What could be more American than eating pizza and going to a baseball game? I guess doing it IN America would be a bit better, but let’s not pick nits. This place sits out in plain view in a big brick plaza off Aoyama Dori between Bell Commons and the entrance to Gaien; it was […]
Author: Jon
- izakaya
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Uoshin, Shibuya (魚真)
The Uoshins are a small chain of fish-focused higher-end izakaya, and this outlet is oddly located just across the street from the north side of Dogenzaka. It’s convenient for all your Dogenzaka needs (and I’ll refrain from including the other pictures I took in the neighborhood, OK?), and has the well-oiled reliability of a store […]
- izakaya
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Manaita, Kanda (まないた)
Kanda…where magic happens. I like to call this ‘Still Life With Koala’, but she’s not that still. Manaita (cutting board) is the kind of place whose quality is screamingly obvious to me. Gently-flapping noren, hand-written sign and menus, immaculately clean, freshly-sanded counter…you’d be silly to not like this place. A lot. I definitely recommend it […]
Takaban, Jinbocho (鷹ばん、小川町)
Having some time to kill after work and before 8, I spied out something on the map that looked like it would pass the time. Takaban will bear further investigation since I just sat and read and nibbled and drank for an hour, but it could well be my new favorite place. The food seemed […]
Woodman Instruments, Ochanomizu
Heavens. Just wandering around looking for a restaurant, I saw a little green sign with a guitar. It turned out that if you go into the nondescript little office building, the second floor is half taken up with one of the best guitar stores I’ve been to in Japan. Mostly acoustic…aside from the steels (lap, […]
Yamato Tonkatsu, Kanda (大和)
This whole 大和 thing, I don’t quite get it. It means something like ‘Japanese spirit’, that’s clear, but is there a difference between reading it ‘daiwa’ and ‘yamato’? One amusing thing is that my company has a direct competitor that uses the first reading. In what I presume was a bid to show national pride, […]
Shonosuke Sweets, Kanda (庄之助、淡路町)
Small sushi lunches just don’t fill a guy up, especially not one with bulging…err, muscles, like me. But I really do need to lose some weight, eh, and managed to avoid eating anything too bad after lunch. Still, I knew there was this quaint old sweet shop… I first saw Shonosuke when I went to […]
- Kanda
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Isohana, Kanda (磯はな、司町)
Kanda…where magic happens. Went up to the same little alley I mentioned in the linked post – there were two very worthwhile places there. The better looking, whose offering I don’t really understand (language issues) but whose style I admire…is closed on Wednesdays. That means that after the requisite walk-around-to-confirm, I ended up back across […]
Iseju, Kodenmacho (伊勢重)
You might want to skip this post, ok? It’s not really food-oriented until the A5 wagyu starts sizzling at the end, which is marked with the big red text. There’s a reason why I like modern art – to me, it’s more stimulating. The encumbrances of form and realism, while pretty, tend to distract from impact, […]
- Kanda
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Genraku ramen, Kanda (元楽)
Kanda…where magic happens. Mondays always produce disgruntlage and a desire to forget the office for an hour. Today I was thinking of trying to find a particular ramen shop that I loved in the past but isn’t on any map, Yokohama-style in Kanda; found it but didn’t go. As usual , I couldn’t resist the […]