First off, I must apologize for my delayed response this time. Some rapscallion in Jakarta nabbed my new laptop, which spent more time being shipped to me than in my possession. Classy touch, replacing it with three 2008 issues of Indonesia’s Cosmopolitan magazine.
Anyway, a visit to Kobe, Japan a few months ago was based primarily on the assumption that bakeries would be on every block, the eponymous cattle truly did lead a better life than local train commuters and its Chinatown was far cleaner than anything China is typically known for. Indeed, my hotel was coincidentally by a baking school, and in the Chinatown (in Japan they are known as 中華街 chuukagai) street food was clean enough even the Chinese were digging in. Can’t really comment about the steak though; I walk for many hours at a time when traveling somewhere, even in places that lack sidewalks, so padding my innards with marbled cow wasn’t on the menu.
Wandering about has taken me to (including, but definitely not limited to) slums, motels, hypermarkets, on-ramps, train tracks, and shopping malls, both with and without dignity. A pair of Kobe shopping centers I ambled through housed two likely unrelated but remarkably sentient clothing stores:
Am I reading too much into this couple? Yes. This must be a case of, it’s not a Japanese word so let’s do something with it. The owners did earn gold stars for creativity though. If these were names at a food court instead, I’d think something was up.
Do you frequently come across stores with silly names? (it might be more applicable if you are in East Asia, but hey, they could be anywhere) Think you could do them one better?
buildingmybento 
Try going to Southeast Asia, too! I am living in the Philippines and some stores here are really named silly/funny for advertising purposes.
I used to live in Jakarta, and have traveled through SEAsia quite a lot. I typically like big cities with good street food, but Manila only seemed to offer balut and garlic peanuts. What did I miss?!
Pity about your computer. And double pity that they didn’t “replace” it with something more useful than Indonesian Cosmo. But glad to see you back.
How expensive is this place? Just came back from Hong Kong and the prices kinda scared me 😛
It can be as expensive as you’d like it to be:) I stocked up on food at convenience stores and walked everywhere, including to/from my distant-from-everything hotel. Where did you stay in HK?