Restaurants, Markets and Bookstores

This weekend we took another trip towards the outskirts of Boston. Our target destination was to go to a Japanese bookstore and to follow-up with a Japanese restaurant.

I did a little homework before our departure; I found several links to a Sasuga Bookstore, in Cambridge Mass. But to my dismay the store is no longer a store and strictly an online ordering base now.

When I was younger I used to enjoy going to these smaller specialized bookstores when you could actually smell the new print and glue and thumb through the pages and magazines. Even more so today the magazines come wrapped in plastic (preventing browsing) and/or are available through orders online or subscriptions.

Over the Summer we took a trip to San Francisco and visited Japan-Town there. We found a nice bookstore there that had just the atmosphere I've come to expect.

Aside from that it did not deter me from visiting Cambridge and Natick. Our first stop was a a Japanese Buffet (that's right, not a Chinese Buffet which is all too common around New England).

I was suspicious right off the bat, because every "so-called" Japanese Cuisine and restaurant that I've been to with the exception of only a handful has been run by Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean and other. Not that I have any issue with any of those - just that when you want to buy American Beef from Nebraska (Omaha Steaks) for instance you don't go to an Spanish Grocery store and get imported beef from Europe.

It's sad to see there are so many copy-cat restaurants with pseudo Japanese names to trick average Americans into thinking they are getting authentic Japanese food from authentic Japanese chefs. There are many times when you can tell they've used substitute ingredients or foods (due to cost cutting) which is represented in the tast. Other times it's not prepared the way it is traditionally and again the taste isn't there or odd.

I am digressing - we stopped at MINADO (Japanese Buffet), the one night we passed by the front of the restaurant Aya looked in and said, "Oh, they look like Japanese Business men in there dining and are being served by Japanese waitresses."

We learned that maybe some Japanese (visitors and business people) frequent the place, the servers and chefs weren't Japanese to the best of our knowledge. On the lighter side, the buffet was quite extensive and included a menagerie of Sushi. A newspaper had a write-up about the buffet (review).

We went and the cost on a Saturday was $17 per adult and oddly $8.00 for my youngest (Child) based on the child's height. Aya was very pleased with the spread, especially when it came to Sushi. I told her it was all-you-eat but she did not pack it on as I would have expected, since I thought $17.00 was more than reasonable.

From there we went to Cambridge to shop at a small Japanese market. Again these are hard to come by here in New England, since more of the Asian markets are Chinese. This was situated on Massachusetts Avenue #1815 and was called: Kotobukiya

This was the part of the trip make Aya feel at home, she could buy what she has been craving from Japan (at a much higher cost) as she filled a plastic bag worth of stuff it was around $50.00. I think she didn't care, it made her feel good and no so isolated.

I can relate for when I was in Japan for 2 months I noticed by the end of my 1st month I begged my uncle to take me to McDonald's (oh the memories).

I also did a little research from the General of Japan in Boston - Consulate, which has tidbits of information about things going on in Japan and local happenings related to Japan. For instance, I've never even heard of the "John Manjiro Festival" in Fair Haven, MA near New Bedford, but I am plan on attending it, if possible - if not for Aya, for myself.

As it turns out that she will not be able to attend this little festival because she has a trip planned with her Exchange Organization to go to Niagara Fall, N.Y. I am certain the festival will pale incomparison to the Falls, but I wanted to put it out there for whoever wants to check it out.