Thursday, August 12, 2010

COCO'S

We are now in the middle of a summer vacation called "Obon", when people are supposed to go back to their hometowns. It seems people are having this Obon from the 7th to 15th, and because some of the highways in Japan are free until next March, more people are taking advantage of them instead of buses and railways than the last year. But as for me, I decided to stay in my city this year too and am now planning to go to Tokyo, since the capital tends to be deserted during this Obon. But I guess Akihabara will be crowded all the same because it is one of the areas in Tokyo where more people hang out in the summer.

And this family restaurant called "COCO'S" had less people than usual too. This restaurant chain is operated by a company that also runs a Gyudon chain "Sukiya". I referred to the Sukiya in this posting. There are several COCO'S in my city, and its business has seemed to be successful since I was small.

You can see six kinds of lunch set, but only 5 of them are available on weekdays for about 8 dollars. Basically you can have lunch for less money on weekdays at family restaurants in Japan.

And I chose the right one in the middle. You'd notice the actual dish differs from the pic in the menu, but you know, people tweak the pics in menus to make the dishes look more appetizing. You can choose either rice or bread, but as rice fills my stomach so easily I chose the bread. You can see a hamburg steak and salad on the other dish. 

As I showed in the 2nd pic, this restaurant offers what we call "Drink Bar" that lets you have unlimited refills of soft drinks including coffee. I had iced coffees without sugar, but I felt guilty after having the coffee jelly you see on the table. I'm on a diet now. 

This COCO'S originally came from America, but the American company offered its license to a Japanese one some time before 1980. But I doubt most Japanese know this fact as this restaurant was once operated by a company that is headquartered in my prefecture.