Experience Halal Food in Japan

For this post, I will try using my broken English (still not confident with my english ability, especially on writing), because I want to share my experience about finding halal food in Japan with all moslem brother and sister ^^

I actually write this post because of my guilty feeling. Why? it was because of my experience during my visit to Harajuku, and two malaysian girl with hijab asking me about halal food around Harajuku, and I can't give them any information, because I have no info. But then, the second time I visit Harajuku, I found Halal kebab on Takeshita Doori, then I feel guilty for not find out sooner..hmm (more info about Halal kebab after this)

I'm not lying, it was so hard finding halal food in Japan. Even there are lots of information about halal restaurant or cafe, it still hard to find it when you really need to eat, it was not always around the corner. And halal food in Japan, were mostly expensive. That's why I only visit some of them if I have a chance or if the place nearby. And because almost every kind of japanese food using mirin (alcohol), it's really hard to make sure it was safe.

Japanese foods were very tempting, make sure you check it first before eat

Since I stayed in my friends house (with her lovely lil' family ), mostly I just eat the food that she prepared for me (I told her that I only eat eggs, vegetables, and fish. No beef, chicken, and of course no alcohol and pig). 

Here's the foods that I got from my homestay ^^

On the street, I always eat onigiri from Lawson, since I heard from some source that it was safe for moslem. Lawson is really easy to find anywhere in Japan, so it was helped me a lot. Not only onigiri, some of  Lawson snack were also safe for moslem, you can check the halal food list from Halal Japan , Halal in Japan , and NAHA
  

Now, I will share my experience finding Halal food in Japan

Sekai Cafe, Asakusa Tokyo

Actually I really want to go to this cafe when I go to Japan, and my very nice Japanese friend are willing to help to search this 'not so strategist ' cafe in Asakusa. It was really near from sensoji temple but so hard to find ^^;. And finally with the help of google map and a great effort of my Japanese friends, We found it!!. Actually the place is really cozy, but somehow I got a not really good experience here ^^;. So first..the foods are weirdly expensive, I mean weird because need 1000 yen just to eat a bowl of vegetables salad! Well, it feels awkward when we saw the menu but well maybe it's a halal cafe so everything is specially made with a special price (?). But then, our order came one by one and it almost took an hour for my friend's salad,  I mean the service are..not a very good service indeed (especially in Japan T^T). I feel so bad with my Japanese friends, it was really makes our conversation awkward after that. And when I heard about halal cafe, I thought that I can take a pray there, but no..it's not. Well everything are based on my own opinion from my experience, so yeah maybe you can try it and get a better service. It wasn't my lucky day, perhaps.

You can check Sekai Cafe HERE

With Kani-san, Imai-san, and Keitaro-san our very kind Japanese Friends

Sekai Cafe, the interior was great, but service not really good

King Kebab, JOL Harajuku

I accidentally found this halal food! So thanks to my Hijab, when I walking on Takeshita Doori, a Turkish guy come to me and show me a board with a huge picture of kebab and said "Halal! Halal" to me. Without any second thought, me and my Japanese friend, Haruka follow his direction. So you can find "King Kebab" inside JOL building on Harajuku, it's a really interesting building with a very cute interior in the middle of Takeshita Doori (Find more info about JOL in HERE ). When I order, there are two choices of meat, chicken and beef, but when the seller (which are two Turkish old man) saw my hijab, they said that the chicken is the Halal one, honestly I felt dissapointed that time because I want to eat halal beef (after eating fish all the time) but then I just ordered chicken. The price is not too expensive but still, 600 yen not a small money hehe (it was because I pick the Large size hehe) . At least I got free drink ^^;. And the taste...I LOVE IT!! Maybe it's a tipical Turkish Kebab, but it way different with kebab that I eat in Indonesia. More flavor, more spices, thick and chewy bread, with a very generous mount of chicken. Yummy!! It was a great lunch, and on my last day in Japan when me and my friends go to Harajuku, we're going to King Kebab again ^^

You can find King Kebab info HERE

lol that beer hehe

It looks and it is delicious..slurrpp and that drink are actuallu Oolong tea with coke paper cup hehe

Here's how the food counter looks like..it was very packed with people since it's weekend

It was so hard to find place to sit

And that's my experience about finding Halal food in Japan, Still actually I ate some of japanese food like manju, and dango and lots of home made takoyaki and okonomiyaki with my Japanese friends (they read all of containing ingredients on every products to make sure not containing alcohol and meat..that's very nice of them T^T)

Don't scare to visit Japan because of the foods, but it's really important to double check every food ^^