Learning Japanese Slang For Ridiculously Large Portions, at Restaurant Kasuga in South-Western Kyoto
Ridiculously Overflowing Bowl of rice, raw tuna, avocado, and poached egg -- Restaurant Kasuga (茶房か寿が) -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2014 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
iPhone 4S + iPhone 4S back camera — 1/25 sec, f/2.4, ISO 50 — map & image datanearby photos
Ridiculously Overflowing Bowl
of rice, raw tuna, avocado, and poached egg

After yesterday's visit to the spectacular Yoshiminedera Temple in south-western Kyoto, we stopped for lunch at a restaurant we happened across on the way to the next temple. It seemed like an average lunch cafe, but it had a shocking surprise in store for us.

昨日の昼ご飯は京都市西京区の「茶房か寿が」で食べました。 ポールさんの注文は「マグロとアボカド丼定食」大盛りにしましたが、びっくりほど大きいマンガ盛りマグロが多かった。本当に8〜10倍位見込みより多かった。1200円だけでめっちゃメッチャ良かったです。マグロはハイークオリティーでした。

Paul ordered the tuna sashimi (raw tuna slices) and avocado over rice lunch. At just 1,200 yen (about US$10.50) one doesn't expect much fish, so he ordered the large. What he got was a shockingly large amount of fish... 8 to 10 times the amount expected.

Group of Ladies Behind Paul are similarly shocked -- Restaurant Kasuga (茶房か寿が) -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2014 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
iPhone 4S + iPhone 4S back camera — 1/30 sec, f/2.4, ISO 50 — map & image datanearby photos
Group of Ladies Behind Paul
are similarly shocked

At first this brought to mind the excesses of the not-so-far-away Hagi Burger, but those comparisons soon melted away as we realized that the pile of tuna sashimi was not propped up by an interior of rice... it was really just that big.

We're not big on taking photos of everything we intend to shove in our mouth, but this was just beyond ridiculous. The experience required documentation.

A Third Gone yet nary a dent was made -- Restaurant Kasuga (茶房か寿が) -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2014 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
iPhone 4S + iPhone 4S back camera — 1/60 sec, f/2.4, ISO 64 — map & image datanearby photos
A Third Gone
yet nary a dent was made

The Japanese word for a regular order is the regular word for regular, futsuu (普通). The word for a large portion of food is oomori (大盛り). These are standard words you'll find on most any menu, but Damien taught us two slang words that sort of help to describe the situation.

The next step beyond large is mountain large yamamori (山盛り), which is pretty easy to figure out as it calls to mind the image of food being piled up like a mountain. I suppose this is similar to super-size in American English.

In America, some folks might add a next step beyond super-size along the lines of Texas size, but if you really want to go to the extreme... beyond plausibility right to the edge of possibility... you'll want the Japanese word for the step beyond mountain large — such a ridiculously large amount that you could only see it as a wildly exaggerated caricature in a Japanese comic book — is called comic large, which sounds so much better in actual Japanese: mangamori (マンガ盛り).

The name of the restaurant is Kasuga, so I think we have the birth of a new slang word beyond manga mori: kasuga mori!

Restaurant Kasuga 茶房か寿が in the countryside-suburbs of south-western Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2014 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 125 — map & image datanearby photos
Restaurant Kasuga
茶房か寿が
in the countryside-suburbs of south-western Kyoto, Japan

Leave a comment...


All comments are invisible to others until Jeffrey approves them.

Please mention what part of the world you're writing from, if you don't mind. It's always interesting to see where people are visiting from.

IMPORTANT:I'm mostly retired, so I don't check comments often anymore, sorry.


You can use basic HTML; be sure to close tags properly.

Subscribe without commenting