Restaurants

From stand-up noodle shops and pizzerias to sushi bars and exclusive kaiseki restaurants serving elaborate multicourse meals, restaurants in Tokyo number at least 80,000 -- which gives you some idea of how fond the Japanese are of eating out. In a city where apartments are so small and cramped that entertaining at home is almost unheard of, restaurants serve as places for socializing, meeting friends, and wooing business associates -- as well as great excuses for drinking a lot of beer, sake, wine, and whiskey.

• Note that the 5% consumption tax is now included in menu prices. However, many first-class restaurants, as well as hotel restaurants, will add a 10% to 15% service charge to the bill. Unless otherwise stated, the prices given below include the tax but not the service charge.
• Finally, keep in mind that the last order is taken at least 30 minutes before the restaurant's actual closing time, sometimes even an hour before closing at the more exclusive restaurants.

Restaurant Essentials

Ordering -- The biggest problem facing the hungry foreigner in Tokyo is ordering a meal in a restaurant without an English-language menu. I've tried to alleviate this problem somewhat by giving sample dishes and prices for recommended restaurants. I've also noted which restaurants have English-language menus.

One aid to simplified ordering is the common use of plastic-food models in glass display cases either outside or just inside the front door of many restaurants. Sushi, tempura, daily specials, spaghetti -- they're all there in mouthwatering plastic replicas, along with the corresponding prices. Decide what you want and point it out to your waiter.

Unfortunately, not all restaurants in Japan have plastic display cases, especially the more exclusive or traditional ones. In fact, you'll miss a lot of Tokyo's best cuisine if you restrict yourself to eating only at those with displays. If there's no display from which to choose, look at what people around you are eating and order what looks best. An alternative is to order the teishoku, or daily special meal (also called "set course" or simply "course," especially in restaurants serving Western food); these are fixed-price meals that consist of a main dish and several side dishes, often including soup, rice, and Japanese pickles. Although most restaurants have special set courses for dinner as well, lunch is the usual time for the teishoku, generally from 11 or 11:30am to about 2pm.

Hours -- Restaurants are usually open from about 11am to 10 or 11pm. Of course, some establishments close earlier, while others stay open past midnight; many close for a few hours in the afternoon. Try to avoid the lunchtime rush from noon to 1pm.

Keep in mind that the closing time posted for most restaurants is exactly that -- everyone is expected to pay his or her bill and leave. A general rule of thumb is that the last order is taken at least a half-hour before closing time, sometimes an hour or more for kaiseki restaurants. To be on the safe side, therefore, try to arrive at least an hour before closing time so that you have time to relax and enjoy your meal.

Dining Procedure & Etiquette

Upon Arrival -- As soon as you're seated in a Japanese restaurant (that is, a restaurant serving Japanese food), you'll be given a wet towel, which will be steaming hot in winter or pleasantly cool in summer. Called an oshibori, it's for wiping your hands. In all but the fanciest restaurants, men can get away with wiping their faces as well, but women are not supposed to (I ignore this if it's hot and humid outside). The oshibori is a great custom, one you'll wish would be adopted back home. Sadly, some cheaper Japanese restaurants now resort to a paper towel wrapped in plastic, which isn't nearly the same. Oshibori are generally not provided in Western restaurants.

Chopsticks -- The next thing you'll probably be confronted with is chopsticks (though knives and forks are used in restaurants serving Western food). The proper way to use a pair is to place the first chopstick between the base of the thumb and the top of the ring finger (this chopstick remains stationary), and the second one between the top of the thumb and the middle and index fingers (this second chopstick is the one you move to pick up food). The best way to learn to use chopsticks is to let a Japanese person show you. How proficiently foreigners handle chopsticks is a matter of great curiosity for the Japanese, and they're surprised if you know how to use them; even if you were to live in Japan for 20 years, you would never stop receiving compliments on how talented you are with chopsticks.

As for etiquette involving chopsticks, if you're taking something from a communal bowl or tray, turn your chopsticks upside down and use the part that hasn't been in your mouth to transfer the food to your plate. Then you turn the chopsticks back to their proper position. The exceptions are shabu-shabu and sukiyaki. Never stick your chopsticks down vertically into your bowl of rice and leave them there, and never pass anything from your chopsticks to another person's chopsticks -- both actions have origins relating to funerary rites but are now mostly considered bad manners.

Eating Soup -- If you're eating soup, you won't use a spoon. Rather, you'll pick up the bowl and drink from it. Use your chopsticks to fish out larger morsels of food. It's considered in good taste to slurp with gusto, especially if you're eating noodles. Noodle shops in Japan are always well orchestrated with slurps and smacks.

Drinking -- If you're drinking in Japan, the main thing to remember is that you never pour your own glass. Bottles of beer are so large that people often share one. The rule is that, in turn, one person pours for everyone else in the group, so be sure to hold up your glass when someone is pouring for you. Only as the night progresses do the Japanese get sloppy about this rule. It took me a while to figure this out, but if no one notices your empty glass, the best thing to do is to pour everyone else a drink so that someone will pour yours. If someone wants to pour you a drink and your glass is full, the proper thing to do is to take a few gulps so that he or she can fill your glass. Because each person is continually filling everyone else's glass, you never know exactly how much you've had to drink, which (depending on how you look at it) is either very good or very bad.

Paying the Bill -- If you go out with a group of friends (not as a visiting guest of honor and not with business associates), it's customary to split the dinner bill equally, even if you all ordered different things. This makes it difficult if you're trying to spend wisely, especially if others had a lot more to eat and drink. But even foreigners living in Japan adopt the practice of splitting the bill; it certainly makes figuring everyone's share easier, especially since there's no tipping in Japan.

Other Etiquette Tips -- It's considered bad manners to walk down the street in Japan eating or drinking (except at a festival). You'll notice that if a Japanese buys a drink from a vending machine, he'll stand there, gulp it down, and throw away the container before moving on. To the chagrin of the elders, young Japanese sometimes ignore this rule.