Ahhh the buffet, how I had missed it. We went to a buffet restaurant on sunday. It was an unusual eating affair by japanese standards. For the most part japanese restaurants are sullen and over-polite, not necessarily welcoming in the American way. However, there's something about buffet style eating that really makes people behave like americans around their food; huge piles of fried things, mountainous salads and long ques when the specialty dishes are brought out. Maybe that's why they call it "viking" meals. That sort of atavistic eating behaviour is rather rough and tumble compared to the rest of the japanese eating experience.
As might be expected, I gorged myself to an uncomfortable level of fullness and felt like puking for a good 2 hours afterword. It is honestly so nice to do something like that after trying for months to keep my composure around the small serving sizes offered here.