A new Japanese restaurant is one of many to open in East Lansing in the past year targeting students as its main customers.

B & B Café, 553 E. Grand River Ave., offers a new breed of Japanese dining called fusion, which embodies a Westernized atmosphere.

The café is a mix between a coffeeshop and a Japanese restaurant, Manager James Kong said.

"It's a totally new concept that is famous in California," Kong said, adding that he was lucky to find a location after spending a year in Ann Arbor trying to open a similar restaurant.

"You don't see anything Japanese except the food items."

The café opened on Sept. 22 and offers a variety of bento boxes, bubble tea, Japanese snacks, sushi boxes and fried ice cream, with prices ranging from $1 to $15.

Pop music plays on the stereo of the restaurant, which is decorated with squishy red leather furniture and vibrant colors.

The relaxed atmosphere is geared toward MSU students, Kong said.

"We want to provide a relaxing place for young people to study or read magazines or newspapers," he said.

And after 10 p.m., the music is turned up "kind of like a disco," Kong said.

While her restaurant doesn't offer a dance-hall atmosphere, Sami Jun, manager of Sushi-Ya, 124 W. Grand River Ave., said she was also attracted to East Lansing because of MSU.

The restaurant opened last May.

"MSU has a variety of cultures and I think students here are willing to try new things," Jun said.

Hiroshi Tamimoto, manager of the 16-year-old Murasaki Restaurant, 116 Bailey St., said the trend of Japanese cuisine is "slowly sneaking into the Midwestern area."

"It's becoming more popular because of familiarity," he said.

But B & B Café employee Ami Perreault didn't try Japanese food until she began serving it.

"I like it because it's a fresh, new taste," the studio art freshman said.

"It's not as filling or as greasy as the other places."

General business administration freshman Jane Kim is a common customer to Japanese restaurants and said her favorite dish is sushi.

"It's fun to look at when they make it," she said. "It's a good treat."

And bubble tea is the perfect complement to her meals, she said.

"It tastes fruity with bubbles on the bottom, but it's not really bubbles," she said.

"A lot of Asian people like it for that taste. Others will like it if they want to taste something new."

Staff writer Esther Gim contributed to this report.