By Terry Watada<\/p>\n
Japan is full of odd and interesting restaurants serving outlandish and delicious food.\u00a0 During my recent trip, I managed to seek out and partake of some fascinating establishments only found in a country that prides itself on service and perfection.\u00a0 From the amazing variety of Ramen Stadium to the fruit extravaganza of the Takano Fruit Bar to the spirituality of the Tera Cafe, the trip was a smorgasbord of specialty food that rivalled the variety of a Japanese hotel\u2019s baikingu<\/em>.<\/p>\n The term \u201cstadium\u201d is quite popular in Japan.\u00a0 It denotes a collection of something; for example, Foodium (a play on stadium) is a massive grocery store with branches seemingly all over the country.\u00a0 It features an array of goods not seen in North America.\u00a0 Certainly outpaces a place like Uwajimaya in Seattle.\u00a0 In any case, Ramen Stadium is blocks away from the Hakata train station (Fukuoka) situated on the fifth floor of the shopping mall, Canal City.\u00a0 It competes openly with Ramen Street in Tokyo (a place I have to visit next time).<\/p>\n In the \u201cstadium\u201d, eight ramen shops ply their trade.\u00a0 The eight represent various regional styles from all over Japan.\u00a0 We only had one chance to enjoy a meal so we chose Hide-Chan, highly recommended by friends in Toronto.<\/p>\n Hideto Kawahara opened his first ramen shop in 1993.\u00a0 His father started in the business with Daruma Ramen, established over fifty years ago.\u00a0 Today, Hideto operates 15 stores in Japan, one in Akasaka, Tokyo.\u00a0 He has also expanded to New York City.<\/p>\n I ordered the tonkotsu ramen<\/em>, Hakata\u2019s representational gourmet delight.\u00a0 The large bowl came with a generous portion of noodles, char shiu<\/em>, green onions, and other condiments.\u00a0 But it was the soup, made out of pork bones and fried pork fat, which took the breath away.\u00a0 One taste of the creamy, thick liquid and I was transported to a Nirvana of delight.\u00a0 Tasty is too weak a word to describe what I experienced.\u00a0 Word of warning, however, it was extremely rich.\u00a0 After a while it became cloyingly rich.\u00a0 By the end, I felt like I was going to come down with a case of gout.\u00a0 So one bowl was sufficient to experience Hakata.<\/p>\n In Tokyo (and 34 other locations around Japan) stands the temple to fruit: Takano Fruit Bar.\u00a0 The cafe\/baikingu<\/em> represents the perfection of fruit.\u00a0 Very popular, we went at 2:00 in the afternoon hoping to get a table, we barely just.\u00a0 We by-passed the buffet, dominated by fruit of course, but had other dishes, and went to the cafe for afternoon dessert.\u00a0 Too bad it wasn\u2019t peach season because I have never eaten a bad peach in Japan (at $5.00 a peach minimum, I had better not) and so was hoping to taste the ambrosia again.\u00a0 But it was not, so I settled for a strawberry parfait.\u00a0 It did not disappoint.\u00a0 First of all, it was large.\u00a0 Certainly worth the $20 Cdn it cost.\u00a0 The berries not only looked perfect (a word I have overused here, I know, but there is no other word), they were sweet, aromatic and juicy.\u00a0 Unbelievable.<\/p>\n The company Takano Fruit Company started in 1885 by Shinjuku Takano.\u00a0 It was located appropriately enough just outside the Shinjuku Station, which opened the same year as the fruit company.<\/p>\n The Takano Fruit Company constantly invents ways to present fruit in original ways to sell to the public.\u00a0 I can see why tourists and locals make this a place for celebrations and pilgrimages.<\/p>\n The Tera Cafe in Tokyo\u2019s Daikanyama district brings Buddhist traditions into the dining experience.\u00a0 Membership in the Buddhist Church has declined in recent times not only in Japan but in the 21st<\/sup> century world.\u00a0 Of course, Buddhism is not the only religion seeing shrinking memberships and a creeping indifference to traditional spiritualism.\u00a0 But Japan has been arguably the centre of it since it was imported in the 6th<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n In order to link the tenets of Buddhism to the lives of contemporary Japanese, Buddhist monks opened a relaxed and comfortable place to enrich their customers\u2019 lives.\u00a0 What better place to start than Tokyo, the modern megalopolis so prominent in the world?<\/p>\n There is a butsudan<\/em> that dominates the dining room, but there is a patio that exposes the place to the unusually quiet street.\u00a0 Monks and others staff the place and can be a source of counselling if needed.\u00a0 After hour and off-location courses, workshops and lectures are also offered, but never forced on patrons.\u00a0 There is no proselytizing like a Christian mission may attempt.\u00a0 Instead, Tera Cafe is a calm spiritual refuge from the daily pressures of modern life.<\/p>\n The menu features light snacks and coffee of course.\u00a0 A typical variety consists of grilled mackerel, assorted tempura<\/em>, fried octopus and tsukemono<\/em>.\u00a0 The cafe also offers a vegetarian set menu based on the dietary restrictions of Buddhist monks.\u00a0 There are four essential elements: rice (a boiled dish), a grilled dish, a salad of chopped vegetables and a Japanese soup to cleanse the palate.<\/p>\n My experience with Tera Cafe was very calming.\u00a0 I felt very much at home, reminding me of my youth at the Toronto Buddhist Church.\u00a0 It was good to go back for a while anyway.<\/p>\n So that in a nutshell is my latest eating adventure in Japan, and I\u2019ve only scratched the surface.\u00a0 Like my first experience with baikingu<\/em>.\u00a0 Upon hearing the term, I thought it had something to do with germs and not food.\u00a0 Turns out baikingu <\/em>is derived from the word Viking<\/em>.\u00a0 And what are the Vikings said to have invented?\u00a0 Not sure if it\u2019s true but the smorgasbord.\u00a0 So the baikingu<\/em> is a smorgasbord featured mainly in hotels like the Prince and the Hotel Shiroyama in Kagoshima.\u00a0 See how Japanese cuisine goes beyond sushi<\/em>.\u00a0 Simply fascinating.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Terry Watada Japan is full of odd and interesting restaurants serving outlandish and delicious food.\u00a0 During my recent trip, I managed to seek out and partake of some fascinating establishments only found in a country that prides itself on service and perfection.\u00a0 From the amazing variety of Ramen Stadium to the fruit extravaganza of 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