I often eat gyudon. It is a rice bowl dish similar to sukiyaki, with boiled beef and vegetables on top of rice. I think rice bowls are a typical Japanese fast food. I feel like I eat it more regularly than the stand-up soba restaurants on station platforms or in front of the station, or the curry that sometimes makes me want to eat because of the smell. I think the reasons why it is so popular are that the food is served quickly, it is cheap and satisfies hunger, and there is a sense of security that you can get a certain level of taste anywhere. I think chain restaurants have multilingual menus, spoons are always available, and the service is very easy to use.
Rice bowls are rice topped with various toppings, such as beef bowl, tempura bowl, katsudon, seafood bowl, and eel bowl. The most typical of these is probably gyudon. Chain stores such as Yoshinoya, Sukiya, and Matsuya are often compared in Japan. Since the taste is different, people's preferences vary. However, I think the key points are "fast", "cheap", and "delicious". In the 1980s Kinnikuman, which became very popular after being serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump and made into a TV anime, the main character sings about how gyudon is ``fast,'' ``cheap,'' and ``delicious.'' I think that is now well established.
“early”
The style is to serve pre-cooked stews on top of rice, so it's served within a minute of ordering. I don't think it will take more than a few minutes to serve the food, except when it's crowded, or they run out of ingredients.
“cheap”
In Japan, there is an advertisement for a low-priced product called "One Coin." This is a product that can be purchased with a single coin distributed in Japan, and is recognized as being reasonably priced. Gyudon can be purchased for one 500 yen coin. Nowadays, I think it costs about 450 yen to 500 yen for a regular size, but a few years ago, during deflation, it was around 290 yen to 350 yen, and even if you added a side menu, it was "one coin". Japanese people who know about that time think that 500 yen is expensive.
“good”
I think each person has their own taste, but I like all the restaurants. If it wasn't delicious, no one would go eat it. There are customization elements such as ``Tsuyu Daku'' to increase the soup of the stew, and ``Negi Daku'' to increase the number of onions, as well as adding as much red ginger as you like on the table. I think Japanese people like this system where they can change the flavor for free.
At Yoshinoya, the only main dish in Japanese stores was gyudon, and the menu was always the same 24 hours a day. However, in the 2000s, it became impossible to import American beef due to mad cow disease, and menus using pork and chicken began to be offered. I think this was also the reason why Sukiya started offering curry, katsu don, and seafood bowl. Now they also offer a morning menu and a dinner menu.
Nowadays, they have opened stores overseas, so I'm sure many people have tried them. Similarly, McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken have many stores in Japan. Sometimes it can be interesting to experience the differences in menus, tastes, and restaurant atmospheres.
