Fry it yourself!

Of course, when Japanese people don't eat healthy, they really don't eat healthy. I went to an all-you-can-fry restaurant last night. There's basically a big buffet bar of meat and veggies on sticks which you take back to your table, dip in batter, bread, and deep fry at your own personal deep fryer set in the middle of your table. In case that's not enough food for you, there's also salad, fried rice, dim sum, curry, and oden (stuff in hot soup), as well as ice cream, deserts, and Hawaiian shave ice.

Frying yourself is such a blast. They even have do-it-yourself mochi (pounded sticky rice flour) donuts that you can make at your table. I decided to go the extra mile and fry things that weren't meant to be fried, like dim sum and ice-cream, although the latter was a big failure. Deep-fried gyoza and shaomai are delicious.

Needless to say, after an hour and a half I could barely walk and was useless for the rest of the evening.

I think this kind of restaurant would go over well in the states.

Update: Where to fry it yourself if you're visiting Japan

http://www.kushi-ya.com/
Picture guide of how to eat: http://www.kushi-ya.com/tsukaikata.html

Kinda pricey, but worth it. 90 minutes is about $22, plus $10 for all you can drink alchohol or $5 for all you can drink soda. Online coupon you can print out for $5 off: http://www.kushi-ya.com/coupon.html

Here’s a page with the list of restaurants in Tokyo:
http://www.fujiofood.com/search/dsp_shop.php?brand=2&area=13
and Kyoto:
http://www.fujiofood.com/search/dsp_shop.php?brand=2&area=26

You can print them out and ask a taxi driver or something.

Enjoy!