There is a pizza restaurant in the center of my city that is called "Shakey's". It came from the USA to Japan in '73, so it's basically not Japanese, but as I enjoyed having lunch there when I was a high school student, let me show what they offer. There are many outlets of Shakey's in Tokyo like in Shinjyuku, Ikebukuro, and Shibuya, so when you get tired of Japanese food you might be better off visiting one of them.
Can you see the number "780"? You can have an all-you-can-eat lunch for 780 yen (8.2 us dollars). There are other restaurants that offer a similar lunch, but such lunch is usually priced over 1,000 yen.
You can stay here until you finish your lunch, and you don't have to pay two hours' parking fee if you get your parking ticket stamped by the cashier
Basically you have to get pizza yourself. Those pizza are served about every 10 minutes or so. They keep serving various kinds of pizza that are very hot.
One thing you should try at Shakey's is this seasoning. This seemed to consist of hot pepper, but it's not too spicy.
And people put the seasoning on potatoes like this. You can see spaghetti as well, and you can have all of them for 780 yen.
This pizza have some pieces of pineapple and chocolate sauce. When you're done with lunch, you might feel like trying sweet pizza like this. You can see salad on your left, and it's included in the price, too.
You can have rice and curry as well. I've heard most of the Americans don't care for rice and curry, so I wonder if they have this also in the USA. But this is one of the most popular dishes in Japan, and I have it at least once a week. I suck at cooking, but I can cook it well as the recipe is so simple.
It was reported in a newspaper that people are pinching pennies by having meals at home, and one of the dishes people like to have at home is hot cake. It's because some hot cakes would quickly make people feel full, and a package of hot cake powder costs less than a dollar. But I wonder if it's possible for Japanese people to keep living small until this recession ends.
