Part of my choice of one of the two Japanese restaurants was a desire not to do any more walking than necessary. Mitsukoshi Teppanyaki Dining Room did look interesting, however. As the name implies, it is actually a room within the Japan exhibit with large grills where the cooks prepare the food in front of you. The restaurant was quite packed, and maybe other people were thinking as I was that at least we would get a decent amount of food for the money we were spending.

Much of the appeal of teppanyaki food is the "experience" you get by watching the cook prepare the food at the grill in front of your table. Actually the most pleasant part of the meal was being able to talk to some other people at the table after spending the day among thousands of strangers. I suppose this alone might make it worthwhile to eat here.

The Teppan Grilled Vegetable dish I ordered, though, was quite bland without the type of flavors I normally find in Japanese food, even teppan food that seems to be more of an American tradition than a Japanese one. I strongly suspect the meat and shrimp dishes tasted better than the vegetable one, and this is frequently the case in Japanese restaurants throughout America's heartland. I did not expect food at one of the country's leading tourist attractions to be this disappointing, however. I think I was as much let down by the food here as I was pleased with China's 9 Dragons.

One good point is that if you're still in the Japan exhibit at 10:00 PM you can go outside on the balcony and watch the fireworks that are set off every night. I was there on a day when it rained constantly, but the fireworks seem to take place regardless of the weather.