Let's face it, the waft of homemade Japanese curry is irresistible. But to this house cat, curry rice is pure ecstasy.

Here, for your viewing enjoyment, are many more photos of a few different kinds of Japanese curry -- from smaller chain restaurants, cafeterias, and out-of-the-way places.

Above, the standard katsu/cheese combo at Curry Kitchen, abbreviated karekichi. Like Go Go Curry, it uses the ticket system -- you walk into the shop and use a vending machine to buy tickets that have your order printed on them, then hand the tickets over to the staff behind the counter when you sit down.

Combined with the fact that curry takes about five minutes to eat, it's a marvelously effective system: You go in, grab your tickets, sit down, are quickly served your food, then get out of there ten minutes later, max.

This is especially helpful when you consider that there's a Karekichi located right in the middle of Akihabara, making it a perfect quick lunch in the middle of a day full of videogame shopping.

It's a run-of-the-mill Japanese curry: Nothing special, but tasty, convenient, and infinitely customizable (provided you can read Japanese and work the ticket machine, I mean). It would win raves in the U.S., but compared to what's out there in the rest of the country, it's average.

I know what you're thinking: Kohler, does Japan make below-average curry? Of course. Here's an example. This is the katsu curry at Central Cafeteria, the eatery inside the Makuhari Messe convention center. This is where you go to escape the Tokyo Game Show for half an hour and recharge for the next half of the day.

It's not very good. You can tell just by looking at it. The sauce tastes like it came out of a can printed with the image of Chef Boyardee's Japanese uncle. Even the fukujinzuke pickles on the side are bland. The hile-katsu ("filet," as opposed to the fattier rosu that most pork cutlets are made from) are alright.

And really, what you need to know is that nothing in the Messe is very good to eat. That's one of the best things about Japanese curry: If you're faced with a selection of bad food, you can be pretty sure that the curry will be the least bad thing.

There's actually a food court of festival-type food stands on the Tokyo Game Show floor, if you want to eat really truly bad curry.

Here's a more upscale, but still convenient and affordable, curry. You may have heard legends about the basement floors of Japanese department stores, about how they are massive food-malls where delicacies of every concievable type are arrayed before you, where affluent Japanese housewives go to purchase gourmet ingredients for a lavish dinner.

All of these stories are completely true. Tokyo Roux, pictured above, sells to-go curry in the basement of a few different stores (this one is in tony Ebisu), with a variety of totally different sauces: Standard, spicy, flavored heavily with seafood, etc.

I was introduced to Tokyo Roux by the game designer Kenji Eno, and we ate it together in his office. While I did notice a couple of tables set up by Tokyo Roux's stall in the Ebisu department store, you probably would only want to buy this if you had somewhere else to go and eat it. I recommend Kenji Eno's office.

The photos above are from Manten, a little shop in the Jinbocho curry district of Tokyo. Jinbocho is the home of amazing "European curry" restaurants like Bondy, but Manten is more traditional.

The reason I went there a little over a year ago is because it's one of the highest-rated curry shops on Japan's Curry Database web site. Apparently, a friend told me, it's only rated that high because of how much food you get for the money -- not because it tastes very good. He was right. Manten is okay, and the lines out the door during the lunch rush (easily the longest I've ever waited for curry) clearly illustrate that there's an appeal here for the salarymen of Jinbocho, but I wasn't really impressed.

Finally, there's Homemade Curry Time, which will probably also be familiar to Tokyo Game Show travelers as there's one in Akihabara right by the Electric Town exit and one in the Kaihim-Makuhari train station near the show itself.

Much like Curry Kitchen, it's a decent if unspectacular ticket-based curry shop that hits the spot when you need it, but not the sort of place you'd visit if you weren't under pressure to find curry immediately so you can get back to videogames.

Homemade Curry Time also has "spicy black curry," a hot roux that's so deep brown it looks black. Interesting if you're looking to experiment -- or if you've eaten the normal stuff every day and want to change it up a little.

"Popping open the can releases a distinct curry aroma, even if the insides don’t really look like it. Or taste like it: The liquid inside the can is very thin and the faux rice is completely bland. The miscellaneous bits of curry don’t have any distinguishing flavors. The ingredients include chicken, carrots, mushrooms and garlic but each spoonful tasted the same to me: tomato, tomato and tomato."

I don't know if I approve. Is it possible for Japan to create a curry so weird that even I would not eat it? Maybe.

Osaka's Nerd District Offers Curry Rice in Cans [Wired.com]

Is there anything particularly European about it -- more so than regular Japanese curry, I mean, which entered the country through English cuisine? Not that I can see. My experiences with "European curry" have simply been that the ingredients are top-quality and the flavors much more robust. You'll pay a little more -- more like $15-18 for one person versus less than $10 at a typical curry lunch counter -- but for the serious curry aficionado on a trip to Japan, it's more than worth it.

I covered a small lunch place called Mitsuboshi, which bills itself as "French curry," on Wired.com last month.

I'd also recommend Bondy, with locations all around Tokyo.

Tokyo Curry Mania: Mitsuboshi's "French Curry" in Nakano [Wired.com]

Japanese language version: 日本滞在レポート：『ミツボシ』の欧風カレー [Wired Vision]

These days, Kanazawa curry -- known for a sweet brown sauce made with caramel among other unique ingredients -- has been making a name for itself in Akihabara, Tokyo's electronics/otaku district, where three different restaurants are now open within about 100 meters of each other serving different takes on K-curry.

One of them is Go Go Curry, naturally.

I wrote about this development for Wired.com on a recent trip to Japan. Check it out!

Tokyo Curry Mania: Kanazawa Curry Takes Over Akihabara [Wired.com]

Japanese language version: 日本滞在レポート:「金沢カレー」の探究　[Wired Vision]

There was certainly no lack of restaurants trying to create Japanese curry, that's for sure. There are many Japanese places in the city center, but they largely focus on ramen. A few of them, though, serve chicken katsu curry -- just chicken, never pork.

Wagamama, which also has some locations on the U.S. east coast, features the bizarre monstrosity above: A thin lukewarm chicken katsu, a football-shaped mound of rice, and cold, unappetizing yellow curry that tasted much more Indian than Japanese. All this for just €12.95, about US$18.

Wagamama was actually quite popular with Dubliners on their lunch breaks. I got in right around noon, and immediately after I sat down a massive lunch rush piled in, lining up all the way up the stairs and straight out the door. And lest you think me a fool for ordering the curry at a noodle shop, may I point out that Wagamama was selling tons of curry. People apparently loved it. Oh, Ireland... if only you knew.

Yamamori Noodles, located just across the Liffey river north of Temple Bar, wasn't that much better. At least their chicken katsu curry (€12) was a nice brown color and tasted Japanese. The katsu itself, like Wagamama's, was not very warm and pounded thin. But the big disappointment was that there was, like, a tablespoonful of curry sauce on the plate. As if it were ketchup on a burger.

Luckily, Yamamori sells extra curry sauce for only €.50 (about 70 cents), and I was handed a comparatively huge bowl of curry. So there's a fix for that issue.

Still, though, having tried Dublin's two most prominent Japanese restaurants, my advice would be to avoid trying to find J-curry here in the first place.

I never did try it, but the concept doesn't sound so strange when you're a curry junkie. Okay, maybe the name sounds a bit too much like the "Good Morning Burger" from The Simpsons, but look: Eggs! Vegetables! Really, how else would you start off your day but with curry?

Karen and I have, of course, had curry for breakfast before, but not at a restaurant. Just leftover curry from the night before, which tastes even better because all the flavors have had eight hours to hang out and get to know each other.

Going back to Tokyo next week. Maybe I'll pass by this again. Maybe this time I'll do it.

On a recent return trip to Volcano, I found that a lot had changed. The curry didn't taste that much different, but it was all arranged properly, on real dinnerware with metal utensils. It made the experience so much better that I felt Volcano needed to be re-rated. I'd actually recommend it to people, now.

(Unfortunately, the cheese is still placed on top of the katsu and not in the sauce, which isn't really where it's supposed to go.)

While I've left our original review intact -- you can't erase the Internet any more than you can unring a bell -- I've changed it from a "2" to a "3".

If you Americurry readers ever think we should go back and re-review a restaurant's curry because significant changes have been made, for good or for ill, please let us know!

The real attraction, thought, is most definitely its cafeteria. Pack into the shuttle bus at Port Authority and endure the bumpy and sometimes lengthy ride to Edgewater, NJ, and you'll find a cafeteria full of authentic Japanese cuisine from ramen to beef bowls. There's one exception: curry. But, as I discovered during one random Wednesday excursion, that curry can be found in one of the store's food vendors, Kayaba.

The Kayaba weekday curry special is just six dollars, considerably less than the going rate in the city. Your six bucks get you a ridiculously gigantic plate filled to the brim with curry and rice, considerably more than what those aforementioned establishments will offer. There are no toppings to choose from -- sorry, breaded pork cutlet fans -- but it doesn't matter, since what's provided is more than enough and then some. Aside from the gigantic portion, one will find huge chunks of potato and carrots in the mix, and meat lovers will be happy to know that nice cuts of chicken are also part of the roux as well. As for the sauce itself, one will instantly fall in love with the sweet flavoring, nice and smooth with a hint of honey.

Initially, one will simply have a ball with the pure spectacle of it all, but halfway through is when reality settles in. As pleasant as the sauce is, it's also on the thin side: I don't want to use the term "watery," since it's not that bad, but it's still easily the thinnest sauce I've personally encountered. The roux is very much on the mild side and there's no way to bump up the spiciness. You may find yourself struggling to finish the plate, not just due to the volume of food but the fact that it's just boring.

Still, Kayaba's curry has value. It's sort of like what you'd find at an all night curry house in Tokyo near a train station... just not one of the best ones. Still, definitely worth a shot, at least once. Just save yourself some room for Mitsuwa's array of fine desserts..

Japan is full of oddly themed eateries but Usagi to Cafe really is a bizarre, albeit adorable, venture. Almost everything in Usagi to Cafe is rabbit themed- from the wall decor to the rabbit-shaped curry...but the main attraction is live rabbits.  Eighteen "staff rabbits" are available for petting and cuddling before or after meals. Guests are even allowed to bring their own bunnies to "mingle" with the staff.  BYOB, guys! An ITN news feature video clip:

Usagi to Cafe's website also features a squeal-worthy photo and stats gallery of their staff bunnies. Check out this little guy here (his name is Melon!):

Next time you're in Japan, hop on over to Usagi to Cafe to enjoy a nice steaming plate of Japanese curry along with cuddly rabbit pals.

• Usagi to Cafe's Official Website
• Bunny Petting Catches on in Japanese Cafe [New Tang Dynasty Television]