skytree. Look at the picture I took now; that's how the model looks. During the day, the Skytree casts a shadow on the side of the nearby Asahi Beer Company building. The walls of that building are designed to resemble the yellow/golden color of beer. They call the yellow beer drop a "pee drop." Well, I also took a picture of the golden Skytree.

This article is getting long, but I'm trying to finish the Tokyo travelogue because there are details from four more cities. We said goodbye to the two girls at our hotel. They were genuinely very good.

I included a photo of the two of them. After that, we boarded the Shinkansen bullet train to Kyoto. We bought a bento box for our meal. Honestly, one was enough for both of us. We wanted to do that because we'd seen it in TV series. Picture with the top circle in the ceiling the station entrance. The pictures below were taken while on the train.

 I've uploaded a couple of videos to my YouTube channel: one taken while on the river, and a few taken on the train as it passed through the beautiful Japanese countryside. Sorry, I don't have walking commentary like some others do. I usually record videos for myself to watch later.

We hadn't booked seats on the train coming from Fuji. In the three-person seat rows, the middle seat often remains empty, or people place their bags there, just like in London. So we just went ahead and sat down, asking them to remove their bags. It felt a bit unsocial at that moment. However, when you do sit down, unlike in London, they do remove their bags. I didn't see anyone putting their feet on the seats. We booked our seats for the Kyoto train because it was about a two-and-a-half-hour journey. We saw rice paddies in Japan; they're quite similar to those in Sri Lanka. The mountains and valleys are also somewhat similar. Passengers travel very quietly. In that respect, it's better than London.

    

I'll be uploading more videos soon, so keep an eye out for them. 

- Ajith 06/06/2025

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