 Poster: A snowHead
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We're off to Hokkaido for two weeks on Saturday. Going with a guiding company (Skilas) and spending a week near Kiroro (self-catering facilities) and a week in Sapporo (hotel).
We eat practically anything here at home. We're carnivores, who will happily try most stuff - but do have some trepidation as to what Japan might hold. In particular, we're not fans of sushi.
Any hints, tips, stuff we must try or stuff to avoid? Are English (language not food!) menus readily available? Or should we be bracing ourselves for a struggle?
Any advice would be appreciated 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Pizza? Ramen?
Thought it was full of austrailans? I am not a fan of sea food unless it is white flesh and has fins.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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The first thing to do is install Google Translate or similar. It will make a pretty good job of translating into English. The staff in Seven Eleven's etc have seen enough confused foreigners to help you. Also, don't forget that the 7-11's have free wifi, if you don't have a large data plan, to help you out.
Many resturants in the bigger resorts have English menus, and most have pictures of the dish being offered.
Pork is the main meat, followed by chicken, beef tends to be expensive. Cash is king, and is usually expected, so have plenty.
Also, don't try and leave a tip, as they will probably run after you to give it back, unless its owned/run by westerners/aussies.
Last edited by Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see? on Thu 2-02-23 21:17; edited 1 time in total
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Avoid fugu
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Ski, onsen, food (in general) are the best things going to Hokkaido.
- one of the best seafoods in the whole of Japan. Fatty tuna, sea urchin (uni) make me salivate;
- soba
- shabu shabu
- ramen
- small crispy chicken
- very good Hokkaido cheese (it is the dairy centre of Japan).
Small local establishments are the best. I saved more food porn from JPN trips than ski photos.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Quote: |
In particular, we're not fans of sushi
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Most sushi is just rice and veg. Very harmless. The sashimi (raw fish) is best though. I've only had it here - my son does brilliant sushi and worked in a sushi restaurant in Melbourne on one of his gap years, because round eye sushi chefs were much cheaper than Japanese ones. Sushi is not scary. But there are lots of scary things......and for me, sea urchins are one of them.
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@mountainaddict, just back from Niseko. The food everywhere was brilliant. No problems with any of it. We had a few days in Tokyo and Kyoto before skiing and one of the best meals was in Tokyo. We went into a restaurant. A local restaurant for local people. No one spoke English the menu was written in Kanji. We eventually got over that we wanted a meal for 4 and 4 beers. They just bought half a dozen dishes. It was one of the best meals I have ever had. The basic idea is that you just order a number of dishes and share. Be warned the wasabi can be fierce. The shrimp tampura and raw fish are excellent, even bought from street stalls.
Japan is one of the best places in the world to eat.
@pam w, I've only had sea urchin in China and TBH only ate a couple.
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@mountainaddict, I forgot to mention that card payments are accepted almost every where but it may be a good idea to have a few thousand in yen cash. During our 14 day trip we came across a restaurant that only accepted the folding stuff and ac ouple that only took cards.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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I’ll be there in a couple of days and was planning on taking my other half out to somewhere quite cheap and rustic and getting her some of that.
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@mountainaddict, This was a concern for me as I am allergic to fish/sea food etc., ultimately it was not a problem as the Japanese seem to be meat eaters just like us with lots of chicken, I think everywhere we ate the menu was in photo form often with written description, you could easily point to what you wanted, I also carried a letter in Japanese explaining my allergy that I only had to show a couple of times. We all had google translate or similar on our phones but can't recall us needing to use it for food. Incidentally you have been warned that you don't tip but you can give a gift.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@hang11, only buying her a one way ticket there to begin with?
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| pam w wrote: |
| Quote: |
In particular, we're not fans of sushi
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Most sushi is just rice and veg. Very harmless. |
Sushi is rice and everything else, veggie, fish, meat… Harmless it maybe. But if the OP doesn’t care for rice, it can get boring fast. Fortunately, there’re many other alternatives.
Others mentioned shabu shabu, which is basically cooking (again everything, veggie, seafood, meat) right in front of you.
Ramen is quite popular, which is noodle soup. You can have whatever ingredient in the soup.
Yes, Japanese are actually meat eaters. They just don’t eat quite as large a portion of meat in comparison with other stuff (veggie, starch).
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Katsu or tempura anything. But I'm from the west coast of Scotland so if it's deepfried its going in my belly!
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You know it makes sense.
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| johnE wrote: |
@mountainaddict, just back from Niseko. The food everywhere was brilliant. Be warned the wasabi can be fierce. The shrimp tampura and raw fish are excellent, even bought from street stalls.
Japan is one of the best places in the world to eat. |
"Japan is one of the best places in the world to eat" (raw fish).
Mountainaddict will no doubt be salivating at the prospect  .
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Between the south and Tokyo most of the restaurants we saw had very realistic plastic dishes made up, or photos, so you could point to it, very foreigner friendly. I don’t know if that extended to ski resorts.
Be careful of ordering fresh fruit, there is normal and there is special, the latter to be seen to be believed. £40 for a mango is quite possible. I know as I miscalculated the conversion rate, and bought one to feed my one year old!
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Poster: A snowHead
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| ster wrote: |
| @hang11, only buying her a one way ticket there to begin with? |
Got a return, repatriation will be required regardless of the sushi's compatibility with life.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| hang11 wrote: |
| ster wrote: |
| @hang11, only buying her a one way ticket there to begin with? |
Got a return, repatriation will be required regardless of the sushi's compatibility with life. |
Be careful how you spend your pennies as farmed fugu is not poisonous, only the wild ones are
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| hang11 wrote: |
| ster wrote: |
| @hang11, only buying her a one way ticket there to begin with? |
Got a return, repatriation will be required regardless of the sushi's compatibility with life. |
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Definitely install Google Translate (with Google lens) as suggested above. I’ve been using it almost constantly whilst in Japan and it’s brilliant. You take a picture of the thing you need translated and Google provides. It’s saved me from both dodgy menu choices and some wrong timetable info.
You can pick up a SIM card or wifi dongle at the airport which will give you data access (which you need for Google lens)
On the food point - don’t worry. It’s amazing, plentiful, very reasonably priced from what we’ve seen so far and has definitely been one of the highlights of our trip. We’ve often found ourselves to be the only non-Japanese in a place, and never had an issue. The fish in particular is brilliant, but quite a few places will do a “set” which includes your main meal, a soup, some pickles and possibly a small pudding. Generally great value and really good for a skiing lunch.
Enjoy!
Ms T.
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@mountainaddict, as others have said, it’s actually quite difficult to get bad food in Japan and there’s a huge variety beyond sushi. That said, when you say you don’t like sushi, I’d really encourage you to give another try in Japan.
It’s difficult to get good sushi in the UK without paying $$$. The Japanese stuff is a different league from most reasonably priced UK sushi
The other thing to mention is that the Japanese way is to do one thing and do it really well, so if one person wants ramen and another wants katsu, you may have to compromise…
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Food v easy (and good) on Hokkaido. Not like the small Honshu resorts, where it's pick a picture and... hope!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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As some people have said, Google translate on your phone now makes a reasonable job of translation.
Japanese uses quite a lot of words loaned from other languages. These are Japanized forms of the words and are written in katakana. Katakana is a writing phonetic writing system based on syllables and really easy to learn. If you learn katakana, you'll find you can read quite a lot of signs and items on menus, including the words for things like beer, wine, ramen, juice, etc.
https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2051.html
https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2048.html
It can be quite a fun game to work out what English word has been Japanized. For e.g. in this Wikipedia entry the katakana is the characters in the brackets next to the entry name and the text next to that is how those characters are read out phonetically.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbird_(train)
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@sugarmoma666, it is the prononciation that is the main obstacle:)
Learned katakana and hiragana during the first lockdoWn. Quite easy indeed.
But “ramen” could sound like “iamen” Or “liamen” when listening to locals speak. Still big fun
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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O go to a normal sushi outlet, not the conveyer one the sushi master pours and serves the sauce.
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You know it makes sense.
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For ordering food in resorts, this is the most often used system I encountered.
A) explore the big picture with most dishes portrayed on it.
B) memorise the number of what caught your eye.
C) put notes/coins in the nearby machine, press the correct number (important, made random choice by choosing a different number - it goes eg c6, d6 so could be confusing for intellectually challenged or those with a short memory span)
D) take the ticket from the machine and bring it to ladies at the food counter.
Slurp on and enjoy
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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In Hokkaido, soup curry.
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Poster: A snowHead
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@MagSeven, hello! Hope you guys are OK. I need you to go travelling again, so that I can enjoy myself vicariously!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Top tip, if in an izakaia, many offer 'namae Hordae' this translates to unlimited beer. Also works for high balls. Tonight's restaurant didn't offer it but they did some pretty good sake. Back to blighty on Monday when normal life resumes
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Some good advice. I'd push back a bit of sea urchin though, me and all the other westerners I was with found it gross (slimy texture, taste is just salty and watery). I certainly wouldn't be suggesting it for someone that was apprehensive about sushi.
Ive not been to Hokkaido, which is supposedly more geared up for tourists. But even off the beaten path it was easy enough to find something other than fish to eat. Japanese people are super friendly and helpful, so even with a language barrier you can usually find a way to make it work
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| Quote: |
| One of the wooden sticks says “suzuki” on your sashimi plate - was it a fish? |
You auto know how much
@rambotion loved it
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FAQ
Pleasant place and nice enough food - though arguably no better than my usual Wetherspoons fare (at twice the price 