Japanese Seasonal Pizza?

[SHAD0W]

I was listening to some Japanese audio lessons and the Sensei reccomended ordering atleast once during every season in Japan as they vary immensely. Hamami time for example (and I'm quoting here) would mean that every Pizza menu has "Sakura Sakura" and they go as far as putting strawberries and other things, on Pizza.

How close to the truth is this?
Has any body experienced some wild pizza types?
Got any photos?

I'd love to know what JF can reccomend!

[JohnBraden]

I had a potato and mayonnaise pizza once at a Shakey's Pizza Place in Higashi Shinjuku.... Warm mayonnaise, yum!

[MMM]

I don't remember seeing pizzas that were seasonal to the season, but there were always rotating specials. Strawberries? wow.

[Nyororin]

There is some seasonal variation in pizzas, but not to that extent. Think crab in winter (during the crab season), spring vegetables during spring, etc etc. Certainly not anything like strawberries (unless it`s a dessert pizza, but that is something else entirely).

Think more like the vegetables that are "in season" or flavors based on traditional seasonal dishes.

[RickOShay]

Originally Posted by SHAD0W

I was listening to some Japanese audio lessons and the Sensei reccomended ordering atleast once during every season in Japan as they vary immensely. Hamami time for example (and I'm quoting here) would mean that every Pizza menu has "Sakura Sakura" and they go as far as putting strawberries and other things, on Pizza.

How close to the truth is this?
Has any body experienced some wild pizza types?
Got any photos?

I'd love to know what JF can reccomend!

Never seen stawberries, but it would not surprise me. Japanese, by
Western standards put some "weird" stuff on pizza. Personally for me Japanese pizza on the whole does not compare to the pizza I grew up eating in America. Or better said, I have yet to find a really good pizza in Japan for a decent price. Or even a decent pizza for a fair price.

That is not to say I have not had awesome pizza here, but it was tiny, and comparatively expensive to an equally good tasting pizza I could get back home.

[SHAD0W]

I only ate pizza twice in Japan and each time it was the same size as what I'm used to here?

On another note, the teacher thought that Hawaiian Pizza (Ham and Pineapple) was exclusive to Japan and used that as an example of "strange" pizza, but we have that here too?

Crab meat pizza does sound awesome though! Anyone else got any good ones?

[RealJames]

https://www.pizza-la.co.jp/MenuList.aspx?ListId=Pizza

that's where I always order from, have a look

aside from all the friggen corn on the pizza it's basically the same as I'm used to, what's up with corn everywhere?!
if you like corn Japan is the country for you...

[gelianque]

haha i would also like to know what's the deal with corn on pizza XD

I remember that one event when we first ate at Gusto, the waitress got my order wrong and gave me a corn & mayo pizza..... I stared at it for a few seconds and thought "Ugh... nevermind, I'm too hungry to care."

about seasonal pizzas, i never heard about it though trying those with "weird" toppings might be fun too ^^

[RickOShay]

Originally Posted by SHAD0W

I only ate pizza twice in Japan and each time it was the same size as what I'm used to here?

On another note, the teacher thought that Hawaiian Pizza (Ham and Pineapple) was exclusive to Japan and used that as an example of "strange" pizza, but we have that here too?

Crab meat pizza does sound awesome though! Anyone else got any good ones?

Typically if you order from a place like pizza-la (the link James provided) a large is a decent size, but it is still smaller than a large at some places I could order from back in the states. In addition it is many times nearly double the price that I would pay back home if I ordered a speciality pizza. Taste is decent, but for me its nothing still nothing to write home about. Just my opinion though. And if you go to an cheap "italian" restaurant here more often than not, the pizza is skimpily topped on a paper thin crust, and is pretty small, price is usually decent though.

The best pizza I have had in Japan was not even at a pizza place. It was at restaurant/bar in a fairly small town, that does not really have a theme I think. The owner is very well traveled and is a fricking awesome chef. I have never had a bad meal, or even a meal that did not impress me at his place.

Basically this pizza was baked on a sesame seed crust (sounds weird but trust me), his ingredients are great quality, and for some reason I was really impressed watching him slice the meat for my pizza in front of me, with a meat slicer he had behind the bar (again this is not even a pizza place). The only drawback was the price and size, like 1200-1500 yen for what I would consider a mini. But it was awesome.

[Nyororin]

I have found that the big name delivery pizza places in Japan are pretty pathetic. Aoki`s and Pizza-La have never been anything above mediocre, so I never order from them.
Domino's Japan is iffy. Pizza Hut is kind of close to their US counterpart.

Smaller delivery places tend to be much better. Our local delivery place is pretty good, although there is no shortage of strange toppings. (Corn, mochi, octopus, burdock, etc...) We just don`t order them.

If you want *Italian* pizza though - Japan is GREAT. There are countless small restaurants with stone ovens making the greatest pizzas.

It is my understanding that the standard toppings like corn came about because when pizzas first started being sold on US military bases in the 60s, the regular toppings being sold in the US were too expensive to import and keep fresh... So the type of cheese was changed and inexpensive vegetable toppings that kept well (ie. in a can) were used. This ended up making corn a staple. Pizza places started off base used the same topping lineup (As that was "pizza" in their experience). As pizzas have always had corn on them here, to the average person in Japan that IS the standard pizza.