MOS BURGER 2

I haven't had chances to go to special places since I went to Akihabara two weeks ago. I think whichever country you live in, you wouldn't experience something very unique if you're leading an ordinary life. I tend to have meals at unique restaurants to show to people, but I ended up having lunch at a MOS BURGER again.

As I told before, MOS BURGER has been making efforts to serve you with very fresh burgers, so it takes more time before you're served than Mcdonald's. It was a bit controversial whether MOS served food free of radioactive materials, because it uses locally harvested vegetables.   

 Clockwise from left: Naan Tacos, Kaisen Kakiage Burger, and Black Pepper Chicken. 

I thought this burger would seem interesting to you as it used rice instead of bread. The thing in between was vegetable and fried seafood such as scallop. The "Kaisen Kakiage" would be translated as "fried seafood". 

And since I was so hungry that I ordered a chili hot dog as well. I started to sweat even though the room was cool enough. We had many very hot days last year like over 35 degrees Celsius (95 F), but it has gotten slightly over 30 degrees (86 F) this month. So, we haven't been so concerned about shortage of electricity, which TEPCO said would be an issue when the nuclear power plant in Fukushima exploded in March. 

The Flying Garden (The Bomb Hamburg Steak)

A friend of mine told me he liked the Bikkuri Donkey post that I made last year. So I thought I should make a sequel to it. Let me show you what I had for lunch the other day.

 The restaurant I'm going to introduce is called "The Flying Garden". I started to see it about 9 years ago or so in my city. It seems it's not so popular as it used to be, but it keeps serving good dishes even now. The Japanese on the lower sign reads, "The Bomb Hamburg". The red kanji is read as "bakudan" in Hiragana, which means "bomb".

 The outside look of The Flying Garden. As you might have noticed, this restaurant is popular among physical laborers. 

 Because this restaurant's name includes "garden", the interior looks like a garden. You'd love this.

 This salad is "The hot chicken salad". The chicken was really spicy and the dressing was mildly sour. 

Don't they look like bombs? This is "The Bomb Hamburg Steak" set. Before they were cut open, they were like one brown ball. And the white stuff is ground horseradish that tasted like wasabi. The amount was more than enough, and that must be the reason why physical laborers frequent this restaurant. 

Ajanta (A curry restaurant) and then some

Now that the rainy season is over and the sweltering summer has come, it's the best time for me to visit Akihabara. Some people say they don't like summer because the humidity makes them sweat, but as for me I become very active from July to August.

 Foreign people sometimes don't like curry, but it's one of the most popular dishes among the Japanese people. I once had a friend whose family had a "curry day" once a week. My friends and me had planned to come to this Ajanta in Akihabara as its sign grabbed our attention. 

 It was dim inside and Indian music videos were being played on end.

 This one was "chicken curry". I could choose from five levels of spiciness, but mine was "a little spicy", the level 2. The taste was good enough to recommend to other people as well.

 Btw, do you know there is service in Akihabara with which you can have your ears cleaned by a girl? The price was as you can see 2,700 yen for 30 minutes. Or about 33 us dollars. Would you pay for it? 

And I dropped by "AKIBA cultures ZONE", which I introduced with this pic. I bought this Rozen Maiden Doujinshi, which included no graphic scenes, but as it was stuck in between very lewd ones, I had to try hard to find this non-R18. You can buy the latest Doujinshi at Comiket, but a little old ones are available in Akihabara all through the year. This cost as little as 210 yen.

Tully's Coffee

Those who started to read my blog recently might not know I'm a huge fan of iced coffee. I usually go to Doutor to have coffee, but this coffee shop Tully's offers as good coffee or better. Tully's is similar to Starbucks as far as the prices are concerned, but I'd say Tully's coffee tastes much better.

As I introduced two years ago, there is an outlet mall in my neighborhood. I was looking for nice clothes going from one shop to another, and got tired from walking. There was a Tully's in the center of my city as well but it went out of business, and this is the nearest one.  

As you can see, the design and layout of the counter are similar to Starbucks'. I've heard this coffee shop originated from Seattle, so I guess Americans are familiar with this. 

And this was "Iced coffee". One cup cost about 4.3 dollars. I think it was relatively expensive as we can have a Mcdonald's hamburger set for 7.4 dollars in Japan. But you know, when you want to have something in a good atmosphere, you shouldn't be stingy. 

Walk in Akihabara -16-

I haven't come to Akihabara since the beginning of the last month. Basically I can enjoy my free time wherever I am as long as I have music to listen to, but Akihabara is visually stimulating as there are so many anime- and manga-related signs

I said before you can buy any electronic devices in Akihabara. There are many small electronic shops under one roof in this area and you can find very tiny screws to thick cables. My friend is an audio freak and I accompanied him today as he wanted to buy miscellaneous stuff for his audio system.

Each shop owner is sitting in their own shop waiting for customers to pick up small parts. Akihabara is known for anime goods, but long before that this area was the place in Japan where people from every prefecture came all the way to get electronic goods sold only here. 

 And the signs of GAMERS were changed from what I saw last month. I want to check it next time I come here too. 

 There is a small aisle that leads to the other side of Akihabara station, and on one side of the aisle I saw these figurines displayed. I didn't know what anime they were from though. 

 I had searched for a good Ramen shop on the Internet. The upper red line reads, "We're confident in the tastes of our Ramen". 

 This is a kind of Ramen "Tsukemen". You're supposed to dip the noodles in the left broth. I feel like having something very spicy in the summer. It was about 32 degrees Celsius today in Tokyo. 

 A new complex "AKIBA cultures ZONE" had been opened. I got inside, and there were so many Doujinshi on the 2nd floor. A shop clerk was announcing that they were going to take part in Comiket 80, which is going to be held this summer. 

The main street "Chuo Street" goes pedestrian paradise at 1pm Sunday. This is the first time I saw the street freed for pedestrians since the Akihabara stabbing incident took place in '08.  

 Policemen seemed to be vigilant, but people were enjoying the freedom they were given. However, extreme performances that people used to do were completely banned. When I came here 6 years ago, young cosplayers were dancing crazy to music.  

And I bought this Gundam memo pad on my way back home. It was only 300 yen. Which Gundam series are you familiar with? I got this at the Gundam Cafe, but it was based on the first series. 

The nuclear power plant in Fukushima is getting stabilized, and we're having far fewer earthquakes now. Why not visit Japan this year?