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Field Guide to Weird Japanese Pizza
Japan is a place of international culture and adaption of forign influances into the market place. It is a place were you can buy almost anything.
Western style fast food has been there since the early 1960s. With KFC being the first western fast food group to strike it big in Japan. Co. Sanders is probably more recognized in Tokyo than he is in Seattle.
Pizza parlors have gotten popular in Japan but the dish did not go over there without mutating into a bizarre cross cultural culinary explosion of funky flavors. Just think about how weird Japanese video games can get and then imagine what their pizza could be like.
It is true that American pizza bears very little resemblance to the traditional Italian dish and my step dad who grew up in Chicago still laments at how all pizza outside the windy city just does not cut the mustard.
Some of the weirder things that you can get on a pizza in Japan are
mayonnaise
broccoli
corn
shrimp
squid
zucchini
squash
boiled eggs
tuna
octopus
potatoes
eel
I have not seen any of this in years since I was in Japan almost ten years ago nor have I found a place that sells Japanese style pizza in the US.
The following links came to me from the Japanese video game magazine Famitsu that I got at the International District of Seattle. You can use Bable Fish to translate them into English if you are so inclined.
Chicago Pizza Factory
I dig the hungry Italian mobster guy who they have as their cartoon spokes person and their square Pizza Bento box lunches.
Pizza-La
The deliver!... In Japan only.. damn. I need to defect MegaTokyo style.
Pizza Hut Japan
The Japanese arm of the Pepsico owned Giant. Since KFC is a national staple in Japan it is no surprise that Pizza Hut would show up in Japan. Check out the Korean Purokogi style Pizza. Kim-chee on pizza... it is so crazy that is might work. I love their Idaho Special pizza is covered in Potatoes when absolutely noone in the US state of Idaho puts potatoes on their pizza.
Domino's Pizza Japan
It looks like they have Domino's Pizza in Japan but my question is if the Japanese branch sucks as much as the US one. I don't consider the US Domino's Pizza to be even close to edible. The Japanese eggplant and bacon pizza looks interesting.
Pizza California
I don't know of any place in California who makes pizza like this but I consider the entire state to be insane so I am not ruling it out. Hey they got Cheese Fondue so any place that is down with Fondue can't be all that bad.
Pizza Royal Hat
Looks like the place to go for eggs and shrimp pizza. I guess Royal Crown Pizza would be infringing on Royal Crown Cola.
Pizza Station
This place gets props for actually using the colors of the Italian flag as their corporate colors. This place looks the most traditional and Italian. Until I saw that they have a crust with Hot Dogs in the edge. Weird!
Strawberry Cones Pizza
In all truth their Matsutake Mushroom Pizza is looking pretty tasty. The rest of their menu looks just as surreal as the rest of the pack.
Pizza 10.4
Here is hoping their pizza is not as bad as their website. I have a hard time taking websites that do not have a dedicated domain registered. At least it has an English section.
To summarize Japan is a very cool and sometimes weird place. It is an international culture who is not afraid of taking inspiration from the rest of the world and adapting it to a localized taste.
The Japanese versions of western food is not bound by the traditions of the west. So why not put shrimp, mayonnaise and corn on a pizza?
Jake at September 14, 2003 
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Comments
heh, shrimp and brocolli sounds great :)
Posted by: Branille at September 14, 2003 7:00 PM
MAN!!!!
that
http://www.chicago-pizza.com/
website looks too tasty to be imagined! I like the way that the Japanese package thier stuff. It is so colorful! The pics really make me hungry and tonight I have a Papa Murphy's pizza to dig into that is gonna be KICKASS!
This is just too perfect to be imagined....reading 8bit articles that are all about pizza and having one in your posession is just too cool because it is like the Japanese word "satory" (translation: A moment of clarity).
Hey, has anyone read the hagakure besides me? It is a really cool book that is banned in japan but can be found here in the U.S.. It is the way of the Samurai. Mine has dog eared pages and is all beat up. It even has a paper-bag cover to protect it that I made....just like a book cover from high school. Remember, it is not a religion but, rather, a way. (of thinking)
"I highly recommend it to you all. I command you to read the following links..."
-Yamamoto Tsunetomo
(not a real quote but pretend that it is)
http://www.hut.fi/~renko/hag1.html
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/4770011067/103-7499721-1866219?v=glance
Posted by: pete at September 14, 2003 9:37 PM
I remember the Japanese version of a hamburger. Paper-thin meat, LOTS of ketchup and way too many pickles.
Posted by: NetKahuna at September 14, 2003 9:47 PM
Pointless pizza fact: The first Antartic pizza-delivery was in January 1997. The first company to deliver a pizza in Antartica is: 'Eagle Boys Dial-a-Pizza'. It took them 9 hours to bring 6 pizza's from Christchurch, New Zealand to McMurdo, Antartica. Funny thing is Eagle Boys were brought out by Pizza Hut a couple years later.
Speaking of which, my family was going to have pizza tonight, but I wasn't prepared to have crispy base so the idea was canned when I was prepared to fight for it.
Posted by: Matt at September 14, 2003 9:51 PM
Matt I did know that about the Pizza being flown from New Zealand to Antartica.. and for that the world is in the debt of the Kiwis... that and they gave the world Peter Jackson
Posted by: Jake at September 14, 2003 9:57 PM
Yum. Pizza-La pizzas. I've tried some of the pizzas with about 3/4 of what's on your list (of course, not all of the ingredients on one pizza), and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It would be pretty interesting to see a Japanese pizza maker in the states.
Posted by: Richie at September 15, 2003 4:53 AM
I rikey pizza.
Posted by: Jeff at September 15, 2003 11:44 AM
Jeff no one in Japan says "rikey"
But if you said
Nippon no Piza Iciban da ze!!!! SAIKOOOOOO!!
that would be on the money.
Posted by: Jake at September 15, 2003 12:10 PM
Pizza-La does indeed rock, their pizza can be ordered so incredibly spicy.. Also I think they will start letting you order beer for delivery.
Posted by: Matt at September 15, 2003 12:25 PM
Yeah beer delivery just became legal in Japan. ( http://www.pizzamarketplace.com/news_story.htm?i=16723 )
Now that is the conveniences of capitalism
Posted by: Jake at September 15, 2003 12:34 PM
Man o Man. When is Pizza Hut going to do that Hot Dog stuffed crust? That looks like a wiener.
Posted by: bob at September 15, 2003 2:10 PM
pizza in brazil is weird too...they rarely have tomato sauce on them :)
Posted by: lil at September 15, 2003 2:52 PM
I remember we ordered pizza from Domino Pizza in Tokyo and it was quite good except that they've put soo many different stuff on it that it was too much for me.
However your list of ingredients isn't so strange for putting on a pizza here in Germany then.
Posted by: dr_colossus of dataleak at September 16, 2003 9:35 AM
Corn and tuna aren't that weird. In my country we have pizza with pineapples (Hawaian Pizza).
Pizza Hut in Osaka has pizza with cheese and hot dog stuffed crust. Ask for the "Dream 4" pizza
Posted by: Lorena at September 19, 2003 11:28 AM
Pizza with pineapple is quite popular in the US. Well in the US we would never put corn on pizza and they only sea food that you can put on pizza is Anchoves and not everyone likes them. I do.
Posted by: Jake at September 19, 2003 11:31 AM
Shrimp and Pine nut pizza is awesome
Posted by: Rob at September 29, 2003 12:30 AM
I was lucky enough to try one of these pizzas while visiting Japan, I tried the corn and mayo pizza, and it was good!!!
Posted by: wes at January 30, 2004 7:56 PM
As an Italian I can only say that Japanese pizza is not more weird (werdier?) than american pizza, so just stick with it ;)
Posted by: Luca at July 20, 2004 2:38 PM
Broccoli is a common optional ingredient in the U.S.
Posted by: Mlmd at March 1, 2007 10:18 AM
