All-you-can-eat

The Japanese are known for having small portions of food with rice for their meals, but there are still various fun and interesting ways for hungry Americans to eat way too much here.  A few weeks back, I visited my very first kaiten sushi restaurant. It's really entertaining. The tables are placed next to a conveyor belt that moves little plates of sushi throughout the restaurant, and you can take whatever you want. At the end, you are charged by how many plates you took. I always have to try one of everything, so I ate way too much on this particular day, but it was totally worth it.

Another amazing feature of Japan is Nomihoudai, or all-you-can-drink. It's quite common, and really fun. For a pretty reasonable price, you get as many alcoholic drinks as you want for 2 hours. At the place I went to most recently, we paid around 3000Yen or $35 for unlimited drinks as well as a set menu of tasty food. I was super full by the end of the 2 hours, but worked off the meal with some hardcore karaoke afterwards.

"Nomihoudai" means all-you-can-drink, and I'm sure you think it sounds wonderful, but it gets even better....
There is also tabehoudai, or all-you-can-eat. For my birthday, I went for tea time at a cafe that specializes in dessert tabehoudai. That's right. All-you-can-eat CAKE! The cafe was in a super ritzy hotel, and the treats were delicious.

Round 1 of sweets

 It's quite popular, so we made a reservation. To begin with, you are served the specialty of the moment. Since it is December, we were given a variety of pretty Christmas-themed treats. After you finish the first plate, you're let loose at an entire buffet of sweets.  As usual, I tried as many things as possible. There was tiramisu, cakes, tarts, fruits, cookies, mousses, and more. So yummy and amazing. It was pretty much the best thing ever.

Me in front of the Sir Winston Hotel. I'm smiling because my belly is full of sugar.