While most Japanese would choke at the high prices of "kaisen-don" seafood rice bowls, the weak yen is whetting the appetites of foreign tourists such as Orr Israeli Dayan and Omer Dayan.

“In Israel, they cost 1.5 times as much,” Omer said. “I don’t think they are expensive.”

In February, Toyosu Senkyaku Banrai, a commercial facility with more than 50 eateries, opened on Tokyo’s waterfront, adjacent to the Toyosu Market.

When the line-ups of expensive menu items were revealed, many Japanese quickly made fun of them on social media, naming them “inbaun-don” (inbound-donburi).

But the prices failed to dampen the appetites of Orr Israeli Dayan, 28, and Omer Dayan, 30, who came to Japan from Israel on their honeymoon.

On the afternoon of April 17, the couple were enjoying a seafood bowl that costs more than 5,000 yen ($32), which included big fatty tuna “otoro” and salmon, and sushi for about 3,000 yen, at the facility.

They said they would stay for three weeks in Japan on a budget of about 1 million yen.

“Japan is a good country to travel to,” Omer said.

Poh Meng Quek, 52, who came from Singapore, was enjoying a 2,900-yen kaisen-don at the facility with his work colleague Suzanne Lim, 63.

“It is very nice to be able to eat fresh, delicious fish at such a reasonable price,” Poh said.

He came to Japan before the COVID-19 pandemic. This time, Poh said, it felt comparably inexpensive, which is why he was frequently splurging on a taxi.

In six days, he spent more than 600,000 yen, including hotel costs.

According to the Japan National Tourism Organization, the number of foreign visitors to Japan in March was 3,081,600, a record high for a single month.

Statistics from the Japan Tourism Agency shows that travel spending by foreigners visiting Japan from January to March this year totaled 1.7505 trillion yen, a record high on a quarterly basis.

Per capita spending for the same period was 208,760 yen, 41.6 percent more than the same period in pre-COVID 2019.

High-priced food and products continue to appear in tourist destinations around Japan and are being devoured voraciously by foreign visitors.

Yukio Takagi, 61, who runs the seafood restaurant Totoya Takagi at Toyosu Senkyaku Banrai, is aware of the inbaun-don criticism from locals.

But he said, “I want people to eat (our food) before judging.”

The restaurant offers more than 10 types of kaisen-don. Of these, 60 percent of foreign customers order the most expensive offering priced at 7,800 yen.

The dish includes raw pieces of otoro big fatty tuna, chutoro medium fatty tuna, akami red tuna, tai sea bream, and kanpachi greater amberjack on a bed of vinegared sushi rice, accompanied by seasonal ingredients, such as hotaruika firefly squid and sakuraebi shrimp.

Takagi said the eye-watering price tag is justified.

“We cut the raw tuna into thick slices and serve arajiru fish soup, too.”

The cost to sales ratio is about 40 percent, and the restaurant does not raise its prices to take advantage of the inbound market, he said.

He also said that 70 percent of the customers are Japanese.

“If we don’t first get the support of the locals, we won’t be able to last,” he said.

The trend of higher prices is reaching the countryside as well.

Arabica Shokudo opened in late March in Kyoto’s Higashiyama Ward. It is a new business operated by a popular coffee shop in Kyoto, Arabica Kyoto.

Catering to visitors from around the world, Arabica Shokudo offers a traditional Japanese breakfast for 4,800 yen. The menu consists of one soup and three dishes.

The main dish is gindara saikyo-yaki (cod fillet marinated in saikyo miso sauce and grilled), made using only the finest ingredients and methods. It is served with freshly cooked rice, miso soup and Kyoto’s shibazuke pickles.

Just before serving, the chef melts the miso for the miso soup and shaves katsuobushi bonito flakes for the side dishes.

Reservations are required for the breakfast.

“The dollar equivalent is $31," said Keiichi Kobayashi, 52, the restaurant manager. "Coffee is included, so actually the meal is $26.”

He explained the pricing, “Because 80 percent of our customers are foreigners, we set our prices for overseas customers.”

Nishi-no-Miyabi Tokiwa, an inn located in the Yuda Onsen hot spring resort in central Yamaguchi, recently added two meal courses to its cuisine offerings.

One is a course including a suppon soft-shelled turtle dish, priced at 27,000 yen per person. The other is a set meal including yakiniku grilled on a kawara tile, priced at 17,000 yen per person.

The number of foreign tourists to Yuda Onsen has been increasing due to the depreciation of the yen.

In January, the city of Yamaguchi was selected by The New York Times for its 52 Places to Go This Year list. The article touted the city's Yuda Onsen, further boosting the popularity of the resort.

In the month of March, the inn had a record 864 foreign visitors, which accounted for about 22 percent of all guests.

Until then, the percentage of foreign visitors had been in the 10-percent range at most, according to the inn.

Kazuya Miyagawa, president of the inn, said, “This is an increase that we have never felt before.”

He said, “With the Osaka Expo coming up next year, I expect the number of visitors to continue to grow.”

In the shadow of the inbound boom, Japanese are feeling left out.

A 55-year-old male government employee who lives in Tokyo’s Shinagawa Ward was at the Toyosu Senkyaku Banrai facility and saw the prices of kaisen-don dishes.

He said, “I was like, What the …?! This is an inbound price, isn’t it?”

A 70-year-old male dairy farmer who lives in Asakura, Fukuoka Prefecture, came with him.

The dairy farmer said, “If we ate the same thing in Fukuoka, the price would not be this high.”

“But this is Tokyo. We have no choice,” the dairy farmer said in resignation.

“Kaisen-don is for people from overseas. For us, it is too expensive,” he said, while gorging on an 850-yen onigiri rice ball with tuna and avocado, along with a 500-yen beer to wash it down.

(This article was written by Akihito Ogawa, Risako Miyake and Amane Shimazaki.)