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 […]
izakaya
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Seikaiha, Tamagawagakuenmae (青海波, 玉川学園前)
The finest dining establishment in all of Tamagawagakuenmae. It’s a bold claim considering it’s the only place I’ve been to, but this is a pretty sweet izakaya, and TGGEM is a smallish, sleepy station. It’s nearly as good as Ibuki, which is at the next station, the relatively enormous Machida. So if you’re in TGGEM, […]
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Manaita, Takadanobaba (真菜板, 高田馬場)
After not really having much fun at Shimomiya, and not even being able to drown our sorrows due to the ordering difficulties and overall stylistic incompatibility, Bird and I were desperate to go somewhere else. Since we were up for whatever, the conversation went like this: “Hey, there was another place I attached my eye […]
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Shimomiya, Higashi Nakano (しもみや 東中野)
It’s been a while since I’ve seen this, and maybe you too. JR platforms can get completely jammed, especially when it’s the combined Yamanote-Sobu platform at Shinjuku. I was bound for the metropolitan hotspot of Higashi Nakano. [I jest, but Higashi Nakano also houses Tokyo’s single best sake bar, so it’s not exactly a joke.] […]
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Fuusan, Machida (風燦 原町田店)
Tuesday night saw the team back in Machida for an away game. Woody recommended the Big Fuu to me last year after I checked in at Ibuki, but as soon as I walked up to it I realized that I had seen it last year on that Ibuki trip and decided not to go. Which […]
Kamozou, Kagurazaka (地酒喝采 かも蔵（カモゾウ 醸蔵）)
Yooooooshta. It’s official. I have now been to all of the good sake places in Tokyo. Think you know another? Nope. Not good. This is the last one. Boo-yah! Good, I’m glad we could all agree on that. Back to work. I’ve been knowing this place for a long time. I happened by on my bike, […]
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Ibuki, Machida (風土旬彩 伊吹)
This is the story of a long and random walk around a large and boring town. If you want to cut to the chase, my ‘key takeaway’ is “There is only one good izakaya in Machida. I found it for you. If you’re out there at dinner time, don’t waste time on any other place.” […]
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Okatte Fumoto, Tama Plaza (麓)
Out and about in Tokyo, seeing stuff, taking advantage of changing elevators on the 33rd floor on the way to a meeting…Sometimes it makes me feel immature, but I’ve never lost my wonder at heights. High floors, airplane windows, you name it. I’m the only businessman who chooses the window seat on purpose. This is […]
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Tsuchi to Ao, Chofu (居酒屋 土と青)
If you need a capsule review, let me just say “Not going to get any better than this in Chofu, and probably not any other Western suburb, and this is really as good as it gets in the genre”. But backtracking a bit, looking out the train windows at dusk makes me melancholy and nostalgic. […]
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Konomi, Ningyocho (日本酒と肴の味見バー 嗜)
What do you like? Would you describe that as your 嗜? No, you wouldn’t because no one knows that kanji. I hope I forget it. It would only be the latest in a series of eating- and drinking-related kanji that I learned when I should have been learning…I dunno, kanji that every 3rd grader would […]