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Editors Notes Favorites Japanese Osaka

"We want to create an understanding of just what is missed by focusing on a monolithic view of Japanese food - the 'teriyaki, tempura and sushi' restaurant - rather than the amazing diversity of different items and concepts that are actually popular here."

The Japan we are going to present to you, dear reader, may not be the one you think you know. It is not, in fact, the one we knew the first time we visited, or even the third, but rather the one we learned about through multiple visits and twenty years of reading and reflection. This Japan is a complex but unmistakably friendly place, one where virtually any citizen will attempt, as best he or she can, to help a visitor; a culturally rich place, in which ancient temples sit literally in the midst of modern shopping centers; and a foodie's heaven, challenging any budget and every palate, no matter how limited or expansive. It is actually possible here to find delicious meals at 7 Elevens, in the basements of department stores, and in dark alleys with no English signage whatsoever. A single piece of sushi can sell for $1.50 or $15, depending on where you look and what you want; a filling meal for one can be had for $5, or shock the eyes for $200. And, not surprisingly, it is also possible to spend one's entire time here at ever-so-slightly different versions of American restaurants such as McDonald's, Starbucks, and Kentucky Fried Chicken - the pattern that first-time visitors from the United States so often follow as they struggle with the foreignness of Japan, the clatter of people filling narrow streets where individual shops actively and passively vie for their attention. It is easiest, amidst all the noise, to just go with what you know.

Tonight, as we rest on the 26th floor of a skyscraper in Osaka, overlooking a skyline that is filled with precisely crafted, not-so-foreign but not-entirely-Western buildings, we are well past that stage. More precisely, we arrived here with little to no interest in taking the easy route - instead, we have a plan to visit quite a few cities and sample many new things. On this day, our first full day on this trip, we have visited places where there is no English on the signs, and few direct clues for foreigners to know precisely where they are and what to look for inside. Rather than just reliving past visits, or sticking to what we've previously liked, we've been pushing the envelope, relying on advice from fellow food lovers to choose locally admired destinations rather than just the ones with English menus and heavy concentrations of tourists inside. Already, the results have been fun and enlightening: we've tried a version of sushi that doesn't exist in the United States or even much outside of Osaka, a take on ramen noodles that would throw fans of the instant stuff into a frenzy, and locally famous fried treats on sticks that put carnival fare to shame. We'll discuss these items elsewhere shortly.

As we write this words, we are sipping cool but inexpensive Kamotsuru sake from a portion-shaped glass bottle, its bottom half dotted with a complex texture that would likely be deemed too challenging to affordably mass produce in the United States - one of a million pixel-sized signs of Japan's obsession with details, great design, and customer satisfaction. A cheerful woman in a suit personally operated the elevator we took when buying the bottle, and a friendly man with glasses personally walked us from the foreign wines department of the store over to the sake section, with a polite "do-zo," or "here you go," at the end. Having traveled elsewhere in Asia, we appreciate these little things, which when combined with the big ones are reasons we keep coming back here for more.

In this brief introduction, we wanted to get a few of the expected "weird Japan" points out of the way so that we can move on to the more worthwhile stuff in subsequent articles. So we'll show you a picture of a restaurant display window in Osaka's Dotonburi district, where cats in kimonos are presenting available food options. Next, you'll see the image of a Subway restaurant that uses signs for ice cream floats and beautiful-looking roasted chickens to entice customers rather than just waving big $3 sandwich price tags in their faces. Then, you'll see a photo of one of a seemingly endless number of Japanese McDonald's, presently offering McChicken sandwiches and large burgers with bacon and cheese in unusually mouth-watering images that will never quite match the reality of the items it delivers. And below that, an image of unusual soft drinks: a limited edition red Azuki-bean flavored Pepsi, a Toranoco Cola bottle that rips off the famous look of Tabasco sauce bottles, and Pepsi Nex, the local name for Pepsi's zero-calorie soft drink, seemingly the most advertised of all of its variations here.

This is the point at which we share a secret with you: these things are not special. They're frequently not even objectively good. Yes, they're foreign, different, and interesting - the classic "Oriental" way of looking at Japan, in the manner identified and critiqued by scholars such as Edward Said - but they're merely on the surface of what this country has to offer, things Westerners often fixate upon because they're new takes on what's familiar. So, we will be unambiguous on this point: coming to Japan to eat McDonald's and drink Pepsi is something close to a travesty. What's the point of flying for 13 hours if you're just going to do the same things you do at home?

We plan to present you with something better than just an American look at Western foods in Japan, and in the process, help to create an understanding of just what Buffalo and most other cities are missing by focusing on a monolithic view of Japanese food - the "teriyaki, tempura and sushi" restaurant - rather than the amazing diversity of different items and concepts that are actually popular here. The good stuff starts with our next article, coming very soon. As the Japanese would say, please look forward to reading it.