I didn't dine out so often last year, but since I thought you'd be interested in the food of a country you like, I decided to dine out so often this year. Sure, it costs some money, but if the purpose is to fill my stomach and take pics, I can get the two things done at a time.
I didn't like Japanese food so much, but since I started to have more Japanese food, I found some of our food to be better than the others. This restaurant is called "Shirokujichu" or 4x6 hours. If 4 is multiplied by 6, it equals 24. And yes, "Shrokujichu" means 24/7.
I came here for lunch, but when I arrived here it was about 11:30am, so I didn't see any customers except for us. Most of the Japanese restaurants open at 11am, save some family restaurants like GUSTO, which is open all the time.
I chose this "Tori Gobou Ohitsu". To explain each word, Tori is chicken, and Gobou is burdock, and Ohitsu is a kind of bowl like this in which we put rice. I've heard Americans and Europeans don't have burdock for a meal, but it does taste good if it is seasoned with soy sauce and sugar.
The green vegetable is called "Mitsuba" or trefoil. It tastes a bit bitter, but most Japanese seasoned rice like "Takikomigohan" have this on top of it. Here's a pic of Takikomigohan.
If you can't finish the rice, you can have it as "Ochazuke", which is had with hot water and some pickles. Actually this restaurant served "Dashi" instead of hot water. Dashi is something like broth. Some Japanese people have it as an additional dinner. Japanese salarymen often get home later than 9pm, and in that case they have this "Ochazuke". "Ocha" is (green)tea, and "Zuke" means "to sop".
We often have rice even at western restaurants. For example, you can choose either bread or rice if you order steak.
