kebab showdown
I’m a big Japan Eat fan, and when Steven mentioned he was craving kebabs (we weren’t really feeling ramen after yesterday’s incident, it was pretty bad but I tried to spare most of the details), I remembered this video that highly endorsed Reis Kebab, a stall that sells kebabs in a pita for only ¥350 ($2.23). Through Steven’s sleuthing, he found another place not too far away called Efe Kebab which also advertises ¥350 kebabs but has a 4.8 star rating on Google Maps, as opposed to Reis’s measly 4.3 stars. (People in Japan typically rate very good restaurants as 3 stars, so these were almost certainly bogus ratings, probably from tourists.) We did the only logical thing - ✨🥙 KEBAB SHOWDOWN! 🥙✨
Contestant #1 - Efe Kebab
(I will embed Google Maps pins in the future)
A solid chicken kebab at an unbeatable price. The chicken was juicy but could be more flavorful, the sauce was good but I do kind of wish there was less sauce and more flavor in the chicken itself. I would totally eat this again, especially if I was drunk. 7/10
We walked 15 minutes to digest and grab another kebab.
Contestant #2 - Reis Kebab
Sorry for the horrible photography. I thought the cook on the chicken was better on this kebab, a little more dry but had a bit more browning than Efe. I personally preferred it to Efe Kebab, but the other two had trouble differentiating the two, and Steven noted that he probably just doesn’t like chicken kebabs as much. Were they virtually identical? Okay, fine. Let’s be real, even the stands look similar. I’ll give this one a 7.5/10.
Conclusion: I personally had a slight preference towards Reis Kebab, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to go the other stall if I was already near one of them. Were both of these kebabs good? Yes. Were they worth ¥350? Absolutely 100%. Could not think of a better way to spend ¥350.
That concludes today’s episode of ✨🥙 KEBAB SHOWDOWN! 🥙✨ Stay tuned for the next edition of food showdown.
On our moving to-do list was buying SIM cards, so we stopped by a mobile carrier store. Miles has been looking at prepaid SIM cards, but I wanted to get a proper plan, which you can get with your resident card. I had an awkward conversation with the store staff trying to do business in a language I don’t speak (yet), and after a bit of time they figured out what I wanted, but then I got denied because apparently my resident card needed a place of residence in order to buy a SIM card, just having a blank card wasn’t sufficient.
We hopped in the elevator and saw that the floors above us were labeled “Gashapon” - since I grew up playing MapleStory, I knew what it was, but it was new to Miles and Steven, so we went to check it out for the novelty. They’re basically gumball machines but they dispense little capsule toys, and each machine has a different theme with a chance of getting one out of around five options, so if you want a specific item, you basically have to gamble to get it (which is in essence the appeal).
The rooms were extremely dingy, small, and smelled kind of strange. It was unclear how often the machines were serviced. The items appeared to be very low quality and useless, and they were mostly branded, fake-food themed, or anime-themed tiny thumb-sized keychains. We were about to head out when one machine caught Steven’s eye - a computer-themed Gasha. He really wanted the laptop one.
it only took 2 tries!
that’s 2 kebabs of useless junk fun collectibles you’re looking at
I was really craving dessert after the salty, saucy kebabs, and I found a place that looked interesting - Tokyo milk cheese factory ice cream shop. Miles briefly tried to talk me out of it because it is a recipe for disaster for lactose intolerance, which in hindsight may have been why my stomach hurt later (more on this in a second). We tried following the Google Maps directions and got so confused and lost that we ended up doing a quick Uniqlo detour. Eventually we figured out that the stand is nestled inside the Shinjuku train station, which is literally an entire city underground. Visitors beware that blindly following Google Maps directions may not work great for going underground, so maybe actually look at the address of places or reviews ahead of time.
Was very novel and honestly pretty good, the ice cream and cookie were cheesier than expected, and the cheese cake was nice and light (but wasn’t a souffle cheesecake). I was personally looking forward to a light soft serve, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. 8.5/10.
For dinner we hit up a grocery store, and I saw some mindblowingly cheap sushi. That should typically raise alarm bells, but if there’s one place I’d feel comfortable eating cheap sushi, it would be Japan.
A whole tray for ¥600 ($3.82)! (this is only half of it)
Alright, fine, it tasted like a $4 tray of sushi. I really hate hard refrigerated sushi rice, and the fish was also kind of stiff, but didn’t seem like it was rotting at least. Did I get full? For sure. Was it worth it? Well, my stomach hurt later that night, so I was reconsidering my life decisions at the moment, but as I was writing this post it occurred to me that it might’ve actually been the milk cheese dessert, so maybe $4 sushi is back on the table. Obviously I should still think a bit more critically about my life decisions.