Running amuck...: Food in Kakogawa

After work, Ken and I would go searching for dinner in Kakogawa. Although, KFC and McDonalds were around, we wanted some non-American cuisine. One night we ate tonkatsu (Japanese fried pork) - this is everywhere in Japan, at least everywhere we went.

Another night we ate "Viking Style"... yeah, a little explaining is needed. The GMP consultant at the firm suggested a restaurant that served food Viking style, this is what the Japanese call buffet (OMG, I'm still laughing about it). The spread at the Viking style restaurant was phenomenal, we tried all sorts of dishes; the downside was all the name tags were in Japanese. They even had a miso soup dispensing machine!

One night we found ourselves wandering and wandering until we came across a restaurant with a menu containing pictures and a good variety of dishes. It is very difficult or nearly impossible to order food if you don't speak Japanese and if the menu doesn't have any pictures, since most all menus are in Japanese (not English). This restaurant also happened to be it's own separate building, which is unusual (most all restaurants are attached or are a part of a big building). I believe we ate at the Village Inn or the Dee's Family Restaurant of Japan. The atmosphere (i.e., seating, people, large plastic coated menu, etc.) was synonymous to a Village Inn. Our first waitress did not speak any English and even after pointed to the items on the menu, she could not understand what we wanted. The confusion was over ordering single items or a combo, not even the iPhone applications helped us. She excused herself and the manager (I am sure it was the manager by her age, dress, and presence) apologized, took our order, and became our waitress; she was extremely nice and so thankful (she even helped Ken with his Japanese phrases).

In addition, we ate Indian food in Japan... it was good too! The strange factor came into play when they served the pakora; instead of serving it with tamarind chutney and/or mint chutney, they served it with ketchup! Ketchup with pakora must be a staple, since this is the way it was served in Kakogawa and Utsunomiya.