Setagaya Art Museum is good for a visit. It’s a healthy walk away from Yoga, and that healthy walk, if done properly on the smaller streets and not on the 6-lane monsters that cut through the area, will be almost unconscionably pleasant. It will include cobbled streets with architectural details at every corner, water features, […]
French
Enoteca – The Lounge, Marunouchi (Yurakucho)
Do you like wine? It’s OK either way, but if you do, I think you must have been to or at least heard of the Enoteca chain. With 30 locations nationwide to serve you and 12 just in Tokyo (my favorites are the Tokyo Station’s specialty ‘champagne and half-bottles’ shop and the Marunouchi ‘Lounge’ shop […]
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La Cabane, Ebisu (ラキャバヌ)
Ebisu is always on my mind. It calls to me. Gently, so softly that I sometimes forget it’s there, cooing its sweet song as it reclines like a pampered pet across my frontal lobe. The tiny alleys twist and turn back on themselves, concealing hidden delights and Oriental delicacies. A gentle fragrance barely disturbs the […]
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Bistro Bonnes Mares, Kanda
How do people decide they’ve had enough – learned enough, pushed enough, grown enough – and it’s time to settle in?Moreover, is it wrong to do this? Especially if you’re doing your thing better than most people could?And is it indicative of a deeper pathology that I read restaurant reviews while eating lunch? (This has […]
Kame, Monzen Nakacho (亀)
It takes all kinds – and the kind on display here is ‘stew and wine’ or ‘frypan bar’, depending on which sign you read. Funny thing is, this place is worthwhile!’Two guys and some pans’ could be another good tag line, or maybe ‘Japan’s cheapest wine bar’. This is very respectable – the wine list […]
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Chez Tomo, Shirogane
Ahhh, it’s been simply ages that I’ve been thinking of going to this place. I suppose I had heard of it, but then I ran across it one night while walking randomly around after work (when you worked at the one of 2008’s most spectacular failures, you’ve got plenty to walk and think about). And […]
Maison de la Bourgogne, Kagurazaka
Kagurazaka is a neighborhood of side streets. If you stay on the main street, you’ll think it’s mildly charming but a bit gaudy and a bit ruined by development. Chain restaurants, cheap bars and down-market shops abound. The particular maison in question today is down towards the Iidabashi end of Kagurazaka (for those Chinese-speaking people […]
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Arossa, Ginza (Velvia 8)
Central Otago. What a great place. Some of my favorite people have been Central Otagans. And when I think of it, I’m inescapably reminded of crashing Jake and Kristen’s honeymoon in Queenstown, cruising around on quad bikes in the hills outside town, and stopping off at the Cardrona Hotel for beers on the way home. […]
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Argo, Hanzomon
EOITwJ was embarrassed. All set to go to a very nice-looking French restaurant in the decidedly odd neighborhood of Hanzomon (or Kojimachi, more picturesquely and food-related-ly) we…were late and forgot our cameras. Thus all visual correspondence herein is courtesy of GT’s keitai; excuse our shocking omission. It’s even worse because this was very lovely food […]
Vin de Reve, Ginza 1-Chome (東)
Vin de Reve gets high marks in some quarters, and I’ve been itching to try it for some time. A casual Tuesday night proved too much to resist, so I cruised down to The Wine of Dreams for a quiet glass and some nourishment. When I say ‘cruised’, of course I mean ‘rode my pearl-white […]