Urban hiking. I just love walking in Tokyo. Today I was out for a medium hike, starting in Shin Okubo (just north of Shinjuku) and hiking to Ikebukuro to look for a couple places I had seen online but forgot to get links or addresses for. So you could say I was hiking four stations […]
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Sakaoto, Yotsuya (日本酒BAR 酒音)
Someone’s on the go. Part two of our Arakicho adventure…honestly, it was part 4 after we walked out of the first two places without ordering. Finicky we are. This ‘Sakaoto’ place caught my eye on the first walk around the half-dozen blocks that make up Arakicho. It looked small, cute, maybe friendly, and after all […]
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Devilcraft, Kanda
Devilquest!!! Nuts, I’ve been excited about writing that ever since I heard of Devilcraft from Woody several weeks ago. Now I find that Devilquest is just the Japanese name for Season of the Which, witch came out early this year in America. Well, Devilcraft’s opening has been anticipated for nearly as long, and they are […]
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Ant & Bee, Roppongi (アントンビー)
Years of my life, I spent here, years. Seeing Mori Tower gives me a peculiar feeling; not like the dread I used to get when I would catch a glimpse of Chifley Tower across Sydney Harbor on a Sunday, but a little twinge. Fortunately it’s been years in arrears since I felt the certain intensity […]
Kajima Liquors, Ningyocho (加島酒店)
As foreigners, and especially as foreigners with an interest in ‘deep’ Japanese culture, we get cut a lotta slack. We get to go to some of the weirdest, localest little places you can imagine, and people are by and large nice. Or better. Now that I mention it, they’re usually welcoming, interested, and friendly. It’s […]
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Hantoco Cafe, Shintomi (ハントコcafe)
Wooden and I just wandered around a bit on the way to the station from Rusai. That was a pretty unsatisfying meal, and this little place looked awfulllly inviting as we strolled past. I’d seen it before, of course, but never noticed that it had a ‘sake ball’ outside, and we were doubly sold. We […]
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King Edward Bar, Cape May
The Chalfonte Hotel is a heckuva place. Open since 1876, it’s Cape May’s oldest continuously-operating hotel (and remember that Cape May is America’s first beach resort). And as a Southern-style hotel, they like to point out what I always maintained in college – that Cape May and southern New Jersey are south of the Mason […]
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Hugo’s Frog Bar, Chicago
No visit to New Jersey is complete without a daytrip to Chicago, that’s what I always say. So Thursday saw us up at the crack of dawn, suffering through three hours of mechanical, technical and weather delays plus in-flight turbulence that had more than one fellow flier screaming in terror. Once the day’s business was […]
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Bar Martha, Ebisu
There’s a whole genre of ‘music bars’ in Tokyo. The basic thing is the sound system, and then they’ll play a certain genre of music. In the case of Martha, located on a small but exciting street on the southeast side of Ebisu, the stereo is massive and old-fashioned. In this picture you can see […]
Lautrec, Nihonbashi (ロートレック)
From somewhere I conceived the idea that this vaguely French-bistro themed restaurant would be vaguely European and perhaps good. The windows are filled with various Francophile trinkets, and even the interior gives you some idea that they’re trying to be Euro. Incidentally, note the almost-open cherry blossoms artfully included in the shot. Perhaps it’s more […]