Besides listening to jPod and blogging, my other online pastime is Magic: the Gathering Online. Magic is a collectible card game, and was the first. I realise that not everyone will realise what this means, so I’ll give you a quick rundown: you buy packs of trading cards, which instead of having sportsmen on them, have pictures of fantastic monsters and wizards blowing each other up. Below this picture is a small box of text. You make up your own deck of these trading cards, find a friend, and play game of Magic with him/her.

If you’re still not sure what Magic is, this article on the official Magic site entitled “WHAT IS MAGIC?” might make it clearer.

Magic is quite popular in Japan actually, so much so that tournament reports (yes, there are regular organised tournaments) are usually written in both English and Japanese. The four semifinalists from the most recent Grand Prix (yes, we have a Grand Prix) were named Kurihara, Osawa, Tsumura and Hron. All except one are 日本人 (I’ll let you work out for yourself which one). The world champions (yes, there is a world championship!) for the last two years have both been 日本人. In 2005, the World Champion, World Team Champion and Player of the Year were all from Japan. The only other country with such a record is the USA, which invented the game.
I guess that Magic appeals to the Japanese psyche; the diligence that goes into 盆栽 and the discipline of 武士度 melds together to make some damn good Magic players. Or maybe I’m looking too deeply into it. Let’s just say that before every tournament, the commentators (yes, we even have commentators) always mention the Japanese players, and speculate on what lethal innovation might lay waste to their opponents.

Recently there was an entire set of cards based on Japanese mythology: Kamigawa was another plane where Ninja, Samurai and other warriors would fight each other. There was a tribe of warrior human/foxes called Kitsune, and killer rat-samurai known as Nezumi. I mean, the race was called Kitsune, and the rats actually called themselves the Nezumi, in both the English and Japanese versions of the game. A little difficult to explain, as the Japanese word for fox is Kitsune. Some of the monsters had cool names: 夜の星、黒瘴 (Kokusho, the evening star), 深き刻の忍者 (Ninja of the Deep Hours), 激憤明神 (Myojin of Infinite Rage) and so on.

Magic also has an online version: instead of holding cards in your hand and putting them on a table, they come up on your monitor, and you just point and click. This is usually what I’m doing if I’m online, and an engrossing game is often the reason I must listen to jPod lessons 3 or 4 times before understanding the dialogue.

One can also chat during a game of Magic, much like instant messaging programs like ICQ or MSN messenger. If I notice someone’s online name is Japanese, I usually try to coax some converstion out of him/her. Sometimes this is difficult though; some people like to concentrate when they play.

Conversation is sometimes difficult for other reasons too. Some people with Japanese aliases aren’t actually Japanese, and the program doesn’t allow for ひらがな so everything must be typed in plain looking Romaji. I chanced upon another weird problem the other day.

Tanaka_the_Destroyer was my opponent, and he was making a complicated play. I wondered what he was up to. I had to ask. 「何しっていますか」　was my question, transcribed into Romaji as “Nani shite imasuka”. But my message came up as “Nani _____ imasuka”.

I was intruiged, and tried again. Same result. The present progressive form of the verb する () was coming up, as a big blank. I tried many more times, but to no avail. Annoyed, I wrote a message to one of the Adepts, who are online helpers. It also had strange blank spaces:

“This ____ thing isn’t working properly, there are blank spaces everywhere and it’s really ________ me off.”

Eureka. I had it. The Gaelic slang word for ‘faeces’ and the present progressive of the Japanese verb ‘to do’ when written in Romaji script are exactly the same. The program was censoring something it saw as a naughty word.

Eventually I got the question across to Tanaka_the_Destroyerさん by using the less polite “Nani yatte imasuka”. He answered my question by hurling a 20 point fireball at me. I never even saw it coming. He had been toiling away diligently on the other side of the table, building up resources slowly but surely, before striking only once, but lethally.

I wasn’t too peeved about being beaten, but the fact that I couldn’t communicate properly with my opponent did annoy me a little.

Daniel here. Reporting for JapanesePod101.com.

Japan, and especially Tokyo, is full of commuters; people going from the outside parts of Tokyo and the surrounding prefectures to work in the city, and students moving in all directions. Just this month, many of these commuters have had their commute habits simplified with the event of Pasmo, an IC (Integrated Circuit) card which can be used on most trains and busses in Japan.

Japan’s transportation system is one of the most convenient in the world. Trains, subways, monorails, busses, ferry boats, and taxis can get you to your destination wherever that might be in this archipelago nation. Most people can get along fine without owning a car. While I do own a car, I mostly use it to go shopping at Costco.

When I first started living in Japan, I would either buy a ticket for each ride on the train, or I would buy a pack of eleven tickets for the price of ten for a specific route. These are called 回数券 (かいすうけん). There was also a prepaid card called the Orange Card. With this card, one could quickly purchase a ticket at the ticket machine without using cash. However, this process still took time.

I remember one time I went to see U2 in concert. The friend I went with insisted we buy return tickets before the show because he rightly understood there would be ridiculously long lines after the show. That was a smart move.

Then, a number of years back, the iO (pronounced イーオ, ee-oh) Card was introduced for JR (Japan Railways) lines. This is also a prepaid card. But this card could be inserted into the wicket which would automatically update the balance as one enters and exits stations. This card really increased efficiency, saving passengers a trip to the ticket-selling machines and reducing lines. Commuters could also purchase passes between two set destinations at a reduced rate. With the event of the iO card, these passes could be used in the same wicket card readers.

Then came the Suica IC card about 5 years ago. With this card, if one’s commute was on the JR train lines, one could not only avoid the ticket-selling machines on their commute, but they could also pass through the wicket gates without taking their pass out of its case or their wallet. IC sensors were placed on the top of the wicket gates and people could simply put the card near the sensor and it would update the balance or check the route without being inserted into the wicket or even being removed from wallets, cases or purses. This card can be used as a 定期券 or as an iO Card, or both.

The problem for many commuters and other passengers is that they need to use a combination of JR, private lines and subways to get to their destination, and could not use the Suica Card on these other lines. Most of these other lines, and even some busses and ferries could use a card just like JR’s iO Card called Passnet. However this required carrying separate cards and the Passnet card did not have IC capabilities.

Now, at last, there is an IC version of the Passnet called Pasmo. And in addition to adding IC, this card is compatible with Suica system on most routes. The Suica Card also works with the Pasmo system. The card and the reader automatically charge your card for the rate between the two systems. Now, when I go to the JapanesePod101.com offices, I can do it with only my Suica Card. べんりですね！

I hope you enjoyed this post. Be sure to leave a comment.

Until next time, さらば.

I was just 5 minutes ago talking to someone on MSN about one of my vocab memorization techniques. The conversation started, as one usually does on MSN, as ‘what are you doing’. It took me a while to explain, but my friend thought it was a good idea. He’s learning English, but the principle is the same. I do it whenever I’m trying to memorize a lot of words. Maybe it’ll work for you!

Step 1: Open a search engine. For Chinese, I use 百度, for Japanese, one might try google.co.jp.

Step 2: Click on the ‘images’ tab (remember it probably won’t be in English though!) and write in the word. Let’s take something from today’s lesson; おめでとう meaning ‘congratulations’.

Step 3: Feast your eyes on all the lovely pictures. Each one has something to do with おめでとう. I found a chubby bride in a wedding dress, a pair of geeky looking girls with medals around their necks, two offical guys in suits smiling and shaking each others’ hands, and a birthday cake with ‘congratulations’ on it. In each one of these photos, the person with the camera has probably said 「おめでとう」 right before he/she took the photo.

You might even try it without the ‘images’ tab, and read through articles if you don’t find any pictures that help. Useful when the word isn’t something that is easily represented visually. I entered 「どういう風の吹き回し」 and even though I couldn’t read most of the articles, just the fact that I saw the phrase repeated in so many different places reinforced both it and its meaning in my brain.

It works for me! It seems a little bit longwinded, but I usually go to extreme lengths to avoid memorizing something by rote. I find the ‘Google-search’ method very helpful in reinforcing vocabulary. Instead of getting a dry boring example sentence out of a dictionary, you’re getting a real use of the word.

Recently, 爱香¹ enrolled at a 上海大学校²　learning 中国語³. On Friday night, the whole department threw a party to welcome in the new school semester, and all their new students. But to tell you the truth, I guess 大学生 will take any excuse to party!

As we went in, we were asked to write our names on a sticker, and stick it on ourselves. Probably so people who forgot our names wouldn’t go all night calling us ‘dude’. We were also asked to reach into a plastic bag and pull out a number. This was written on another sticker and stuck under our name. This didn’t serve any purpose that I could see. I did see a guy whose number was ’69’ enthusiastically showing off his luck to his friends though.

爱香 introduced me to her classmates. I guess everyone was a little shy about using Chinese though, so all the Koreans were together speaking Korean, the English speakers were all together, the Japanese were huddled together. The Koreans were outnumbered everyone else, so 爱香 stayed with them, chatting away. She speaks Korean from living in Seoul for three years, and I listened on, anxiously checking japanesepod101.com on my PDA to see if the Korean survival phrases had been uploaded yet, so that I could chime in on the conversation. No luck though.

After a few ビール were passed around, everyone relaxed a little. Isn’t that always the way! Everyone felt a little more comfortable speaking Chinese to each other, and I stopped stumbling through 日本語. I met a guy called 金⁴ and some of his friends, and had a chat with them. I found the Korean group especially friendly with each other; 金 seemed like a big brother to everyone and it seemed like everyone had known everyone else for a long time. 爱香 often says how なつかしい she is for her days in Korea, and how friendly the Koreans are. She has said before how everyone in Korea is like a big family and after　meeting 金 and his friends (come to think of it, I think they were all called 金) on Friday night I understand. The Korean group was a happy medium between the strict structure of the Japanese and the brash friendliness of the Chinese. I understand that also linguistically Korean is a blend of Chinese and Japanese.

As I mentioned, alcohol broke down barriers. Everyone stopped speaking in their native language, and defaulted to 中国語. I was happy for it too. On a most basic level, language opens doors. And I don’t mean metaphysical doors or business opportunities, or opportunities for self-expression. I mean if there’s a Korean dude, and an Australian dude, and one wants to ask the other, he’s up **** creek without a paddle unless he can actually open his mouth and say something that the other dude will understand.

It was a great night for a language fan like me. I spoke Japanese to Japanese, Chinese to Japanese, Chinese to Koreans and Chinese to Australians. Wow, that’s quite a confusing sentence. I guess I could make it a bit clearer with the help of Kanji: I spoke 日本語 to 日本人, 中国語 to 日本人…etc ‘I spoke Japanese to Japanese’ doesn’t really work in English. It was also great to be in amongst a group of language students. It’s often hard to talk in a foreign language to someone right off the bat, and it was great to just open your mouth and let fly with Chinese, without having to think ‘well you’re obviously not Chinese so I feel a little silly speaking to you in Chinese’.

A great night!

¹あい・か
²しゃん・はい・だい・がっこう
^３ちゅう・ごく・ご
^４ “jīn” in Chinese, and I think it would be “Kim” in Korean. Maybe Keith先生 can confirm. I’m not sure what this 漢字 would be in Japanese, but if I’m right that it’s “Kim” in Korean, maybe we could say that it would be 『キム』. But when it’s the word for ‘Friday’ it’s 『キン』. A little help?

Daniel here. Reporting for JapanesePod101.com.

Renewing a driver’s license can be a hassle in any country. Although this time, I was happy that I was able to renew my California’s driver’s license online (from Japan, no less!) with my credit card. Renewing my driver’s license here in Tokyo proved not to be as easy.

My understanding is that if you have a clean record, you can renew your license at one of several locations around Tokyo. However, if you had an accident or a ticket, you have to go to the main testing center in the city of Fuchū (府中 in the West part of Metropolitan Tokyo). I had been involved in an accident. Had this accident happened in California it would have been 100% the other driver’s fault. However, the police in Tokyo, whenever possible, like to divvy up the blame, usually 50-50.

I will not go into the details of that incident this time. If you want to hear about that experience, leave a comment and request it.

Well, since I did not have a clean record, I had to go to the Fuchū Driver’s License Center. I do not think there is a more difficult place to access in Metropolitan Tokyo than this spot. The nearest train station is 20 minutes by bus from Musashi-Koganei Station (武蔵小金井駅)! It can also be accessed by bus from Chōfu (調布) and Mitaka (三鷹) stations, but those rides will take you 30 minutes! And you are not permitted to drive to the facilities! I think this is part of the punishment.

Well, having arrived, I made my way to the information desk. I was given a form to fill out and a card for my secret number (暗証番号). I was to fill in two four digit numbers. I asked if they should match and the woman said なんでもいい, which I translate to “whatever”. After filling out these two forms, I got in the line that had the big “1” sign. Having reached the front, I was told how much the stamps I needed would cost. (Japanese bureaucrats just love papers and stamps). After draining my wallet of ¥4200, I made my way over to the big “2” sign which was for the eye test.

Japanese eye tests don’t require you to make out letters like they do in America. Instead, you have a circle with a slit in it and have to tell which side the slit is on. I have to wonder if this method is really all that effective. It seems too simple and I was only asked to identify three symbols. Oh well, I wasn’t about to complain!

The next stage was have my photo taken. It did not come out bad for a license photo and you should be able to see it on the blog page. After this, I had finished the processing portion of the ordeal, but now came the purgatorial portion. The “lesson” was to be given in the annex on the second floor. This would be no big deal, but I had sprained my knee a few days before. You would think they would have an elevator. But, you would be wrong.

The lessons began every two hours and the previous lesson was only halfway through, so I headed to lunch. When I returned, I was given a seat number and went into the room where I waited to watch nearly two hours of video. Half-expecting to see the Japanese version of “Red Asphalt”, I was surprised when the officer seemed almost apologetic to be putting us through this lesson. He said 申し訳ありません (もうしわけ) more than a few times. But he also let us know how important traffic safety is.

He ended up only showing us about 20 minutes of the video, and lectured us みのもんた-style (a Japanese entertainer), only less charming. But, it was okay, and the time went by reasonably well, especially since he gave us a 10 minute break about half-way through.

After we were done, we filed past his desk as he stamped our forms and we shuffled downstairs to receive our new licenses. The first person in our line balked at the bottom of the stairs when she saw the waiting masses on the first floor. Then, in typical Japanese-style, we all waited there because she had stopped until the staff called the people who were renewing (as opposed to the rest of the people who were waiting to receive their first licenses. After we received our license cards, we took them over to a machine and entered our secret numbers with the cards on the IC reader. After being accepted, we were free to go.

The lesson from all this? Don’t get in an accident, even one caused by someone else!
In a future post, I’ll describe what it is like to transfer a foreign license in the first place. I hope you enjoyed this post. Be sure to leave a comment.

Until next time, さらば.

I was in a local coffee shop when having breakfast when I heard something that always gets my attention.

“わたしは。。。um…　日本。。。すみます。”

This broken conversation was coming from the table next to me, and another table beyond that. I had of course noticed some 日本語 being spoken earlier, but had gone back to reading my newspaper. I couldn’t think of any excuse to introduce myself and do some 話し練習¹, but still was listening in. Someone had heard someone else at the table next to them speaking Japanese, and had introduced themselves. One group of four was visiting 上海, the other table of two lived here, and were imparting their knowledge.

Here was the problem. Maybe some other jPod listeners can relate. I felt like jumping in and introducing myself and Japanesepod101.com, but thought it was a little rude. After all, what could I say? “Look mate,　you’re obviously learning Japanese, so I thought I’d saunter over and have a chat. Suffice it to say, you need to visit japanesepod101.com” I’m usually shameless in approaching 日本人 and just striking up a conversation (after all, how else can you learn a language?) but coming up to someone on the pretence that their Japanese needs improving made me feel a little 緊張².

Anyway, I just bit the bullet, said a loud 「えと、すみません」 and went on my sales pitch. Everyone said how 上手³ I sounded, to which I gave the standard response 「いやいやいやいやいやいや」⁴

The 外国人 turned out to be オーストラリア人, which was a nice coincidence. He asked what I did at jPod, and I had to explain that I just wrote a little bit about it every now and then. He asked if I had a card, I didn’t. I’m not really an employee, but still, it would have been nice to give him something.

How would you have handled the situation? It might be a little rude to approach someone and say how you noticed them struggling with their Japanese, and that you have a great site to recommend to them. Some people might feel that their language skills are better than they are, and might feel that they don’t need any improving.

Maybe we need a little card/flyer to hand out to people… “If you’re interested in 日本語…”

¹話し・れん・しゅう
²きん・ちょう
³じょう・ず
⁴Confused? Listen to 幸子先生 at My Tokyo Travelblogue – Day 7 at 16:57 when 夏子先生 remarks on how familiar she is with matchmaking parties. Her reaction is a great example of an 「いやいやいやいや」

Daniel here. Reporting for JapanesePod101.com.

Tokyo has no shortage of date spots. But, perhaps the most popular with the younger crowd (with the exception of Disneyland), is Odaiba (お台場). Odaiba is an manmade island in Tokyo Bay. It was originally built toward the end of the Edo Period (mid 19^th Century) to protect Tokyo from attack by sea. After a failed attempt to make it into a high-rent district toward the end of the “bubble economy”, it was nearly abandoned. However, in the last ten years, it was rezoned as a commercial and entertainment district and has boomed in that capacity.

The most common way for young people to reach Odaiba is by taking the Yurikamome (ゆりかもめ線) Line from Shinbashi (新橋), which is just a few stops from Tokyo Station on the Yamanote Line (山手線). But, now you can get there with transferring directly from Shinjuku (新宿) by taking the newer Rinkai Line (りんかい線). For those with cars, there is the Rainbow Bridge which connects to the main part of Tokyo.

After arriving in Odaiba, there are many attractions to see. There is the Fuji TV studios with its funky building; Venus Fort, a Venice-themed shopping mall; Aqua City, a more American style shopping mall; Decks Tokyo Beach shopping mall; Sega Joypolis; Daikanransha, the second largest ferris wheel in the world; Zepp Tokyo, a popular live performance joint; Miraikan, the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (https:www.miraikan.jst.go.jp); some hot springs, hotels, a beach, a park and more.

As many of you know, I perform wedding ceremonies on Saturdays, and one place that I frequent is Le Meridien Grand Pacific Tokyo Hotel next to Daiba Station. This is a luxurious European-style hotel and is close to Fuji TV and Aqua City. So, I know Aqua City better than I know the other shopping venues. In Aqua City, you can find movie theaters, and stores like the Gap, Eddie Bauer, HMV (like Tower Records), G-Shock Store, J. Crew, Disney Store, Coach, and many smaller boutiques. There are also food places like Godiva, Starbucks, Kua’Aina, Cinnabon, Long Board Café and plethora of Asian food restaurants.

Also, from the terrace in front of Aqua City, there is a great view of Rainbow Bridge over Tokyo Bay and a replica of the Statue of Liberty.

So, if you’re looking for a fun date spot near Tokyo Bay, check out Odaiba. I plan, myself, to check out the ferris wheel sometime soon.

I hope you enjoyed this review. Be sure to visit the blog at blogs.japanesepod101.com and leave a comment.

Until next time, saraba.

My girlfriend was writing a simple SMS for business. She often shows me the message before she sends it to make sure if the English is ok. It was something like:

“Ok, thanks. See you on the 15th. ”

This was the last message of the SMS ‘conversation’. I guess for this reason, she felt like it was missing a little something.

“How do I write 「よろしくおねがいします」 in English?” she asked. ‘Whoa,’ I thought. How do I explain that the small island nation that she comes from is unique in the world with its layers of formality, unbroken dynasty, and turbulent history? How could I tell her how unique those 11 short syllables were in the linguistic pantheon of the world? How could I get that across in 5 seconds or less?

I told her that we didn’t a word for it.

“Yes, there is something in English that has the same meaning, I just can’t remember it,” she said.

“I’m telling you, there is equivalent in English. Just like 「がんばって」, 「やっぱり」, and 「わくわく」.”

“Well in Korean, we say ㅂㅈㄷㄱ¹. I’m sure there is a word for it in English.”

Anyway, she sent the SMS without the English word for 「よろしくおねがいします」. I can’t help thinking about it though.

It felt so strange though, Ｉ spend so much time finding the meaning of words, my brain seemed to freeze at the translation for 「よろしくおねがいします」. I know this word, but all my mental dictionary kept throwing up was the blue screen of death. It’s peculiar to know that a word, a certain feeling has no corresponding word in the entire English language.

Maybe we can make up a new English word, that means 「よろしく」.

The closest word I could think of to 「よろしくおねがいします」 is the slangy ‘cheers’. Where I come from, ‘cheers’ is not only a word you say when you drink a toast, but also a word that you say for ‘thankyou’, even when someone hasn’t given you something. Not quite the same as 「よろしくおねがいします」 but the closest word I can think of.

Maybe we can just import 「よろしく」 into English as is. My last post talked about Japanese words in common usage in English, maybe we could add 「よろしく」 to the list.

We could shorten it a bit (actually a very Japanese thing to do).

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this post.

Yo-rosh.

¹Obviously this isn’t what she said; I just can’t type Korean. すみません、ビキーさん。

Since 中国¹ is so close to 日本² there are some 日本語³ words that almost everyone here knows.

わたしは： Everyone knows how to introduce themselves. I guess it’s the first (and sometimes, the only) thing that everyone learns how to say in Japanese.

かわいい: Japanese people, particularly young girls, have a habit of yelling out this word at the top of their voices, while pointing at a small dog, foreign child, or tiny cellphone, where appropriate. Usually from the squeals of delight and giggling, the meaning can be ascertained. Also, it sounds very similar to the Chinese 可爱⁴, meaning ‘cute’ or ‘lovely’.

何⁵： アニメ is shown daily here, with Chinese subtitles. A friend of mine told me that he often watches them, and somehow remembered this word. He told me what he thought it meant (‘what’). I told him that he was right. What a good student! I wish I could learn without trying. Anyway, he was pretty pleased that he picked up that one word, and I told him about jPod. He promises to be the first subscriber to the 中国語 version!

はい： Everyone knows this word.

Along with these random words, most people know the basics. Hi/Bye/Sorry (今日は⁶、さようなら、すみません) and maybe some loan words (料理⁷, 写真⁸).

Japanese readers might also be interested to find out how many Japanese words are regularly used in English. I was watching CSI the other day, and one of the characters was discussing a missing person. He said something along the lines of ‘maybe he just collected all his things, severed his ties to the community and said sayonara. Just up and left town’. This wasn’t a reference to a Japanese person or Japanese culture at all, but just a word in the English language. Other Japanese words that have entered English: Tsunami, Sumo (but not 陸士⁹) , Bushido, Karate, Manga, Sushi, Anime (Although anime is short for ‘animation’ so I’m not sure what language it comes from) and others.

Are there any other Japanese words in common usage in English that you can think of? I’m thinking of words that could be used without explanation to someone who doesn’t speak Japanese.
¹ちゅう・ごく
^２に・ほん
^３に・ほん・ご
^４kě ài. For all you Chinese learners!
⁵なに
⁶こん・にち・は
⁷りょう・り, liào lǐ in Chinese, from the Japanese word.
⁸しゃしん, xiě zhēn in Chinese， from the Japanese. Interesting that Japanese, having borrowed so much from Chinese, has now started giving back! 谢谢！
⁹りくし. Click here for a great lesson on Sumo!

Daniel here. Reporting for JapanesePod101.com.

In Tokyo there are many wonderful places to eat. Of course, there are many places to eat sushi, tempura, gyūdon (beef bowl), and other Japanese dishes. But sometimes, you want the taste of home. There are many diners (known here as family restaurants) like Denny’s which have pasta and other western type dishes on the menu (one side note: many Japanese people are surprised to learn that Denny’s did not begin in Japan). However, I find that most attempts at American food, or western food to be adjusted to the Japanese palate. Among the few places that come closest to tasting like home are McDonald’s and Mos Burger.

But, if you want a really tasty burger in Tokyo, without having to fork out over ¥1500 at places like Hard Rock Cafe, the best place to go is Kua’Aina. Well, at least in my opinion. Yes, it is more expensive than McD’s and Mos. But it won’t break the bank, and their sets, which include a drink and fries, and for dinner, a salad, come in around ¥1000 for lunch, and ¥1200 for dinner.

As the name suggests, it is a Hawaiian-theme burger joint; not so much the burgers themselves (I don’t know anyone who’s even tried the Pineapple Burger). Rather, the interior has an island hut motif going. The walls and have wood and furniture have wood paneling and there are mounted surfboards, hanging leis, and photographs of authentic surf champions. Also, the staff greets customers with a robust “Aloha!” as you walk in the door.

Each type of burger comes in two sizes: 1/3LB and 1/2LB. The signature burger at Kua’Aina is the Avocado Burger. Other burgers include the Cheese Burger (sic), the Bacon Burger, the Hamburger, and the Pineapple Burger. They all come served on a kaiser roll. You can also add extra toppings; choices include cheese (five kinds: cheddar, American, provolone, Swiss and Monterey Jack), pineapple, bacon and avocado.

There is also a myriad of sandwich choices. They include Roast Turkey, Roast Beef, Pastrami, BLT, Avocado, Cheese, Teriyaki Chicken, Rosemary Chicken, Mahi Mahi, and Tuna. Each sandwich comes on your choice of kaiser roll, multi-grain wheat, or hearth rye. You can also add those same toppings of cheese, pineapple, bacon or avocado.

Other hot foods include Popcorn Shrimp, Onion Rings, and Clam Chowder. Salad choices include Green, Tuna, Avocado, and Turkey. Dressings choices are 1000 Island, Caesar’s, and Japanese (和風•わふう). There is also a variety of hot and cold drinks in American sizes (most other fast food places have undersized drinks). The more interesting drinks include Guava Juice, draft beer, bottled Kona Beer, and Momi Tea (like a Japanese version of tapioca).

As I mentioned earlier, the signature burger is the Avocado Burger, and so on the table there are instructions on how to eat it. This is because they give a half of an avocado for each burger! As you can imagine, it takes skill to eat this without the avocado squirting out the side and hitting the person sitting next to you in the cheek!
While Kua’Aina can only be found in two places in Hawaii, there are currently 12 shops in Japan listed on website. There is the Aoyama store where it all began. I managed to go there when it was the only one. It’s near Omote-sandō Station near Shibuya. I also frequent the Kanda-Surugadai location because it is near my church in Ochanomizu. The other stores I have visited are the Maru Biru store next to Tokyo Station, the Aqua City Odaiba store near Daiba Station, the Gotanda store and the Ikspiari store near Disneyland. I have yet to visit the Shibuya store, the Kamakura store, the Yokohama Aka Renga store, the Saitama Shintoshin store and the Yokohama Bay Water store. If you have been to any of these branches, please let me know in the comments.

I hope you enjoyed this review. And if you are near any of these locations, be sure to visit them when you get a craving for a great burger. You can find maps and more information at their website at https://www.kua-aina.com. Be sure to visit the blog at blogs.japanesepod101.com and leave a comment.

Until next time, saraba.