Yesterday I went to my father-in-laws place of work, Sendai Hotel, for an excellent and expensive buffet. It was fantastic to say the least. All of the food was really high quality, and plus there was unlimited beer to drink. I drank almost 4 litres!
They also had some carnival like games. I found out that I’m a crack shot with a cork gun in the target shooting game. Even after ingesting large amounts of beer. Now you might be wondering why I called this post “The Viking”. Well Japanese people don’t usually say buffet, they call it a viking. No doubt due to it’s links to the Swedish tradition of smorgasbord.
In Sendai 
>buffet, they call it a viking
Yeah, smorgasbord is called “viking in Japan.
(In Japanese writing, it’s spelled differently though. 「バイキング」 is “viking” (smorgasbord), and 「ヴァイキング」 is “viking” (the Scandinavian warriors).
“Buffet” is usually written 「バフェー」 or 「食べ放題」 (tabehoudai).
I like how most Japanese people don’t realize the difference between vikings and pirates. It’s quite humorous.
the difference between vikings and pirates??
Mmmm…I don’t know.
Oh no!
This is hilarious!
The Vikings were pirates of sorts. They were Scandinavian explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the late eighth to the early eleventh century.
A pirate is a person who commits warlike acts at sea without the authorization of any nation. That could be a person from any place or time period. The most famous of these were the Caribbean pirates in the 1600s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy_in_the_Caribbean
I like it on Japanese variety shows when they go a a “Viking” they dress up like Johnny Depp in the Pirates movies. Hilarious.
4 LITERS??
I am impressed my friend. What other carnival games did they have there? We should have tried this when we visited, but alas, I think only 1 gaijin is all they could handle… 🙂
They had mini putt, Wii sport home run game, and a ring toss. I was the only gaijin at the whole thing. I agree, two would of destroy their profit margin.
Hi, I am a Japanese and have been living in Sendai for more than 10 years, but have never had a chance to enjoy the バイキング. That sounds fun! I should try.
By the way, in Japanese, “Buffet” is usually written 「ブッフェ」 instead of 「バッフェー」:-)
You should definitely try it. I had so much fun! Of course I went for free so that makes it even more fun.