The basement of my favoritely-named ‘Nihon Building’ (I love the banality) contains all sort of sad little places. Here’s another one, to go with a sad rainy day. Rainy days, Mondays and anorexia always get me down. It’s a good thing today is Tuesday even though it’s the first day of the week. Things start […]
Month: July 2009
Marvelous Cream, Yurakucho
After any good lunch, one needs a good ice cream. This place has been lightly on the radar for a while, but is out of the way by my usual standards, being on the far side of Yurakucho (practically in Hibya Park). It’s the same concept as Coldstone Creamery but…well, I’m not that sure what’s […]
Enoteca – The Lounge, Marunouchi (Yurakucho)
Do you like wine? It’s OK either way, but if you do, I think you must have been to or at least heard of the Enoteca chain. With 30 locations nationwide to serve you and 12 just in Tokyo (my favorites are the Tokyo Station’s specialty ‘champagne and half-bottles’ shop and the Marunouchi ‘Lounge’ shop […]
Kappabashi 1
A special post inspired by the thematic things I saw on Yukari‘s site recently. Kappabashi is a frequently-mentioned tourist destination in food circles (just after Tsukiji, which seems to be #1 on every tourist’s list), and there are a few stores that I always end up going back to. Here’s a general feel for the […]
- Asakusa
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Tsunezushi, Asakusa (常寿司)
There are few things better than getting buried in an old neighborhood and popping randomly in to a nice place to eat. No? In Tokyo there are whole magazines devoted to this peculiar pastime, but all you really need is a train pass and a good nose for restaurants. I love trying to interpret the […]
Pagliaccio, Marunouchi
This, I like to think, is the Olive Garden done for Tokyo. I know we already have Saizeriya and Popola Mama, but how else should you describe it when a chain specializing in Chinese restaurants (which I love, btw – tantanmen and gyoza) branches out into Italian? The difference, as you’ll be expecting, is that […]
- Other treats
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Kidori, Tokyo (紀どり,東京駅北町ほろよい通り)
Today I was thinking of Italian, but Zoner said ‘Fish’, and this popped into mind after I had seen it just yesterday. I may be re-calculating my remarks about the relative sadness of this 2nd-floor area of Tokyo Station, because the shops seems to be OK (if a little sad. Ooops, there I go again!) […]
- Chinese
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Toushe, Tokyo (多謝,北町ほろよい通り)
Japan is a different country, and there are different attitudes toward a number of things (plus they have a different word for everything!). One of the really weird ones there is…drunkenness. Public drunkenness. In Japan, it’s just OK! It’s fine to be that guy who’s too drunk to walk, thus just falls asleep on the […]
- bar
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La Cabane, Ebisu (ラキャバヌ)
Ebisu is always on my mind. It calls to me. Gently, so softly that I sometimes forget it’s there, cooing its sweet song as it reclines like a pampered pet across my frontal lobe. The tiny alleys twist and turn back on themselves, concealing hidden delights and Oriental delicacies. A gentle fragrance barely disturbs the […]
Kita no Maru, Otemachi (北の丸、新大手町ビル)
There’s a weird ‘network’ concept going on in Marunouchi. All of the buildings above a certain size seem to belong to a sort of neighborhood association for mutual benefit. Nothing sinister, of course – here in Japan even the mafia aren’t sinister. But they cross-promote each other through magazines, video screens and takeaway pamphlets in […]