Picture: Cakes from Patisserie Anniversary in Hiroshima from my trip in 2014
For many people planning an overseas trip, they write out a list of things they want to do, and places they want to see. For many places, like New Zealand, America, Britain, Canada, South Africa, and a lot of other places, it’s an easy list to make because they all speak English. But how do you find places to go in Japan if you don’t speak Japanese? Japan is unique in that it’s an island country which also happens to be the only country to speak Japanese. This causes a lot of isolation in lots of different areas (music and entertainment being big ones) and also means that “authentic” Japanese culture, especially culture that isn’t hugely advertised, is difficult to find if you don’t speak Japanese.
So when you’re planning your trip to Japan, and you want to go to a restaurant that’s popular amongst locals, how do you find it (assuming it’s not on a top 10 list)? Here in Australia, we have Dimmi, Zomato, and many other restaurant based websites where you can search by location, cuisine, price, and rating. Well Japan has these too!
Of course you always have the option to search using English websites, but you’re less likely to find hidden gems, and you should expect that once you get there, other tourists will be there too. If you are going to a less metropolitan area, or want to get away from touristy areas, then try some of these search methods:
Tabe (食べ) means eat, and log means log. This website is very similar to Zomato, but it’s specifically for gourmet restaurants. It is completely written in Japanese, and for me, Google Chrome didn’t offer to automatically translate the page, so you probably shouldn’t rely on this. Fortunately 1. I speak Japanese, and 2. the website is very heavily picture based. On the homepage is an interactive map and if you can recognise where it is you’ll be, you can just click on the region. A quick Google translate will help you find what the Kanji looks like, and this Wikipedia page breaks down regions into prefectures so you can very easily find where you should be clicking on the map. For example, Tokyo is in the Kanto region, so first click 関東 which is on the right hand side of the map. You can then click 東京 Tokyo which is on the left, second from the bottom. This will take you to the ranking page which shows the top 3 highest rated (by users) gourmet restaurants of Tokyo! The restaurant pages display (in English!) the nearest train station, cuisine, phone number, and price range. There’s more English information if you scroll through the page, but the reviews themselves are in Japanese.
Ah yes, good old Trip Advisor. Don’t be fooled by the little map in the top right corner, this changes the country you’re search in, not the language! Functionally more similar to Google than anything else, you need to type keywords into the search bar to start. However, your saving grace is that if you start from the Australian Trip Advisor and search (in English) Japanese cities, you’ll get the same results as if you were searching from the Japanese website. The reviews are different depending on what language you’re searching from, but the ratings are from a global perspective, so the order of restaurants doesn’t change no matter how you search.
Login with your Facebook to access all features on this website, including following people who write lots of reviews so you can stay up to date with their recommendations. This site brands itself as the number one word of mouth system where people post under their real names i.e. full accountability for what they write! On the homepage underneath the banner is a number lists of categories you can use to search restaurants. The first is “search by popularity”, the second “search by special feature” and lastly “search by recommendation”. The fourth and fifth categories will be of most use to you – “search by location” and “search by cuisine”. The location search is the same as Tabelog, you first find the region, then the prefecture. For the cuisine search, narrow it down by looking at the symbols and then search the titles in Google Translate. Once you’re on the restaurant’s page all information is in Japanese, but if you like the look of it, just keep using Google Translate to find out the menu and where it is! They also list how to get there from local train stations.
If you’ve planned a trip to Japan then let us know how you found the places you ate at! Not all restaurants that exist are listed on websites, so if you want a little bit of extra secret information, or help booking a reservation, you can always contact us.
WashokuLovers
