First time for me to hike Mt. Takao, the 599-metre beauty spot whose primary claim to fame is that it’s still in Tokyo (much like all the parts of East LA that have been annexed for tax reasons, only going west). All the claims are true – you can get there in 45 minutes from […]
Month: December 2009
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Sushi Ichiban, Tsukiji
I’m really unsure why we didn’t just eat inside the market rather than going to this place in the outer market where they pre-slice the fish and one of the chefs chuckled when we ordered inside-out salmon rolls. At least they’re open 24 hours and are pretty cheap. You can do better. 03-3549-1452
Han Hyang, Shibuya
How come people don’t write posts for yakiniku? Maybe because it’s always the same thing – plates of meat, cooked on a fire. Still, I liked this place, and also thought there were some interesting things worth mentioning. First off, it’s confusing from outside. The sign is HUGE, and it:s a neon shamrock on the […]
Tacos del Amigo, Harajuku
Ole! Oye como va! I’ve exhausted my Spanish! Obviously Eating Out In Tokyo With Jake was a series of loosely-connected visits to strange choices of eating and drinking establishments…Venturing into this Mexican place on the Omotesando side of Harajuku was just the earliest in the succession, before we went down to Shibuya for a look […]
Misuji Ramen, Monzennakacho
Nights in Shinjuku require mornings of recovery and lunches of ramen… Misuji opened recently, more or less right across from the shrine entrance on Eitai Dori, the spiritual heart of Monzennakacho. This is where the lamb specialist used to be; I guess we all know how that worked out. Normal miso ramen. They do chicken […]
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Golden Gai, Shinjuku
It’s great to have foreign visitors – the effort to do something fun with them can really take you out of your normal zones. I hardly never go to Shinjuku, but in the course of this one night was able to visit a bunch of the famous sights, ending up with drinks in a randomly-picked […]
Uobaka Santaro
Remember, Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance. A lack of adherence to this rule is how I came to be eating at this establishment, rather than it’s brother around the corner, on a day where they didn’t really even have fish. Still, would you think that a casual restaurant in Shinjuku specializing in squid would be […]
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Hub, Shinjuku
“Arrrrr, here be beer, me hearties!” said Captain Jake as we entered Hub. He had been, and continued to be, discombobulated by the lack of western-style drinking establishments in Japan. I include Hub, a chain of English-style pubs, mainly to make this point. It’s nice to have the English and Irish places out there so you […]
Kurochobei, Akihabara (黒長兵衛)
Yes, there’s nothing like a completely terrible burger in a maid cafe to give you an appetite for steak. Continuing the day’s Akiba tour, we ended up back at the big Yodobashi and wandered around the food floor before settling on this steak place (lunch only; at night, decent-looking chain izakaya). I must say, it was […]
Pinky Cafe, Akihabara
What’s a guy to do when friends come to visit? Show off Japanese culture, that’s what. For various reasons, our tour started in Akiba, and due to the slowness of the morning, it was lunch time when we got there. Pinky Cafe had maids on the street soliciting business, and I figured it was as […]