There’s a first time for everything, and this was the first time I’ve been dragged along to brave the crowds at the Sumida River Fireworks festival, Tokyo’s biggest (though pretty limited by the urban setting; some other displays are much bigger). If you’re really up for a big evening, you should pony up for tickets […]
Month: July 2010
Kinariya Ramen, Jimbocho (きなり屋)
Pretty much hopeless to try to classify ramen in Tokyo, isn’t it? Maybe even if you venture out to other famous places the ramen also defines description? Surely in Hakata there’s no confusion, and pretty much everyone has Hakata ramen? Kinariya looks nice from the outside, if by ‘nice’ you mean ‘Gonna have some thick, […]
- izakaya
- ...
Penguin Seafood World, Shinjuku
If you were walking down the street in Shinjuku, casting your eyes up so as not to miss any good places that were hiding away on upper floors, and you saw a sign with a pair of penguins happily vacationing far from their native clime, what would you think? Perhaps not “Hey, this place has […]
- Other treats
- ...
Imaiya Honten, Shinjuku (今井屋本店、三丁目)
‘Honten’ means ‘main store’ or ‘original store’ – if a restaurant spawns a chain, they’ll refer to the first one as the honten. Maybe you could call it the ‘flagship’, but for some chains the original store is smaller and less glamorous, and they preserve it for historical reasons. The funny thing about Imaiya Honten is […]
Matoi ramen, Jimbocho (まとい)
Do you think a little thing like pouring rain is going to stop lunch from happening? nnnnnnno, it’s not. It will produce some concessions though. If you go underground, you can can get from the office to the subway without seeing sky, and then you can take the train one stop north to Awajicho, which […]
- Kanda
- ...
Sanshuya, Kanda ( 大衆割烹 三州屋)
Things are so hot in Tokyo at the moment that whole sections of street keep spontaneously combusting, forcing the fire department to work overtime racing to conflagrations for liquid refreshment. But it’s always cool as an uri up in Kanda, where this branch of the Sanshuya chain is dishing out tasty dishes. Hard to say […]
Doromitei, Kagurazaka (泥味亭)
Tokyo is sprawling. Tokyo is compact. If you have a meeting in the office at 8 PM, and can sneak out before that, 90 minutes will be enough to run for the train to Kagurazaka (Dad, I told you I was into Kagurazaka before it was cool, didn’t I?), enjoy a little mid-Summer dusk air, have […]
- Kanda
- ...
Yatsudeya, Kanda (八ッ手屋)
There’s a lot of pleasure in visiting old places. The danger is that the theme-park attraction of them is often not met by anything resembling food, Alternatively, you can be forcibly reminded that the theme park is in your head, and the people who own and run these places aren’t doing it to be retro […]
35 Annual Chiba Bluegrass Festival, Sakura
Saturday was clear and hot, until it rained like hell and started steaming, and the agenda was for nothing but renting a car, doing some driving, and listening to American country music played by unironic Japanese men. And some women. If you don’t know what bluegrass is, this post is unlikely to change your life. […]
- Other treats
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Kichiemon ramen, Yachiyo (きちえもん)
With nothing but clear skies and bluegrass ahead, the first order of the day was to pick up a rental car and hit the highway. This is the Keio Road, which runs east into Chiba. Tokyo’s highways really look like video games, don’t they? Or rather, driving video games have probably evolved to look like […]