Much in the same way that Alvin Lucier famously once got wicked stoned and recorded himself sitting in a room for several hours, today I came up with the idea of mangling meaning through recursive translation. Of course if this were done by a good human translator, it could come out sensibly. So let’s leave […]
izakaya
Miyoshi, Monzen Nakacho (みよし)
Have you heard of Tatsumi Shindo, the odd little bricked pedestrian street near Monzennakacho crossing that holds a solid 20 counter-only izakayas and drinking holes? It should be fun, but it’s not, not so much. It’s the kind of place you want to love, but doesn’t feel at all welcoming. Still, I have a constant […]
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Hanakago, Kanda (花かご)
So I was leaving work, and it had been a funny up-and-down day, and I thought ‘What the hey, I’m going to Kanda to relax.’ There was a place that I had seen just down the street from Mimasuya – tiny, shabby, really small, and not all that well-preserved, but on the bamboo screens outside […]
Seigetsu, Kagurazaka (霽月)
Things wound down naturally as the crew worked through the sake menu at Shutoan. After 2 hours we started thinking our business was pretty near complete, and we were itching to visit another establishment. Poshand put in a quick call to Seigetsu, in nearby Kagurazaka – previously recommended by Journey and also pre-confirmed as being […]
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Shutoan, Yotsuya (酒徒庵)
Oysters are a powerful aphrodisiac. Seeing Sarah Jessica Parker, larger than life on a billboard in a Tokyo train station, is not. I’ve never been a fan of S&tC (in fact I’ve never seen an episode, let alone the movie), but even I can pick up the style clues that are supposed to drive the […]
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Orenchi, Kawasaki (おれんち)
Long post ahead, watch out. OK? OK. Let’s begin. As begin so many of my best posts (or rather, my worst posts but best memories), The Woodsman was eager to take me to his ‘local’, i.e. the izakaya down the street from his wooded compound in the forests of Kawasaki. The whole family went along […]
Okamo’s Diner, Monzennakacho
Yo Okamo, whassup? You’ve been doing business in my town for years (2), I dunno why I never stopped by. Misguided effort to limit caloric intake on weeknights, I suppose. Okamo is here, hiding below a much bigger sign for a pub. (Yes, a “pub”, if you know what I mean. But not like you’re […]
Kikkon, Otemachi (吉っ今)
Somehow I got it into my head that this place was good…as soon as we got out of the elevator (Sankei Building, 6th floor, watch out because you need to take the one labeled ‘goes to 6th floor’) and saw the crowd barrier dividing the big entry hall and the poster-sized menu from which you […]
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Tsugaru, Kashiwa (つがる)
Well, Tsugaru looked great on the web. Maybe it’s the photos they used, but I expected a lot from this place. It turned out well in the end. But first, I was disappointed when I stopped by in the afternoon before opening – the exterior is tiny, plain, and very much in keeping with its […]
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Yoshiharu West, Kashiwa (吉春、柏)
Kashiwa is a bit out there, to the northwest, but worth a late-afternoon trip since there are a bunch of nice-looking izakayas scattered about the town. It’s surprisingly big, having a Takashimaya, Marui and various other department stores; clearly a major outlying town and one of the bigger in Chiba. First on the agenda was […]