White Gyoza ホワイト餃子, Kameari, Tokyo

Knowing that I am a gyoza fan, a good friend of mine, Dana, recommended White Gyoza to me.  We had just been talking about my visit to Namja Town in Ikebukero to enjoy Gyoza Stadium.  White Gyoza specializes in fried bread-like gyoza, much like the Maruman gyoza I had at Gyoza Stadium.

If you head out to the Kameari White Gyoza, please pay attention to the map on the website as the restaurant is about a 7-minute walk from the station.  According to Dana, you can see it from the Joban line train if you are headed towards Tokyo from Kashiwa.  That said, there are multiple White Gyoza branches throughout Tokyo and Chiba so if you don't live near Kameari, there is a chance that you can find one near you.  Here's what the Kameari branch looks like at night:

For those of you who know what gyoza look like, it might be hard to believe that the White Gyoza are actually gyoza.  They look more like little dinner rolls than actual gyoza!  Inside each White Gyoza is pure yumminess.  The outside is slightly crunchy and the inside is moist and pipping hot with savory pork filling.

Yum yum.  We ordered 20 gyoza, white rice and beers.  As you can tell from the menu below, our meal didn't set us back too much, only about 2000 yen for the both of us.

Yep, we were thoroughly full.  I definitely want to do it again.  I give White Gyoza an enthusiastic five pot stickers out of five pot stickers for the yumminess and value.

Wolfgang Puck Cafe, Roppongi, Tokyo

Well, we decided to visit the Christmas "illuminations" (what Japanese people call Christmas lights) last weekend at Roppongi Hills and Tokyo Midtown.  For lunch, we decided to try Wolfgang Puck Cafe, not too far from Hardrock Cafe/Tony Roma's.

To start, it was not crowded at all- on a Saturday!  This made us relieved with two kids in tow.  The hostess kindly sat us near the big screen T.V.  The movie "Corpse Bride" kept the little ones entertained during our meal.

After seating us, due to the lack of customers, I got the impression that the waitstaff had forgotten we were there.  We flagged them down after awhile and placed our order.  To the kids delight, we could order fries on the side in addition to the relatively adult-orientated menu.  The lunch menu is available at WPC even on the weekends (at least Saturday) allowing us to get gourmet fare at a highly discounted price.  Lunch specials are a great deal in Japan and at many restaurants, the lunch fare is nearly identical to the more expensive dinner fare.  In addition to the fries, we ordered and shared the steak lunch, the tartar salmon lunch and the sweet potato pizza as shown in the following pictures.

Continuing with the lunch bargain theme, this meal would easily cost 60-70 dollars (5,000-6,000 yen) had it been dinner.  However, including drinks and a salad, our total was only 3,600 yen, which is about 40 dollars.

The winner of the three dishes was the sweet potato pizza having the ingenuity that made Wolfgang famous.  The pizza was a perfect blend of sweet and savory with the sweet potato, cheese and mayonnaise sauce (as opposed to tomato sauce).   The runner-up was the tartar sauce salmon.  The salmon was perfectly cooked (tender and juicy) and slightly breaded.   The steak was a bit overcooked and tough.  It tasted very good though, well-seasoned.  With the exception of Outback Steakhouse, the beef at most Japanese restaurants that I've eaten at tends to be overcooked.

A member of our party was given a spoon with a piece of food still on it (obviously heat cleaned  through the giant industrial strength dish washer, but there still nonetheless).  For some reason that bothered me a bit, perhaps due to the fact that they took a good deal of time to attend to our table in the beginning.  However, the food was delicious.  As a result, I give the restaurant three and a half howls out of five howls (four for the food, three for the service, averaging three and a half).   I actually eat here for lunch during the weekdays sometimes and it seems that the weekday experience might be a little better.

On a final note, if you look at this picture from the WPC, do you get the impression that Humphrey is gazing at Marilyn's ample cleavage too?  Here's looking at impressive cleavage, kid!
   

Earthquake!!!

Located in Aomori...  Magnitude 7.3.  We are all OK.  Building was shaking.  However, train lines running again and everything is OK.

Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) Level 2 (2-kyu) Test December 2012/ Uncle Joe's Mint Balls

Well, got bogged down for another period of time and finally have a breather now.

I just took the ２級日本語能力試験  (level 2 of the Japanese language proficiency test) last weekend and received a good whupping.  I went in there all ready to have a cake walk like those colonial marines in Aliens, thinking I was going to rescue some juicy colonist daughters, and like Pvt. Hudson said, after I left the test it was "Game over man, game over!"   I wouldn't have posted anything about failing miserably had it not been for my good buddy Sam suggesting me to make a blog post about my test.  Although a miracle might happen when I get my results in February, "Game over man, game over!!!"

Next, I was at the Seijo Ishii grocery store in Roppongi a few weeks ago and came across the above candies.  My brother-in-law is named Joe and got a good chuckle when I ran across them.  Definitely meant to be funny as the mint balls are a British product rather than a Japanese one.  Two Saturday Night Live skits come to mind for the mint balls.  First, I remember that Alec Baldwin skit with "Schweddy Balls" due to the use of balls and a name.  Next, I think of those pompous British foppy fellows from that 90's SNL skit where they use excessive innuendos since the mint balls are British.  Perhaps I will get those for Joe as a Christmas gag gift...

Back to reviews in the near future...

Kura Sushi, Abiko, Chiba (Throughout Tokyo)

Went to visit the family the week before last and was able to enjoy kaiten (conveyer belt) sushi at Kura Sushi in Abiko.  This Kura Sushi is located in the parking lot of the Seven Holdings shopping center which was formerly called Espa.  There is likely one close to you if you are in the Tokyo area.

To start, about 90 percent of the dishes are 100 yen.  This is a bargain, especially compared to the States where a plate of salmon sushi can easily set you back 4 dollars.    The selection here is great, everything from sushi staples such as ika (squid), shrimp and tuna maki to creative ones such as cheese kalbi (beef) and snow crab leg.  What I like about it is the fact that each plate has a clear plastic guard to keep the germs out.

Don't see what you like?  Just look at the automated menu, find your selection, press the button and voila, it is delivered right to your table (if you can't read Japanese, I believe the selections can be changed to English; however, have no fear because each item has a picture)!

After you are finished, you take your plate and put it here (at each table).

For every five plates you place in the return area, you get to play a game on the menu screen.  If you win the plate game, a gacha gacha capsule rolls down from the top of the capsule dispenser at each table.  Each capsule contains a Kura Sushi themed toy or key chain.  

We got a total of 35 plates, and if you do the math, that equates to 7 tries at the plate game.  We won a total of zero times.  Lots of disappointed people at my table.  What made it worse was the fact that plates 32-35 were quite difficult to go down as we were already stuffed from plates 1-31.  Rats!

Well as to my review, I give Kura Sushi stellar marks.  The sushi is fresh, the selection is good and price is quite reasonable.  Other than the absolute failure at the capsule game, it was a great experience.  I give Kura Sushi 5 maki out of 5 maki.  If you can find a Kura Sushi near you, by all means get at least 5 plates!

Battle Beasts 2012

"Fire! Fire burns wood!  Water! Water puts out fire!  Wood! Wood beats water!  Collect all of these incredible creatures who battle for fun!

If you grew up in the 80's and you are a boy, you have to remember the Battle Beasts, released by Hasbro in the U.S. and Takara in Japan.  Over 80 of them were released and they came in packs of 2 or 8.  Personally, I had about 60 of them, being an animal fan.  If you don't remember them well, go look at www.toyarchive.com for some of our furry, scaly or feathery friends.

Each of the Battle Beasts had one of those heat activated rub signs on their chests which revealed one of a fire, water and wood symbol.  Unfortunately, I brought mine in the bathtub with me and the hot water ruined the rub signs.

The game was simple, like rock, paper and scissors.  Fire beats wood because fire burns wood, wood beats water because water floats on wood and water beats fire because water puts fire out.  

Well, welcome to the 2010's.  Takara Tomy has just released a new set of Battle Beasts to commemorate the 25th anniversary of their original release.  Boy have things changed.  First, they are a bit bigger.  Next they are articulated in the legs and arms.  They also come with two weapons now, a sword/spear/trident and a shield.  They also come with a trading card too.  Finally, they have a completely different game where a mechanism in their chest fires a die and the higher roller wins the battle.  More on this after I read the instructions (in Japanese).

I am totally excited about these guys because they look great and were my all-time favorite toys.  They also rekindle some awesome memories from a simpler, happy time.  Yes... the 80's were great.  Hopefully you in the U.S. will get these new Battle Beasts in the near future (without having to import them from Japanese sellers).

Nice Pose, Another Busty Anime Chick, Jimbocho, Tokyo

Sorry for the lack of updates this month as work has picked up.  I needed to go to Jimbocho to pick up the latest White Dwarf magazine (I know I am a dork) on Saturday and came across this gem of a pic in one of the game stores while picking up the December issue.   Gotta love the anime girls, almost started laughing out loud when I saw this one.  Since I was flanked by two other guys in this part of the magazine aisle (busy shopping for their anime girl goods (which I guess is less dorky than my Warhammer fix)), I kept quiet.   I did snap this pic though which made me seem more perverted than I already am.  According to the pic's Engrish wording, she is Nasty and Justy.  Yep, that's right.  She's Justy!!!  At least they put the yellow sting around the magazine so the kiddies won't be checking out her assets.  But from the cover though, it's like a free peep show.