We all had cravings for meat and the first place that Minh suggested was Suminoya where yakiniku is their bread and butter. What it involves is grilling your chosen meats, veges and seafood onto a charcoal grill. I love charcoal, it makes the food taste so much better. On Fridays they only have the “premium” menu for $49 per person, pretty good value if you love your meat and sashimi. Once seated, you have 90 minutes to get through your meal.

So you think I’d be sick of Japanese food after a 3 weeks holidaying in Japan, but I was far from being turned off bowls of ramen, sushi or skewers. In fact, I came back and craved each of these foods nearly every day.

As a bit of an experiment I decided rather than write up about the meal, I’d write up an appreciation of the meal and its surroundings, which is really what you have to do if you get the opportunity to experience eating in Japan.

So when you’re stuck on dinner ideas, feeling a little Japan-esy, don’t feel like cooking and TREMENDOUSLY hungry… what better idea than to order a sushi platter from your local japanese/sushi store! Makoto, in Chatswood, is known for its fresh, tasty and authentic Japanese food (mainly sushi and sashimi).

Wagaya has been around for a while now, but I’ve never really had a chance to eat there. After coming back from Japan, I’ve been raving and ranting about how good the Izakaya’s are there. So when I had the mandatory task of organising a venue for Linda’s birthday a few people recommended booking a private room at Wagaya. Considering how much noise our group of friends make in public, I’m glad we did.

From the outside Itaru looks like a typical small Japanese bar or pub. Once you enter the restaurant, we quickly began to realise it was a little more than a drinking hole. We were immediately greeted by the chefs on duty and had our coats taken off and hung onto the coat rack by the waitress. I was already impressed with this joint and I hadn’t even seen the menu yet.

The Mandarin Club has undergone heavy renovations recently. One of the new additions is a modern japanese restaurant called Satsuma. I’m usually a bit skeptical with ‘modern’ and ‘fusion’ type restaurants, but Satsuma gets a little more than a pass mark for it’s effort.

Kushiyaki Azuma specialises in traditional Kushiyaki, Sushi and Sashimi. It is best paired with a comprehensive list of sake, beers and wine. Housed in a contemporary setting, it is definitely one of many up and coming places in the Sydney CBD. Kushiyaki Azuma proves that there is more to Japanese food than sushi, tempura and sashimi.

Nonotori was an eye opening experience into a restaurant which seems to focus mainly (only) on all things chicken. Atleast they have made me immune to eating raw chicken, which wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. In fact, I’d like to try it again.

By the time we checked into our hostel (J-Hoppers) it was nearly 9pm. We actually had dinner at a chicken yaki tori place famous for it’s chicken, but I’ll post that one later because I am still trying to figure out the name of the izakaya. On the way home to our hostel, I was still hungry despite the feast we had earlier in the night.Hakkenden would be my first experience of an izakaya in Japan.

Over the next few weeks I will be blogging about what I ate throughout Osaka, Tokyo, Shirakawa-go, Takayama, Iya Valley, Nozawa Onsen, Hirayu Onsen and Kanazawa. In the mean time, here is my list of five things I loved about Japan over the last few weeks.

Japan has always been a favourite country of mine, I’ve had the fortune of being able to visit on a fairly regular basis in the last few years and it never fails to impress me. On this most recent visit we finally loosened our wallets and decided to splurge at Ryuugin, 2 starred Michelin restaurant. The restaurant offers modern Tokyo Style Kaiseki, which revolves very much around the importance of visual presentation and seasonal food.