One of the first restaurants I made repeat visits to when I initially came to Japan was Yoshinoya 吉野家 which is a Japanese style fast food restaurant specialising in gyu-don (literally meaning ‘beef bowl’). Early in 2004 Japan stopped importing beef from America due to mad cow disease and with the introduction of buta-don (pork bowl) I switched allegiance to their rival Matsuya as it was just a bit cheaper and also had the addition of miso soup. Some people turn their noses up at such food but it does the job when you’re in a rush (or running short on funds) and surely has to be a bit more healthy than McDonalds.

In a separate food story my favourite sushi dish has always been unagi うなぎ(freshwater eel) so I was intrigued to try unadon 鰻丼 which Yoshinoya has recently released and is basically a freshwater eel dumped on top of a bowl of rice and rather nice it is too but like so many things in this country I guess it’ll disappear from the menu soon given the constant comings and goings of Japanese products.