Brian's Japan Adventure

October 28^th, 2007

West Side Story

Got up this morning, talked to Mom on the phone for her weekly call. Not much new to report there; she’s still short and Dad still has little to say. I quickly did some laundry and then zipped on over for McBreakfast and the library, as I had an online meeting pre-arranged at 10:30. Yes, folks, you who have access to the chat room CAN actually schedule a live conversation with me. And I probably won’t even make you pay for it.

I have no afternoon classes this Wednesday, so that significantly cuts down on my preparation time for next week. I had to look up some Halloween stuff for my Tuesday class, but that’s about it. The rest was playtime. When I eventually finished with that, I rode home to drop off the computer. Then, as promised yesterday, it became time for some exploring.

As I mentioned, I have never actually gone to the other side of time. Most of the scenic stuff is on the East side of town, and everywhere I go or have visited is on that side too. Today I decided to see what else was out there. I rode past the little station, past the language school, and saw the Okayama Sports Park for the first time. It is huge. It has the Momotaro Stadium, the Momotaro Arena, The Okayama Municipal Pool (closed since before I arrived here), and just a gargantuan park area. It’s very nice, very clean, and very large. Many pictures are at my online gallery.

Food Spots

I found a second Co Co Ichiban, although why I would need two isn’t clear. I found another open-air arcade area, but since it was late on Sunday, the stores were mostly closed. I found yet another McDonalds; this was elevated and very nice. I was tempted to have dinner there, but a little voice kept telling me to wait. I rode a little farther, and I identified whose little voice that was. It was none other than BIG BOY!

I thought I got a picture of the whole restaurant, but it’s not here now, so I guess not. It’s one of those elevated restaurants where you park on the ground level and go up some stairs to the main building, so you even get a little bit of an elevated view. I went in there expecting tiny little hamburgers with either burnt or half-cooked fries. Or maybe a “melt” sandwich that the cook insists isn’t supposed to be melted. Or a neglected salad bar covered in flies. You know, like an American Big Boy restaurant. Not so here; I think Big Boy is going to be my new best friend.

First, there are no Big Boy sandwiches. There are no sandwiches at all. As far as I could tell, there was no resemblance at all between Japanese Big Boy and American (i.e. Frisch’s) Big Boy. Not even hot fudge cake or the Big Boy sandwich itself. They have a salad bar, which is going to be a really good thing for me. Beyond that, it’s mostly steaks. They have regular hamburger steaks, real beef steaks, chicken steaks (what we would call breast patties) and other kinds of “real dinners.”

I ordered a hamburger steak sitting on a mound of onions with cheddar cheese melted over the top. It was about an inch and a half thick, and came with small potato chunks, broccoli and carrots on the side of a “sizzling” metal plate. You could order regular fries or onion rings as an option, but I ordered steak fries instead. Big, fat steak fries, with lots of ketchup and salt. I didn’t understand a word the waitress said, nor she me, but they have a beautiful picture menu, so we worked it all out pretty easily. I didn’t understand to order the “drink bar” which I assume is a fill-your-own glass fountain, so I survived with only water this time. The bottom line is that it was fantastic. Probably the best meal I have had in two months. Guess how much? 990Y; that’s under $10.00. Most of the menu items, even the “big steaks” are under 1500Y.

I could go there within minutes of my Japanese classes and probably will do exactly that. It’s probably not more than a 15-minute bike ride from home, so it’s technically closer than Co Co Ichiban. Yes the discovery of good old Big Boy was easily the high point of my week!

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This entry was posted on Sunday, October 28th, 2007 at 8:21 pm and is filed under Japan, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.