CoCo Ichibanya Curry House in Okinawa: Popular with the U.S. military
February 6th, 2010 by James
Curry House chain CoCo Ichibanya has hundreds of restaurants throughout Japan, but two of its top three most profitable restaurants are not located on the main islands of Japan. They are in Okinawa, and, as this news report shows, they are successful because of the patronage of Americans stationed at the military bases there:
The main focus of the news report is on a CoCo Ichibanya located right outside of the gate of Kadena Airbase. When the reporter checks inside the restaurant, she finds that almost every single customer is American.
It is noted that the Americans have eating habits that differ slightly from typical Japanese customers. They really like to order lots of toppings for their curry, as well as consume a lot of the tsukemono (it’s free). Although the monthly total of customers who eat there is less than at CoCo Ichi restaurants in Tokyo, the Americans order more per meal, making it the most profitable Coco Ichi restaurant in Japan. [It may also have something to do with the fact that they are exchanging dollars to yen at a rate of 1 dollar=80 yen. Ouch.]
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The guy eating curry with chopsticks (2:43). What an idiot.
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I cannot stress this enough……curry house is the best reason to live in hawaii.
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Wouldn’t their consumption also be high due to requiring more calories to keep up with training? I don’t mean that in a rhetorical way as I honestly don’t know what daily routines are like at that base. If it is, I wonder if you’d get similar results by studying the eating habits of the (rough) Japanese equivalent?
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Sumo wrestlers eat toooo much!
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why the hell would they pay in $USD with a rate like that?
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They were laughing at her for using so much of that topping? That’s a soldier, not a citizen. Laugh all you like when your body is put through that much stress.
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nnn…not really. They laughed because she was using so much “fukujinduke” without knowing what it is. It’s pickles, which is usually used just as a foil for taste. But it may be good stuff for soldiers to supplement salt with that.
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Pickles is just food. Doesn’t matter how much or how little she eats it.
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Sure. But the point is she said she had no idea what it was while eating such amount. Please just imagine how you would feel if you found a man eating crazy amount of french fries at Macdonald’s and asked him how he liked it, then he answered, “Oh, I love this food so much! By the way what is this made from? Corn?”
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It’s actually not pickles, it’s a variety of the japanese version of “pickled” vegetables. One of my favorite toppings for the curry! Even good on hot dogs. It’s nothing like our pickle relish or pickles. So good!! miss it a ton! Good thing we have a local Asian market here, dirty looking but good enough for me! YUMM!!
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Coco Ichi is pretty good if you want a heaping calorie bomb (and sometimes, I do!)
I just wish they didn’t charge extra to make the curry actually spicy. From 100-200 yen extra just for them to add enough spice to get a bit of reaction from the tongue.
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fly away, little troll~
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I think some context would have made this article better. It’s important to note that nearly everything is a “topping” at Cocoichiban including things like a teaspoon of minced garlic or added spice. It doesn’t take long at 50-200 yen per “topping” to add in a lot more cost to the experience, whether the toppings add much in volume to the order or not.
My guess is that Americans don’t eat out at Japanese restaurants often (as there are American places on the bases that are much cheaper) and they don’t skimp on the occasions when they do eat at a Japanese place. It would essentially be a case where you’re doing something special so you get exactly what you want. Japanese people, on the other hand, see it as a pretty mundane experience and are likely more conservative with what they spend.
Personally, I love the pickles (tsukemono) as well. I like to mix them into the curry for a different taste. I don’t tend to need more than you are given in the bento boxes they give you for takeout, but I can see people wanting more.
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By the way, members of Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force eat curry EVERY FRIDAY. They are even showing the recipe on its official website.
http://www.mod.go.jp/msdf/formal/family/recipe/archive/currey.html
It’s interesting that each vessel has its taste respectively.
Is it only in Japan that marines teach cooking like this?
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The British Navy might do the same, since curry originated from them.
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I’m with CoCo..
It had to be done
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Hmmm…,
did the officials of US base in Okinawa pay for this report
in order to improve the images of their men and ladies
by showing they are curry loving humans just like Japanese???
Sorry, I could not help thinking this way, hehehe
BTW this is my favorite YouTube video
about CoCo curry in Okinawa and the US military men.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ0G2lrmXB4
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Very cute sign pops up – gaikokujin.
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Is this place open to everyone or just military personnel like TCBY and Sbarro in Yokosuka?
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It is off base, so it is open to everyone.
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Screamingly ignorant to keep referring to the restaurant as having gaikokujin (“darake” no less) after identifying them as American soldiers.
Imagine a news program about a Sizzler in South Carolina starting off “Hold the boat! There’s something very weird about this restaurant! It’s crawling with Orientals!” And after identifying them as the employees of the local Fujifilm plant, all from Japan, saying, “Wow, those Orientals sure have a weird way of visiting a salad bar!”
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Actually, I CAN imagine any news program in the U.S. highlighting a certain restaurant if in fact it was very popular with foreign tourists, including Japanese tourists (and they’d ask the tourists or find out why it was so popular).
People are naturally curious about ‘unusual’ or what we would deem ‘unusual’ things in life. No need to find racism or xenophobism in everything.
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To make your hypothetical situation analogous to this one the reporter would have to visit a restaurant in the US patronized nearly exclusively by Japanese nationals living nearby, and even after having learned their nationality, continue to refer to them as “foreigners”.
The problem isn’t reporting on the interesting and unusual fact that the top CoCoIchiban in Japan is frequented mostly by American soldiers, but rather that the report finds the most suitable noun to describe that very particular demographic is “foreigner”.
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To make your hypothetical situation analogous to this one the reporter would have to visit a restaurant in the US patronized nearly exclusively by Japanese nationals living nearby, and even after having learned their nationality, continue to refer to them as “foreigners”.
The reporter would not be incorrect in the least. Japanese nationals are, by definition, foreigners in the US.
The problem isn’t reporting on the interesting and unusual fact that the top CoCoIchiban in Japan is frequented mostly by American soldiers, but rather that the report finds the most suitable noun to describe that very particular demographic is “foreigner”.
Actually, they said “foreign customers”, but whatever. That is what they are, foreigners.
Non-issue, let’s move on.
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Sorry dude, but your response screams of rationalization. It’s totally an issue; I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to live here or, better yet, function in academia, but the blanket use of “foreigner” is a huge problem and reflects a disgusting insularity that is totally self-propagating.
And yeah, the fact that they used darake doesn’t help.
for reference:
だらけ
〘接尾〙名詞に付く。
１
それのために汚れたり、それが一面に広がったりしているさまを表す。「血—」「どろ—」
２
それがたくさんあるという意を表す。「傷—」「間違い—」「借金—」
☞ まみれ•みどろ
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Wonder if the Futenma base has to really move which I hope it won’t, what will happen to this Curry restaurant since most of their customers it seems are from that place in addition to the locals?
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As I can’t speak Japanese and therefore didn’t understand a single word of that video, I’m just gonna let it be known that I think the girl at 4:00 is really cute.
That is all.
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Everybody here at Yokota AB by Tokyo loves CoCo’s. It has nothing to do with needing more calories and everything to do with it being AMAZING. It changed my life.
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Curry changed your life? Must have had a pretty dull existence beforehand
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Is this part of the same Coco’s restaurant chain?
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Gotta ask
How did curry change your life? It had that much impact wow gotta hear this one
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Jee Wiz, what lazy journalist!!! Do a real story for crying out loud!!! This is a non- story. I guess the J- media ran out of ideas.
I will hae to agree that, for me that’s way too much fukujinzuke. You are killing the taste of the kare raisu.
If you are gonna put that much fukujinzuke, you might as well order a plateful of fukujinzuke and eat that instead.
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The previous post claims that what if it was the other way around.
I was told of the following by multiple people and you can decide for yourself:
1) some Nikkei acquaintances, despite being born in the US, when they spoke to ‘real Americans’ they are talked in a Charlie Chan or the David Carridane/Kung Fu accented English;
2) some Hispanic acquaintances, despite being US citizens, then they spoke to ‘real Americans’, they are talked in a Spanish accented, gramatically off English;
3) when some of my acquaintances spoke to ‘real Americans’, they were told, they spoke ‘good English’, despite being US citizens and some being born in the US.
The above situations do happen quite often and did the guy who made the claim acknowledged they happen or did he admit that they were wrong? NO.
Before he makes his critique, he needs to a little more homework
before making things sound as they were racists and it only happens in Japan.
I will agree that it is inevitable if people though that it was insensitive, but at the same time, it was explaining the reason why it is the most popular in Japan. The news reporting was insensitive, but people who spoke to my acquaintances were insensitive as well.
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It’s not real curry. Indians wouldn’t eat that shit.
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If you knew anything about curry, you’d know there is no such thing as real curry. Every household in India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Thailand, China, Japan, and everywhere else it’s made has a different recipe for the spice mix and what is made with it.
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Curry originated in India. If you say curry,most people will think of India. Anyway, Japanese Curry is crap and you are a pedant.
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That’s like saying yakiniku originated in America with BBQ. The concept of putting meat with fire is not unique to any one nationality or culture, although specific tastes and methods may differ.
Likewise, it’s pretty shortsighted to think that people in India were the first ones to ever think of putting meat together with spices, and that every other dish in the world that can be considered a “curry” is derivative of an Indian recipe. I’d be interested in seeing your report of specific individuals or trends in history (movement of religion, etc) that helped spread Indian curry throughout the world, and how every other curry recipe can be traced back to India.
It is of course true that in the modern vernacular, the word “curry” is associated with Indian cuisine — most likely because of spices that were only available in India which helped popularize the dish(es), and thus adoption of the Tamil word “kari” to identify the cuisine.
Also, thinking that your opinion is right and therefore the only one that matters is childish, and vocalizing it is an example of what we call “asshattery”.
Have a good day, sir!
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Hahah, oh my, so passionate about food.
Were you abused as a child by hot Japanese curry? Are there repressed memories of some childhood trauma involving scalding British curry?
And I suppose you refuse to eat any ramen or spaghetti because it’s an inferior plagiarism of egg noodle or whatever it was when it was invented in China
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From what I’ve heard, Indians who come to Japan generally consider Japanese curry to be a whole different kind of food from their real Indian curry, but generally like it nonetheless.
In a way, it reminds me of my attitude towards Japanese pizza …
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Imagine how the J biz would complain if all the troops where keep on base and not allowed off.
Happened at Ft Bragg in 70,s and not a $100 $50 to be seen in Fayettnam at that time 5th most dangerous place to live GI,s being rolled every day/night
Mayor begged for order to be lifted
If they what the troops in OKI gone (crime) sic
put civvie street OL
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This actually happened in 2007, I think we were on lock down for about 2 months. It was the longest 2 months ever with out my curry! Okay, ow is the longest 6 months I have had with out my curry since we just recently moved back to the states.
But yes the local places suffered a lot from the lack of americans off base.
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