Many times I’ve lied and many times I’ve listened, many times I’ve wandered around Kagurazaka’s bistros. This included a lot of mid-to-late-night rambles, and it’s hard to find places that are open. One that’s reliably so is Hap, and one that’s reliably closed is organic vegetable-specialist A Ma Terrasse. Today I ate lunch there. It was […]
Author: Jon
Brasserie Gus, Kagurazaka
If you can’t handle some self-satisfaction in a post, now’s a good time to stop reading. Today’s lunch, both format and destination, is so amusing that there’s sure to be smugness in the offing. After last Friday’s disastrous lunch in Iidabashi followed by a tantalizing walk in Kagurazaka, my longstanding regret at not being an […]
- Kanda
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Kitchen Yutaka, Kanda (キッチン ユタカ)
Admit it. Sometimes we go to places for the wrong reasons. Today involved a bit of disgruntle – there was an Italian place that’s been on the list for months, but my boss delayed and delayed a meeting before finally canceling it. I got to the place at 1:45 and thought, phew, they’re open until […]
Toutouan, Higashi Akiru (燈々庵,東秋留)
Big day, eh? If you read the preceding posts, you’ll realize that Woodrow and I got up early, took the train way out west, did a solid hike, went to an onsen, browsed around, and then took several other trains to end up at this wonderful restaurant of his acquaintance. It’s really nowhere, and they […]
Matsuno Onsen, (松の温泉 水香園)
As I said below, today was hiking day. The mountains that ring Tokyo are nowhere near as high as the ones that you get a little farther out (they don’t call those ‘Alps’ for nothing), but there’s still some good autumn color and soothing vistas (as long as you don’t look toward Tokyo, where the […]
- Other treats
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Harajima Liquors, Otaba (Okutama) (原島商店, 大丹波)
The Woodsman and I had a bit of a walk today. It’s a tourist special to take the train west from Shinjuku and go ‘hiking’ at Mt. Takao (where you have your choice of fully-paved road, cable car or chairlift to get you up and down), but in the same area there are plenty of […]
- Other treats
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Iseya, Kichijoji (いせや)
After spending a long, long day in Kichijoji last summer, I didn’t feel a tremendous need to go back – not that it’s not nice, but it’s pretty far away. So imagine my surprise when a trip to my new friend Beach’s pottery exhibition and lecture east of Ikebukuro turned into an invitation to yakitori […]
Zero, Monzennakacho
Bike culture may not be for sale, but it is most certainly available for exhibition in the windows of recently-opened bars in middle-aged districts of Tokyo that cater to middle-aged men. This is a questionable strategy; there were some young customers in here that might have been lured in by the hip fixie in the […]
En, Monzennakacho (えん)
Clearly I’m not spending enough time walking the streets of Monnaka at night; there were several new places since the last time I got around, and that’s a rarity. This one looked really nice on Friday night when Mayu and I were binging on my old favorite places, so when we found ourselves with time […]
Seikanin, Kagurazaka (清閑院)
After a truly terrible lunch that I won’t link to because I want to forget it happened and wouldn’t like any of you to repeat my mistakes, Mayu and I walked around Kagurazaka. It’s a mellow neighborhood – apart from the homey, shitamachi feel; abundant french bistros; and high-end antiques and art shops, you can find […]