Roppongi has quite a bad reputation. Located about 15 minutes from Shinjuku it has become some kind of foreigner centre. Go there for a night out and you will be propositioned by a collection of people promoting bars, strip clubs and even “massage” parlours. Once a girl grabbed my hand and said massage 3 times before I could wrestle my hand away from her.

This kind of thing has resulted in me giving Roppongi a bit of a wide berth when having a night out. Recently though I had to go there to get myself a Chinese VISA. As I had to get there ridiculously early I found I had plenty of time after to explore. To my shock I didn’t find people jumping out at me promising cheap drinks, cheap live music or cheap love but a rather nice bookshop. So after a bit of exploring I found a couple of interesting places that anyone who comes to Japan should check out.

F1 Pit Stop Cafe

I have been quite a big fan of F1 for the last 20 odd years, following the ups and downs of the drivers with much interest but I never expected to see an F1 themed restaurant. Inside is a treasure trove of F1 memorabilia, a load of celebrity signatures and even a Red Bull F1 car.

I came in at lunch time and the lunch menu had an optional salad bar and dessert but oddly every dish I could see on the menu was pasta. Is pasta particularly popular in F1 circles? Is that Bernie Ecclestone’s favourite? Why only pasta? Whatever the reason, I felt they missed a trick with the naming of the food. Why call something Spaghetti Bolognese, when you can call it David Coulthard This is my Year Bolognese? Why not have Ferrari Team Orders Lasagne or Champion’s Wall garlic bread? A missed opportunity indeed.

One more thing about the food is that they serve large portions for no extra cost, which is a bit of a bargain but I was not so hungry so I chose regular size. I was shocked that 2 different waiters had to check 4 times that I didn’t want large. Very odd, despite this strangeness the food was very tasty and I yummed it up.

Around the restaurant they had a number of TV screens showing an F1 race from 2009, can’t remember which it was though. There was also a shop were you can buy a large amount of overpriced F1 souvenirs.

As I left the bar I noticed that someone was eating steak and chips. Maybe I should have turned the page when reading the menu.

Official Website

Ludia’s Bar

This is an unusual one. Ever play any Dragon Quest games from Square-Enix? If you are from the UK then maybe not, only about 2 have ever been released there. Here in Japan however there have been countless Dragon Quest games and spin-offs made, it is really popular here. Despite never playing the games myself, I ventured in here and they really have gone the whole hog with it.

It is built to resemble a Tavern as seen in about a million fantasy stories but was a bit smaller that I expected and is a standing bar only. The food and drink all are given difficult to translate names and themes based on the video games, I especially liked the slime shaped niku man I ate, a clever little idea. On the bar there are a load of turkey legs and strange looking ball things under a heater, which is the last thing you expect to see when you walk in anywhere. The bar is also decorated with various swords and trinkets which I guess are from the games.

The staff (well the female staff anyway) are dressed like serving ladies from the games and here it all takes a maid café like turn. Maid cafés are hardly my favourite places in the world, the girls are basically paid to make chatter with you, smile and looked nice. One asked me in Japanese if I had played Dragon Quest 4, it has funny and interesting characters apparently.

For what it is worth, the food was rather tasty but I didn’t eat too much, I had just eaten a slap up (regular sized) meal at the F1 café so I was fairly full. I do think the menu is a little pricey though, my beer was 1000 yen. On the way out of the bar I got a loyalty card (hmm) and a slime fan for those hot summer days (yay).

Official Website

So these are just a couple of places of interest in Roppongi, I’m sure there are plenty more, I heard people say Tokyo Midtown is nice but I think it is just a posh shopping centre with a load of expensive shops and a Starbucks. Even though I was wondering around in the middle of the day, I felt I couldn’t quite escape Roppongi’s seedy underbelly, I often saw vans marked Escort Location Service with a seemingly endless number of girls in kimonos exiting them and walking somewhere.

Anyway, where ever you happen to be, go exploring, you just may find something interesting.

Recently a taiyaki shop opened near my house. Given what it sells, I really don’t think the location is the best. I don’t give it more than a year before it closes down. It does give me an excuse to talk about taiyaki though.

Taiyaki is basically made with something similar to waffle batter traditionally containing anko sweet bean paste inside. For some reason it is baked into the shape of a fish (hence the name taiyaki or “baked sea bream”). It is really quite tasty and when I first bought one I don’t think I even knew what anko was so I thought there was some kind of Chocolate in there.

Recently I think taiyaki stalls and shops have been getting more and more creative and been putting thing such as custard, chocolate and the incredibly delicious strawberry cream. The aforementioned local taiyaki shop even sells savoury ones, some simply have a cheese filling but others go the whole hog with bacon, sausage, lettuce and mayonnaise, sometimes they even sell okonomiyaki filled ones. This has unfortunately lead me to have whole takoyaki dinners, the bacon, egg and mayo taiyaki followed by a yummy strawberry cream one for dessert. This combination cannot be good for me!

Taiyaki are very famous in Asian countries and often crop up in the most surprising of places. In fact, a children’s song released in the seventies called Oyogi! Taiyaki-kun (Swim! Taiyaki) is the best selling record ever in Japan. The story of the song is about a taiyaki who escapes the production line to the sea and has a good time but in the end gets caught and eaten by a fisherman. I guess the story resonated with salary men of the time who wished to escape there own dreary existence but in the end they knew that it would be too difficult. The last line of the song goes something along the lines of “I’m just a taiyaki, this is my fate”, I guess the salary men of the seventies felt the same way as they were being stuffed into the train during the morning commute.

I really don’t like Akihabara very much, the place is just full of electronic shops, a couple of model shops and that’s about it. Akihabara used to have lots of things go on when they used to close off the main road and have lots of cosplaying singers, dancers and other nerdy stuff there, but events put a stop to all that. I generally only go there if I feel the need for a some gadget or an import video game.

So now the only things of note in Akihabara is the awesome man rapping about contact lenses and Maid Cafés. Maid Cafés are kind of unusual, the seem to cater for the the fantasies of Otaku where basically the waitresses dress in costumes based on French maids and try to act cute or “moe“.

I first went to a maid café over a year ago and found the whole experience a bit uncomfortable. My friend and I ordered overpriced tea and when the maid arrived with it she made a heart shape with her hands and then said something I didn’t understand followed by “Chu, Chu, CHU”. With each chu she thrust her hands towards the cup and encouraged us to do the same. We just looked at each other, slightly frightened.

I found the only enjoyment I got from the whole expirience was watching other peoples reactions to this Chu Thrusting. One guy was really into it, the guy wearing a novelty hat and clutching the Maid Café DVD, he was enthusiastically chu-ing along with the maid. Another guy did the chus and then as the girl turned away he cocked his head in a WTF kind of a way. In the corner was a pair of guys laughing so hard that one almost fell off his chair.

I left that maid café thinking that I would never go to another one again. Later however I heard stories about other maid cafés, they sounded like they offered strange and unique experiences. Such as the one where the maid treats you badly until you turn to leave, then they are suddenly mega subservient, the one where the interior is set up like a train or the one where there is a huge mystery cave in there. By far the most interesting sounding however was Cos Cha.

So I broke my vow and gave Cos Cha a visit. This café offers a few unique products, the most interesting of all is the “Heaven or Hell Jan Ken Mixed Juice”. I ordered this and after a long wait the maid came with a mixer and a rather an interesting tray.

One side contained the heaven part of the arrangement. Melon soda, blueberry jam, caramel and chocolate spread.

The other was the hell side. Wasabi, raw egg and fried oysters.

Then a game commenced, the maid and I played Jan Ken 4 times, if I won I got to choose what to add in the mixer but if I lost the maid chose. In the end I lost 3 times out of 4 so I ended up with a mix of melon soda, blueberry jam, wasabi and fried oysters.

After it was mixed the next challenge was to down it in one.

This proved to be difficult. I was doing fine until I ran into the fried oyster resting at the bottom of the cup. I nearly gagged.

Because I failed to finish the concoction in one go my punishment was to be slapped in the face.

Hard.

Twice.

I can safely say that this was an unique experience and I had quite a laugh doing it despite the horrible taste in my mouth and the big red mark left on my face. Perhaps I will go to another maid café some time but I have had just about enough odd I can take for a good long while.

Japan has a reputation for strange drinks, the likes of Pokari Sweat and Calpis are world famous for various reasons, but recently quite a number new odd looking drinks have been doing the rounds. I, of course, have made it my mission to taste them all and report my findings.

Toranoco

Tabasco sauce is powerful stuff. While you pour it on your pizza, have you ever thought it would be a good idea to gulp a mouthful down? No? That’s not a surprise, nobody has. Quite what inspired the design of this drink is anyone’s guess. For the record, this drink is not some sort of spicy monster but just a cola with an strange colour. It’s tastes like one of those cheap colas your mum used to buy because they were 20p for a 2 litre bottle in Sainsbury’s. Not recommended.

Fanta U.S.A Hip Hop

Only included here because of the name. What, pray tell, does U.S.A Hip hop taste like? According to the folks at Fanta, hip hop has the taste of mixed fruit. It turns out it is lush. If hip hop is the flavour of mixed fruit, remind me to lick the face of Grandmaster Flash next time he is in town. Given the Fanta’s marketing team’s mad imagination, I am anxiously awaiting the release of U.K. Indie (sour lemonade) and Jamaica Reggae (pineapple).

Chocolate Sparkling

Yes, you read that right, this is a sparkling chocolate soda. Incredibly it smells just like hot chocolate, the taste is of wet farts though. Only managed a few mouthfuls before I gave up and poured it down the sink. Avoid.

Fanta Moo Moo White

Good old Fanta, not content with naming things after musical genres they also name things after animal noises. The bottle is the real star of this package, all white with cow markings on the outside. At first I thought that this was some sort of Calpis wannabe but it doesn’t taste anything like it. Apparently it is made with yoghurt but I think it is just cream soda. Not it’s biggest fan but you have to appreciate the effort.

Tea is very important to British people. Incredibly important, any nation that can rename the final, main, meal of the day to “tea” has to be a bit obsessed.  So it doesn’t take long for your average Brit to realise that normal (read: tea from tea bags) tea is just not as good here.

This is easily remedied however, due it’s long staying power it is easy to ask family and friends for supplies. The huge box of PG Tips in my kitchen which has lasted about 6 months is testament to that. I soon discovered there are no good dunking biscuits though.

DISASTER!

In Japan there are none of the brands that a British guy trusts. No HobNobs, no Rich Teas, nothing. The Japanese equivalents just aren’t as good. Perhaps because there is no culture of dunking here, Japanese biscuits just don’t seem to be up to the task.

Japanese tea drinking culture seems to be a bit odd in general. Ice teas are popular enough here, especially Oolong, Jasmin and Lemon. In fact, ice tea plus shochu is very widely drunk. These are all actually quite nice though, unlike the cold milk “afternoon” tea that is sold here. After tasting it I can’t think of any time in the day, afternoon, morning or evening, I would want to drink it again. It’s still strange that I have to specify that I want my tea hot when I go to cafés.

As I wanted to find some sort of biscuits to enjoy with my tea I decided to set up Pepsi challenge style blind independent taste tests. (Hey! Nights are long and I get bored easily).

So 3 brave candidates took the challenge.

Candidate 1, RS, enjoys his tea with milk and 1 sugar. He is Scottish.

Candidate 2, YK, also prefers hers with milk and 1 sugar. She is Japanese.

Candidate 3, MH, likes his tea simply with milk and no sugar. He is an Englishman.

6 biscuits were tested and feedback was as follows,

Biscuit 1: Coconut Sable

Reactions to this one were largely positive, RS commented that it was sweet and sugary while MH added that it was tasty and soft. However it was perhaps too soft for YK who commented that it melted immediately, it should be mentioned though that she instantly went for a second bite. Overall it seems that this biscuit has a good taste but is perhaps too soft for effective dunking.

Biscuit 2: Salt and Chocolate Digestive

Things started badly for this biscuit, with MH wondering if it was orange flavoured and stated that the chocolate and the tea did not react well. YK disagreed and simply exclaimed that the chocolate was delicious. RS gave a more balanced view and said that this biscuit was preferable to the Coconut Sable but really hard to chew. So a mixed reception greeted this one.

Biscuit 3: Homepie Premium.

The runt of the litter, MH said that it had no taste, RS elaborated by saying that it does not add anything to the tea, while YK said it was disgusting. A no go then.

Biscuit 4: Midnight Cookie

The uniquely named Midnight Cookie was also not a hit. YK again said it was disgusting,  RS complemented on the texture but lamented on the fact it turned to mush as soon as it was put into the tea. MH added that it tasted like sand. Overall then not a good dipping experience, it’s just too soft.

Biscuit 5: Oreo

A big hit with the testers. RS waxed lyrical that as soon as he put it in his mouth there was “sweetie goodness”. YK loved it, taking four bites of this one. MH simply added “NOM! NOM! NOM!”. Here I feel the reactions speak for themselves.

Biscuit 6: Pocky

Pocky was a left-field choice, not a biscuit per se but a long pretzel stick covered in chocolate. As MH noted this made it excellent for stirring the tea but he found the taste disappointing. YK felt that the Pocky needed two dips to get the tea to absorb and as a result the chocolate melted. RS felt it was good but would not have it in tea all the time. So the Pocky turned out to be a disappointment, the advantage of the shape was far outweighed by the mess created by the chocolate dripping on the floor.

Biscuit 7: Regular Digestive

This was considered to be a control of sorts, a biscuit readily available in both the UK and Japan would be expected to earn positive but not stellar results. However reactions were surprising, RS wondered if it was a dog biscuit, MH said it was dull and plain and YK was so disgusted that she took her blindfold off and walked away.

I think that the results are clear, Oreos are great in tea.

I may have taken this whole thing a bit too far.