- I went to order one of my favorite foods in the world.
Ice cream.
Except, I've never had this kind.
It is gold ice cream, like, actual gold ice cream.
Only in Japan.
(upbeat piano music)
- Here.
- Arigato.
Wow.
Oh my!
- I'm very excited about this gold ice cream.
One, I love ice cream in general.
Two, I'm pregnant, so that just amplifies it.
And three, it's gold, gold.
Looks like it's matcha ice cream underneath.
Looks like it's got a matcha jelly,
and some matcha and vanilla-coated candies.
And this looks like a rice cracker.
Whoa!
Gold does not have a flavor.
But I feel so, really, damn fancy eating this.
And, oh, the matcha!
(upbeat music)
Is it worth twelve hundred yen?
Yeah, I mean, when else do you eat gold ice cream?
I've never seen it anywhere else in the world.
So, sometimes you just gotta indulge, and be fancy A.F.
(upbeat music)
- Okay, I had to get this, when I saw it.
Rainbow grilled cheese, are you ready?
(romantic r&b music)
(laughing)
Perfect, thank you.
Arigato.
Okay, this is ridiculous, this can't be healthy.
It's beautiful though.
When in Tokyo, only in Tokyo.
Mmm, tastes like the rainbow.
I'm pretty sure it's just white mozzarella cheese
with food dye.
It was an over-priced grilled cheese, but worth it.
Worth it, just for that pull, and that excitement,
that was worth it.
(romantic r&b music)
- Mix it, mix it.
Thank you.
You wait over the cash, I'll call you, okay?
- Okay.
What I have in my hand is unicorn poop on a cone.
I love how colorful everything is here.
Everything's art.
I'm supposed to mix, apparently,
'cause it's colored whipped cream on the top,
and the pink, here, is ice cream.
That's really sweet.
Strawberry ice cream, and then the icing just tastes
like normal, whipped cream, almost, that's been colored.
But it's sure pretty!
- I'm ordering ramen.
So you order at a vending machine, and then you get tickets,
and that goes to the chef, so I'm trying to figure this out.
(machine beeping)
Got them.
- [Woman] That's it, I guess.
- Yeah.
- Finally indulging in some ramen.
One of my favorite dishes.
It smells so good.
Smells fishy, but in a good way, because it's fish broth.
There is no veggie broth here.
But this is a veggie, besides the broth.
And I have a flavored egg as well.
One thing I've learned here
is it's actually polite to slurp your food.
It's like a compliment to the chef.
Especially at the end of the meal, like the last little bit.
(slurping)
It's really good.
This is the first time I've actually had ramen
with fish broth.
It's nice, it's different.
Mmmm, it's good.
It's hitting the spot, that's for sure.
This is always my favorite part.
I don't know how they do it,
but it always tastes really good.
- So this place is called Okonomiyaki Sanpei.
And it's like right here, down a hallway.
I would never have expected there to be a restaurant
right here, like off this main road, but this is it.
(skittle preparing)
I've been told I'm trying to try, it's called, okonomiyaki.
Okonomiyaki.
Basically, it's like a pancake, but the one I'm having
has got cabbage, has got corn, potatoes,
something called perilla, which is like a type of herb,
it's from the mint family, basically stacked high
with egg, and then fried like a pancake and flattened.
Sia got one as well, it's got a beef one,
with a bunch of different vegetables,
and some type of Japanese fruit.
Everything is cooked in front of us,
so we're just sitting here,
there's a fryer right in front of us.
And this gentleman is cooking away.
And it's cool just to see everything being done
right before you.
Mmm, Oh my God.
There's so many flavors.
Really taste that perilla.
It's like a minty flavor, but not as harsh as mint.
And the potatoes are so nice and soft.
- I am very excited for this.
Smells like veggies, fish, and meat, all mixed into one.
Oh wow!
It's creamy and it's crunchy.
It's meaty.
I have never had a food that is this collection of textures.
I love the meat, the meat is really flavorful.
How is it so delicious, but it's also art?
That's Japanese culture.
Amazing.
That was excellent.
I'm full, but I'm not gross full.
It was delicious, and I love that,
like that was a new dish that I've never tried before,
so I'm expanding my Japanese cuisine.
- We're at the Kawaii Monster Cafe.
And, to be honest, I don't know really what to expect,
except that a lot of color.
And that's pretty much it.
So, we're in for a surprise.
(techno music)
- This drink is called the druggie.
(techno music)
This style of restaurant is called Sushi Train.
(traditional Japanese music)
So you sit here, and there's a conveyor belt of sushi
that's coming around that's freshly made.
And you can pick whatever plate you want.
The plates are coordinated to price,
so this color of plate is a specific price.
And you just take as much as you want,
eat as much as you want, and if you want
you can specially order something,
and it will be delivered to you by conveyor belt.
This is tuna with quail egg.
I've never had this kind of sushi before.
Mmmm.
The egg is like a burst of liquid.
There's no other flavor, other than the tuna.
But the textures are amazing.
- [Woman] Sia's wrapping up the plates,
wrapping up the bill.
- That's it.
It's like a dollar-fifty each plate, so it's not bad.
(traditional Japanese music)
- I have a local specialty to Myajima,
which is the island we're on right now.
It's called momiji manju.
And it's a buckwheat and rice cake,
and it's traditionally filled with bean paste,
but you can get chocolate, cream,
and green tea flavored as well.
And it's shaped like a Japanese maple tree,
similar to some cookies we have in Canada,
that look exactly like this.
And it's nice and warm, it just came out of the machine.
There's like one machine here that does the whole process.
So this one is the bean, red bean.
It's not as sweet as I thought it would be.
So moist and warm.
It tastes like an angel-hair cake, like the outside,
and then the bean paste is nice.
It's not savory.
It's a little sweet, but not too sweet.
This would be really nice with tea or coffee.
Try the chocolate.
Chocolate.
Oh my God.
Now that is really good.
It's like a hot chocolate pudding in the middle.
Yeah, this is freaking good.
I like it a lot.
I'm eating it all, Sia, sorry.
Want some?
- So a Hiroshima beef steamed bun.
And it has beef from the area, and vegetables,
steamed in a bun.
Oh wow!
This is my kind of food!
Mmmm, it's like a sweet, doughy bread.
Even the beef is a little sweet.
It's like sweet and salty at the same time.
Oh, the beef here is so good!
It smells like,
if a barbecue shop and a pastry shop made love.
That would be this.
(meat sizzling)
Grilled beef, grilled pork, chicken,
and then there's octopus right here.
(meat sizzling)
All through Japan you'll see street food,
and, like, meat on sticks.
That's very typical here.
I'm gonna try some pork, 'cause that was highly recommended.
(meat sizzling)
Wow!
It's still steaming, and bubbling from being heated.
- Arigato.
Oh wow!
Those spices they put on it!
That is delicious.
- I feel like it's a sin to waste ice cream.
(laughing)
But, no, I'm not done.