If my experiences in Japan are any indication or viable gauge, anytime you see "western style" breakfast on a Japanese hotel's menu, you are rolling the dice.
This is not to say the Japanese don't have good breakfasts, they do, but their idea of breakfast is very different from what we have in the west. As Denis Leary once put how he wants food, "I want bacon and butter and buckets of grease, okay?" The same could be said of western expectation, which is then re-interpreted by the Japanese conception and palate.
In the west the classic, easy get up and go eat a breakfast of crispy bacon, firm eggs, toast and no less than two cups of coffee in large mugs. In Japan you get a single small cup of coffee, bacon that might or might not have been put on the surface of a griddle to get it warm on both sides, and very runny eggs. You will also find bread-a-plenty, soups, fries, pasta, sausages, and the ever-present enigma of salad for breakfast that every "western" breakfast includes and that is if you are lucky. Very lucky travelers at ryokan will get kaiseki style breakfast which are usually very delicious, but these too are tailored to Japanese and not western tastes.
This is not a fault of hotels or shops, as they are trying to cater to foreigners, and many include Japanese and western breakfasts together. Even the best hotels are not immune to the statements and observations I have made above, and the Japanese do their darndest, but they just have a very different interpretation of breakfast.
What westerners want is very different than what the majority of Japanese want. In the end, the Japanese are the majority, even in western hotels throughout Japan and they are going to cater to their way of doing things.
I don't write this to disparage people from breakfasts in Japan. I am simply making an observation for people who are not prepared. In my opinion it is almost better to pay for breakfast separately instead of packages with a room. Most breakfasts I saw were 2-3 thousand yen per person if you do not have a package and if you don't like what they serve, that could become money wasted.
I don't write this to disparage people from breakfasts in Japan. I am simply making an observation for people who are not prepared. In my opinion it is almost better to pay for breakfast separately instead of packages with a room. Most breakfasts I saw were 2-3 thousand yen per person if you do not have a package and if you don't like what they serve, that could become money wasted.
If you are set on eating at a hotel go for the miso soup, fresh fish, tofu, plain rice, bread, cereals, fruit, salad and sausages if they have them in a western/Japanese breakfast. There is also "morning service" which includes toast with jam and coffee at many coffee shops. Sometimes this menu includes a small salad too, but that's it.
I personally can vouch for a handful of onigiri rice balls with tuna in them as a staple of champions to get you going. These can be purchased along with other good food at convenience stores for a fraction of the cost of breakfast at a hotel. The other choice are bakeries, which if you can find them are a treasure trove of delicious goodness.
Now I do something new. I invite those who read this, and who read where I post it, to comment and leave their own breakfast impressions below. Not only just about Japan, but around the world. I've experienced breakfast in a few different countries and even around the continental USA, and I would love to hear a broader opinion. Do other countries serve two types of breakfast, are they very different from what we have? I look forward to hearing what you all have to say.
