Japan, Nara - Dining at Local Eateries

Despite the obvious language issues, I really enjoyed dining at locals eateries around Japan whenever I traveled to the country.

Local eatery, Nara, Nara Prefecture, Japan (2018)

While visiting the city of Nara in April 2018, I dined at one of the local eateries. Despite the difficulty in communications due to language issues, I managed to mostly ordered the dishes I wanted. I usually accomplished this by looking at photographs of the dishes in the menu. For dishes where no photographs exist in the menu, I relied upon my basic but rudimentary understanding of the Chinese Language to try and interpret the dishes written in Japanese in the menu. For those who may not know, some characters in both the Chinese and Japanese Languages are written similarly. This is how I got by each time I visited the less touristy locations or establishments in Japan where the staff spoke little or no English.

For my recent visit, this series of photographs of my lunch are an indication that I am getting by just fine despite my language issues. :-)

Sashimi and sushi combo, Nara, Nara Prefecture, Japan (2018)

Sashimi Danbury (rice bowl) with finely chopped tuna, salmon slices, salmon roe, egg and garnishings, Nara, Nara Prefecture, Japan (2018)

Sushi Set, Nara, Nara Prefecture, Japan (2018)

Deep fried squid, Nara, Nara Prefecture, Japan (2018)

Locals dining at the same eatery, Nara, Nara Prefecture, Japan (2018)