Japan’s construction philosophy is often described as ‘scrap and build’. You’d think that the narrow buildings and cramped neighborhoods would impede construction, but no…it just means they find ways to be careful. Here, a building is being torn out from between others, and a pint-sized backhoe is perched atop the rubble. But that’s not particularly […]
izakaya
- izakaya
- ...
Penguin Seafood World, Shinjuku
If you were walking down the street in Shinjuku, casting your eyes up so as not to miss any good places that were hiding away on upper floors, and you saw a sign with a pair of penguins happily vacationing far from their native clime, what would you think? Perhaps not “Hey, this place has […]
Doromitei, Kagurazaka (泥味亭)
Tokyo is sprawling. Tokyo is compact. If you have a meeting in the office at 8 PM, and can sneak out before that, 90 minutes will be enough to run for the train to Kagurazaka (Dad, I told you I was into Kagurazaka before it was cool, didn’t I?), enjoy a little mid-Summer dusk air, have […]
- izakaya
- ...
Yamato, Morishita (山登)
Sometimes people ask how I find all these places. Much like Eddy Merckx describing his approach in training to be the world’s best cyclist as ‘Ride lots,’ I spend an inordinate amount of time looking. Seek and ye shall find. I actually find the looking almost as enjoyable as the finding and eating, because it’s […]
- izakaya
- ...
Gingin, Omori (吟吟)
Boy, Woody and I have been talking about going to this place for months. Boy were we not impressed. That’s probably enough as a capsule review, and the lighting was bad so the pictures didn’t even come out so well. But I’ll soldier on. This picture’s pretty cool though, eh? Despite being quite a small […]
- izakaya
- ...
Honoka, Musashi Koyama (穂のか)
Why is it that I find so many places recently worthy of a Recommended tag? (For the record, it’s currently 138 places out of a total 850, and I find that ratio quite acceptable, especially when you consider that some of them are lunch recommendations) I like to think that it’s because I’m such a […]
Shoujou, Monzen Nakachou (猩猩)
Sometimes I have an existential crisis, a dark night of the soul where I wonder if there’s a point to all this looking for great restaurants – because lately it just seems so easy to find them, you know? There’s an expression in Japan if you like the taste of something, it ‘meets your tongue’. […]
Osakaya, Monzennakacho (大阪屋)
Ahhhhh, Osakaya. When people say ‘Monzennakacho’, they’re always thinking of bargain fish specialist Uosan or else they’re thinking of Osakaya. This is probably because it features in various guide books (including the Gauntner sake book, which is in English). It’s not what it used to be, which doesn’t mean it’s not nice. Just…different. The […]
- izakaya
- ...
Gassan, Hatchobori (月山)
My work dinner finished early – awfully early, in fact, since the guest of honor had a separate dinner plan that we didn’t know about. That left me mildly fed and, having already written off the evening, not in the mood to go home. Naturally that led to a random cruise around some odd neighborhoods, […]
- izakaya
- ...
Ajitoku, Shinbashi (あじとく)
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 […]