Day 1
Custard Taiyaki
from Edo Taiyaki Asakusa Honten
¥280
Pancake/waffle batter filled with custard
Assorted Sazanka
from Wako Tonkatsu Akiba
¥1500
・2 bite-size pork fillet cutlets
・minced beef and pork cheese-filled cutlet
・Miso Soup
・Rice
Day 2
7-Eleven items
¥555
Orange Juice
Apple Danish
Churro Donuts
A lot of different things. Dinner was bought for us by an industry contact we met with. There were 10 of us there, so they just ordered a bunch of everything. A lot is not pictured because there was just so much.
Day 3
“Milk” Ice Cream
from Cheese Cabin
¥400
I’m pretty sure this is what you get when you make ice cream and include no extra flavors other than sugar.
Day 4
Another 7-eleven Breakfast
¥511
Apple Juice
Apple Danish
Chocolate Filled Horn
Cheese hamburg Steak + Buffet of sides
from BUFFET&GRILL CHEF’S GOODIES
¥1699
Annoyingly the actual picture I took of my steak got corrupted somehow. So, I’ve borrowed a photo from Google Maps from Yuu-san (found here). Hamburg steak is effectively just a burger patty, I believe the cheese was a combo of American and Jack, but it was hard to tell.
There was also a buffet of sides, anything from pasta, tofu, fries, meatballs, croquette, croissants. Just a whole smattering of everything it seemed.
There were also some desserts. We tried a purple pudding that was surprisingly watermelon flavored, reminded me of GoGurt. I also couldn’t not get some mint chocolate ice cream either.
Day 5
7-Eleven Fried Chicken – “Nanachiki”
¥223
Everyone likes to stan their favorite conbini fried chicken. Obviously, you can’t choose when you haven’t had any of them. It’s a nice departure from the ultra-greasy KFC.
FamilyMart Fried Chicken – “Famichiki”
¥220
Later in the day I stopped by a FamilyMart to get theirs. So far this is my favorite, but I still have to try something from Lawson.
in Jelly, energy & Coolish
¥226 & ¥173
Also, while at the FamilyMart, I picked up a couple well-known products for viewers/listeners of the Abroad in Japan Podcast.
The energy jelly is exactly that, a pouch of jelly that is a fruity flavor.
As for the Coolish, it’s basically McDonald’s soft serve in a pouch.
Baconator USA Double Combo
¥1490
I like Wendy’s. Saw a Wendy’s. Got Wendy’s.
Day 6
Cinnamon Base Bread & Hot Yuzu Karin with honey
¥???? (I forgot the receipt)
The base bread is quite literally just some dense bread and a slight cinnamon flavor, nothing exciting. The yuzu drink is another one of the hot drinks they have here. I just grabbed it based on the look of the bottle. It was okay for a while, but the more I drank, the more it started to taste like a lemon Halls lozenge.
Mankatsu Sandwich
¥800
I covered this in the Daily Vending Machine page for the day, but it is still food. Wasn’t too bad for a semi-cold sandwich. Surprisingly filling.
Japanese Wagyu Beef Skewer
from Beef Skewers Maruju Meat Shop
¥1200
A beef skewer stand in Akiba where you can get a taste of various types of beef. From standard beef for ¥500 all the way up to ¥1800 for Matsusaka Wagyu. We decided to get the non-region-locked “Japanese Wagyu”. It was pretty good, but we both agreed that there was a bit too much fat.
Lawson “Eru-chiki”
¥238
Finishing the triumvirate of conbini fried chicken, I finally got Lawson’s variant. Compared to the others, it is visibly moist. I didn’t notice anything unique about Lawson’s offering other than the need for a wet wipe for my mouth. Sitting as the most expensive of the 3, I don’t think there is really any reason to get this one outside of trying all of them.
This means my ranking for conbini fried chicken is FamilyMart, 7-Eleven, Lawson.
O’Zack Potato Snack Salty Flavor
¥118
I wanted a snack item to go with my chicken. These are a very thin/light potato chip. Reminds me of baked lays with significantly less salt.
Day 7
Gyudon + Extra rice
from Sukiya
¥800
Simple story here. I wanted beef bowl, so I went to a nearby beef bowl chain and got beef bowl. Extremely filling for this price.
Karaage & Massive Cola
from Masses tavern Chibachan Akihabara
¥??? (large split bill)
We had a large meetup of ~15 people at this izakaya. Mainly the food was these boats of karaage and trays of fries (that you can see the remnants of next to the boat.
Day 8
Milk Tea with Salted Cheese
from Happy Lemon
¥690
One of my friends is obsessed with cheese tea. I haven’t had the chance to try before today. Not for me.
Also to clarify, it’s not like actual cheese in the drink. It’s more like a cream cheese.
Day 9
Breakfast Baconator & Hashbrowns
¥700
Yea we went back for the breakfast menu.
Day 10
Tropicana Mango Blend & Melon Bread
¥142 & ¥128
I think I’ve had this drink almost every morning now, it’s really good. And I’ve been meaning to try melonpan since I’ve gotten here. It’s named as such due to its look, not it’s flavor. It is simply some round bread with a sweet coating on top.
Match Match & Vanilla CalorieMate
¥162 & ¥119
Match Match tastes like a liquid version of one of those yellow Smarties. And CalorieMates are a cookie-like dense block of energy.
Peyang Sauce Yakisoba
¥446
So, I intended to go to a nearby restaurant. But, they were apparently full. When looking at google, I learned that pretty every nearby restaurant closed at 4:30 or 5:00 (it was now ~5:15).
So this was the chance to live to college student life once again with some 7-eleven instant noodles.
Day 11
Maple & Fruit CalorieMates
¥119 x2
This was a very busy day, so I didn’t have much time for food. So, throughout the morning and early afternoon I lived off of these.
3 pre-packaged sandwiches & Kyoto Lemonade
¥330 & ¥162
Again, very busy day. I had to grab something quick from the station before getting to my shinkansen. These sandwiches were okay. They are at least more trustworthy than a gas station sandwich in the US.
As for the lemonade, this was the first time I’d seen lemonade in Japan. It was good, very lemonade.
Kushikatsu
from Manmaru
¥1100 (my share of ~¥10k total)
Fried things. This was shred between the group, only a handful of things here I ordered.
Day 12
7-Eleven Apple Crumble
¥148
They had no apple danish.
“UFO Chicken”
from Pegopayoumedaten Korean Restaurant
¥??? (idk, it was a lot)
Korean fried chicken. There was a lot more food that was ordered, but this is what I participated in.
Day 13
7-Eleven Chocolate Ring Donut
¥128
For lack of a decision. I forgot to take a picture of this one so here is a stock image from Mister Donut that basically looks the same.
Beef Okonomiyaki
from Fukutaro
¥1280
This is a hard one to explain, so I will defer to Wikipedia.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from this one knowing how many ingredients it uses. But it wasn’t bad.
7-eleven Premium Vanilla Ice Cream Cone
¥338
Just a step above soft serve.
Day 14
Hot Apple Pie & Angel French Cruller
from Mister Donut
¥242 & ¥165
I’ve been trying to get to a Mister Donut for a bit, but for a while every one I considered had a massive line. But I found out there was one next to our hotel here so a little later in the morning and there was plenty of space.
Cream Puff
from Hirota
¥378
Stumbled across this while wandering Dotonbori. While I’m not a State Fair cream puff person, a small one sometimes can be nice.
15 nuggets, Medium Fries, & Oreo McFlurry
¥1450
“There are McDonald’s everywhere”.
Yes, and they are here too 🙂
Day 15
7-Eleven Cheesecake tart
¥128
Oops back to 7-Eleven
Kobe Beef Dinner Set
from Steakland Kobe
¥6400
This is more affordable than what is near it. It’s really good steak. Came with mushrooms, singular cucumber slice, beat sprouts, garlic chips, konjac jelly (tastes fine, weird texture), soup, salad (not pictured), and rice.
Custard Taiyaki
from Croissant Taiyaki
¥300
Just around the corner from the steakhouse was this stand run by a nice old lady who makes taiyaki, but instead of the normal batter, uses croissant dough.
Day 16
Salted Rice Ball & Ham Cutlet Sandwich
¥100 & ¥460
Busy travel day. Grabbed these on my way to the shinkansen in Kyoto.
Gyukatsu
from Gyukatsu Ichi Ni San
¥2300
This was highly recommended by friends. It was good, but we had to wait about an hour to get in. Which I’m not a fan of.
Day 17
