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Booby chocs?
And if girls get boobs, guys get... The strangest souvenirs I have seen in Japan: oppai choko (booby chocolates) and ochinchin choko (penis chocolates). Sold very naturally next to very ordinary-looking souvenirs. Gotta love the white chocolate nipple, huh? My friend got a kick out of the fact that the ochinchin were just regular ol’ chocolate-brown. You think the Japanese go for that? 
The perfect ending to a K-Town dinner in Shin-Okubo? Find the street stand with the coin menu, where they sell hoddeok all year round. Traditionally eaten during the colder months, hoddeok is a pancake cooked on top of a griddle and traditionally filled with cinnamon and brown sugar, and a smattering of nuts. Too many vendors in Korea these days are trying to make it healthier by foregoing the oil, but that greasy, warm bite is what makes hoddeok—get a dry, yeasty one and you’re just eating a biscuit! This stand sold them in two more flavors: one filled with anko (red bean paste), suited for Japanese tastes, and the third, inexplicably, with cheese. Conclusion: the original always tastes best.
Samgyupsal (pork belly)
Samgyupsal, deconstructed
The strange tofu kimchi Shin-Okubo is a Korea Town in Tokyo, and the food here is as close to real Korean food. Sure, there were some misses, like the bizarrely marinated dubu kimchi (tofu kimchi) plate that came marinated in some weird salty soy sauce, instead of just having simple boiled tofu with pork belly and cooked fermented kimchi. No spicy kick! The samgyupsal, however, was spot-on. In addition, we shared an order of kimchi jjigae as well, and everything came out to about $35 a head. Not bad for all that, huh? Asa [味咲]
Japanese-style breakfast
Miso soup, a packet of nori, annin tofu
Grilled salmon with daikon oroshi
Tororo (grated yam), squid (hidden)
Pour the egg into the fire-lit broth...
Egg is all cooked! A traditional Japanese breakfast as presented by our hotel. When you go on a hot springs trip in Japan, the hotel you stay at normally takes care of dinner and breakfast. They’re usually washoku, or traditional Japanese fare, consisting of small side dishes, some type of grilled fish, another main protein dish, and is overall quite healthy and clean-tasting. If that sounds too bland for you, fear not: I promise it’s always delicious and deceivingly gut-busting. (I was pretty much immobilized after our dinner.) This breakfast was a bit lighter but still enough food to tide me over well past lunchtime. Kinugawa Plaza Hotel 
Matcha has become the generic name for green tea, but real green tea, freshly brewed, is leaps and bounds beyond its watery, for-daily-use counterparts. One of the teacher’s daughter has trained for two years in in sadou, or the art of Japanese tea ceremony, and was kind enough to brew us a fresh cup.
One little guy doesn't want to be eaten
This stickiness is called "neba-neba" If you’re going to live in Japan, you might as well try natto once. I’ve already skipped my “WTF-is-this?!” initation stage and have become a fervent fan (lathering it on pretty much anything, ranging from the standard bowl of rice to even a slice of toast with some cheese or mustard.. trust me, it’s delicious!), I had a few friends recently confront the dreaded sticky, sticky foe. The final verdict? Seems like everyone was surprised at its slightly nutty taste, and were glad that it at least didn’t taste like it smelled. 
People in New York are shelling out nearly $10 for David Chang’s famous pork buns at his Momofuku eateries. Sure, they’re ridiculously delicious, but you seriously wanna cough up that much for a measly two buns? Nagasaki’s Chinatown sells buta kakuni manju, or pork belly buns for ¥200 (about $2 USD). Burning hot even in this swelteringly unbearable 95-degree weather, they may not have Chang’s accoutrements or any Sriracha to spice it up, but they’re plenty juicy and the perfect snack to power a brief slump during midday. ![Champon is ramen’s cousin, and a specialty of Nagasaki. Wikipedia says it was derived from Fujian cuisine, and was created by the owner of a famous Chinese restaurant here in Nagasaki City. The broth made from chicken and pork bones, giving it its slightly cloudy color; pork, seafood and assorted vegetables are tossed in. Unlike ramen, the special champon noodles are cooked along with the broth—making cleaning the dishes a much easier chore…
All in all, I found it a bit bland and prefer the Korean interpretation of jjampong better, which has a “cleaner” broth, albeit with a spicy kick. Then again, maybe it is because my first champon experience was at a champon fast food chain?
Ringer Hut[Various locations]1-5 Dejima-machiNagasaki City, Nagasaki〒850-0862JAPAN](http://12.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kosxrvIcNE1qzakqmo1_500.jpg)
Champon is ramen’s cousin, and a specialty of Nagasaki. Wikipedia says it was derived from Fujian cuisine, and was created by the owner of a famous Chinese restaurant here in Nagasaki City. The broth made from chicken and pork bones, giving it its slightly cloudy color; pork, seafood and assorted vegetables are tossed in. Unlike ramen, the special champon noodles are cooked along with the broth—making cleaning the dishes a much easier chore… All in all, I found it a bit bland and prefer the Korean interpretation of jjampong better, which has a “cleaner” broth, albeit with a spicy kick. Then again, maybe it is because my first champon experience was at a champon fast food chain? Ringer Hut 
Wafuu pasta is the unique fusion of Western and Japanese flavors together, and what better than natto spaghetti as an example? The dish is even more Japanese than any other offering you might run into, with a hearty dollop of natto (fermented soy beans), some shredded seaweed, button mushrooms, and a raw egg. The idea of these ingredients will either churn your stomach… or make it growl, if you’re like me. Maybe it’s the egg, maybe the natto was lightly cooked, but the usual “gym socks stink” associated with natto was pleasantly missing form the dish. Hustle Heart 
The advantages of living in Nagasaki is that you’re right by the water, which means fantastic seafood. Though there’s probably even tastier sashimi elsewhere, most of this sashimi for four at Nagasaki-kou was fresh, especially for being in the highly popular tourist site of Dejima Wharf. The only thing we couldn’t stomach? The bitter aftertaste of the raw sea snail. Nagasaki-kou
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