Prices in Tokyo Need Not Be Food for Thought

TOKYO —  Quit complaining. Dining here isn’t all that expensive.

I’m not saying you can’t drop a bundle, but if you do, don’t send post cards home blaming the Japanese for high prices and a strong economy. Blame yourself--because you have a choice.

It’s not necessary to spend your child’s college fund just to fill your tummy in Tokyo. That is unless, of course, you stubbornly insist on ordering a breakfast of eggs, ham, juice and croissants, which will resemble what you gobble at home but will not satisfy any homesick longing. The cost will be at least $12 per person.

Skip your sudden craving for a club sandwich and potato chips in the hotel dining room. The bill for that reckless moment will be $20 and will only make you angry.

Forgo Tokyo steak that can ring in beyond $200.

And that’s just the food advice.

Don’t take a taxi from Narita airport into Tokyo. If you ignore this advice, the bill could be $140 or more. Instead, take the airport bus, which is comfortable, departs every few minutes and costs about $20.

Try to avoid renting a car, even if you are a macho Southern California driver. It gets so crowded that you’ll think you’re on the southbound 405 on a Friday evening. This won’t make you happy.

Do take the subway that will cost a few dollars and is clean, safe and quick. It also is fun, although not at rush hour, when it looks strangely like New York City’s mass transit. (Study your map before you go.)

Do not expect to find a $50 motel room in Tokyo. At $150 or so, the rates are similar to those charged by hotels in New York City and Los Angeles.

Do try one of the capsule hotels, if you are not shy or modest and you are a man. (A few allow couples, but none yet allow women alone.) Price of each room is $20 to $30 a night. Like honeycomb-stacked train compartments, they are cozy, if not private. They even have color television.

As for property values, figure on $800,000 for tiny condominiums in a modest section of Tokyo, all of which makes Southern California housing seem almost reasonable.

Finally, if a sudden burst of patriotism requires that you rush out for American food, you can find tuna salad adjacent to sashimi and spaghetti in American-style cafeterias. Preview the price by looking for a plastic replica in the window. Cost should be about $2.50, including bread.

If a foolish fantasy prompts you to search out a coffeehouse and order something remotely resembling coffee, do not say you weren’t warned. The price may surprise you and so will the coffee. Instead, pack a bag of instant coffee crystals and create your own strong, thick brew with hot water that you probably will find in a thermos in your hotel room.

Still, there are similarities to be sampled. And not all of them will leave you in search of a second mortgage.

You can dine at Denny’s, McDonald’s, even Hobson’s for ice cream. Coca-Cola is everywhere. But unless you are on an expense account, don’t buy soda in a hotel.

Vending machines on the street sell cans for 70 cents--less than many machines in the United States. The machines also sell all kinds of tea products, both hot and cold, mixed with milk or juice. Milk products are in cans, as are a variety of delicious and interesting fruit juice drinks. You will not go thirsty.

There is take-out sushi everywhere. In tiny storefronts. In supermarkets. In stands at the train and subway stations. And at prices Americans will relish. Bento picnic boxes containing eight pieces of rolled sushi and rice sell for $2.50. Huge, fabulous variety boxes, the kind capable of serving an entire cocktail party, cost about $20.

Dinner at a Japanese diner, like the kind found in Los Angeles, is delicious and inexpensive. And the diners are everywhere. A mammoth bowl of steaming soup filled with thick white noodles ( udon ), mushrooms, shrimp and chicken costs about $5. For a dinner of miso soup, shrimp tempura, rice, pickled ginger and vegetables, the price will be about $5.60.

A generous bowl of rice topped with meat, fish or vegetables and eggs ( domburi ) is satisfying, soothing and filling . . . almost as good as chocolate brownies. It costs about $4.50.

Also found are salt-grilled fish (fish dipped in coarse salt, grilled and then served with soy sauce and lemon) and sweet soy sauce-glazed chicken (soy sauce mixed with sugar, sake and a syrupy rice wine called mirin , spread over chicken pieces and grilled). Prices: $5 to $8.

Although the waiters may not speak English, ordering will not be a problem if you select from the plastic replicas displayed in the front window. The prices usually are posted as part of the display.

You can sample chicken kebabs ( yakitori ) in open-air diners near train stations. Five skewers will cost about $5.

Or you can stroll through the Nakamise Arcade in front of Asakusa Kannon Temple and buy little souvenirs such as masks and games while crunching on delicious salty rice crackers the size of thin hamburger buns.

You can follow that by dining splendidly on griddle-fried noodles ( yaki soba ) tossed with slivers of pork and vegetables and sprinkled with flakes of a dried seaweed-like plant and pickled ginger ($2.80). Chase it with Japanese beer ($3.50). And watch the Japanese tourists hurry by. You will be wealthier for the experience.

While not as revered as rice, noodles are found all over Asia. Yaki soba reflects Chinese influence in that the noodles are cooked and fried.

You can find the thick yellow noodles called yaki soba in the freezer or refrigerator section of many Asian groceries in the United States. If you can’t find them, fresh or dried noodles resembling thick spaghetti are a respectable substitute.

Unfortunately, there is no good substitute for Wooster Sosu, although soy sauce (Japanese or Chinese) does taste good. It also tastes rather salty.

At home, serve the fried noodles with a miso soup or even chicken noodle from the can, with any kind of vinegar salad--even vinegar and oil cole slaw--on the side. Drink sake, Japanese beer or tea.

For dessert, try green tea ice cream or, if you are trying to save money, whatever ice cream is on sale. But if you decide to add hot fudge sauce, don’t blame the Japanese for the price or the calories. You had a choice.

STIR-FRIED NOODLES

( Yaki Soba )

3 tablespoons oil

1/4 pound shredded pork, optional

1 cup sliced onions

1/4 cup sliced celery

1 cup sliced Chinese cabbage (or mixture of cabbage, carrot, green pepper and green onions)

2 tablespoons sake

1/3 cup Wooster Sosu (dark, spicy Japanese version of Worcestershire sauce)

14 ounces cooked yaki soba noodles, hot

Ao nori (similar to seaweed) flakes

1 tablespoon beni shoga (pickled ginger) or sliced green onions

In wok or large pan, heat 2 tablespoons oil until smoking. Add pork, if using, and stir-fry until cooked through. (If not using pork, heat oil and continue with recipe.) Add onions and stir-fry until translucent. Add celery, cabbage, sake and Wooster and mix.

Add noodles and additional 1 tablespoon oil and cook, stirring often, until liquid has evaporated and noodles begin to brown. Remove from pan to serving platter, sprinkle with ao nori and pickled ginger and serve. Makes 2 servings.

Note: To heat noodles, place in strainer and lower into boiling water 30 seconds.