Tokyo food challenge

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October 21

Richard Aucock writes:

In my room and starving last night, I failed to decipher the room service menu, so thought I'd brave it on the streets of Tokyo. After panicking for a bit following a withdrawal of 1000 Yen (actually, less than a tenner), I hit the stores.

20 minutes later, I was back in my room. With, pretty much the only things in the entire shop whose contents I could work out.

Yep, good old brand names. Cereal bites and coffee it was, then. Along with, err, a bar of orange-flavoured Tofu-type stuff, and what seemed to be a sort of mad Milky Bar with rice pops. Not quite the muesli bar I had in mind: couldn't find any more brand names, you see.

It quickly brought home how alien we Brits are over here. Everything is written, quite rightly, in Japanese. Whose symbols we don't stand a chance of deciphering. At least with French and German, you can kinda guess. Not here. That's also why I got lost. And, well, why I didn't order room service in the first place.

Paying for it was straightforward, at least. I gave the nice lady a seemingly-huge denomination, and she gave me back some coins, including what looks like a tap washer. If I'm brave enough, I might try spending it tomorrow...