Having finished our studies at the Fish Research Center, and wanting somewhere else to go, Preacher and I perused the back alleys of Shinbashi some more. For some reason I thought this place looked good in a down-home way. I was more or less wrong. Certainly it was authentic and cheap, and the customers and […]
- izakaya
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Fish Research Center, Shinbashi (魚研究所)
Several weeks or months ago, coming home from a particularly disastrous meeting (this one, but I’m sort of a gentleman sometimes so I didn’t mention the disastrous aspects in the original post), I was so disgruntled that I got off the train and walked around Shinbashi. It always seemed like a grubby, seedy area for […]
- Chinese
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Ajibo, Kanda (味坊)
This week has been, to turn a phrase, stinking hot. Not that we would mind so much in August, but being suddenly whacked with rainy season and 30-degree+ days (that’s like 90, folks) in the same week is a bit much. I was scheduled to have lunch with You today, and all I could think leading […]
- Kanda
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Blue Papaya, Kanda
It’s always Kanda, isn’t it? I’ve been meaning to take a picture of this shop for months. I think you’ll understand why. Anyway, after another 10 minutes of random walking I came upon Blue Papaya (no pun intended), which I had seen before at some point, like pretty much everything else. There are lots of […]
Ishizuki, Marunouchi (石月)
Lookee, an old-fashioned review with no pictures! And not even a clever concept! Skip if you want, save us both some trouble. This place is on the 5th floor of Shin Maru, which means I should have hit it years ago (well, year ago at least. It’s already 18 months of eating lunch around here.). […]
Fukumen Ramen, Jinbocho (覆面)
mmmm? mmmm!? mmm hmm. mmmm! MMMM!!!! !!!m!MM!!M!!M!MM!!!!!! Fly~~~ me to tha moooooon… [January 12, 2011: At the risk of ruining the purity and impact of this post, let me discuss the membership policy here. In theory it’s members only, but I believe that’s only applied at weekday dinners. On the other hand, I first went […]
Tanaka, Ito (たなか、伊東、静岡県)
From somewhere, I got the idea that Ito city would be good for a several-hour walk around on the way home from Izu. Minus the ‘several’, that statement could sorta be true, but much less so on Sundays. As usual I spent too much time obsessing over which place to visit for our obligatory fish-and-rice […]
Akatsuki, Jogasaki (暁、城ヶ崎海岸、静岡県)
Let me start off by saying that I don’t particularly want you to go here – we got a really weird last-minute deal (65% off? What were they thinking?) that made it worthwhile. If you paid full price, you’d be disappointed despite the excellent location just north of Izu Kogen, within walking distance of the […]
Mikura, Atami (海蔵、熱海)
Woo hoo, weekend away. It’s been some time, eh? Atami, at the head of the Izu penninsula, is called the ‘Monaco of Japan’. Really, my colleague tried to convince me of this. I laughed at the time, then I went there…and I still think it’s funny. Sure there are dramatic hills falling down to a […]
- Ginza
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Ginza de Wine, Ginza (銀座でワイン)
Bring Your Own wine is a great concept, and one of the main things I miss about my years in Australia (really!). In Oz, it was usually $0-5 to bring a bottle in, which is nothing compared to the 100% markup restaurants usually impose (a problem unless you’re drinking 2-buck-Chuck). In case you didn’t know, […]