Here we are in Asakusa on January 2nd. It’s mobbed around Thunder Gate, and the street is closed to cars. Fortunately there are also plenty of stores if you need to stop in for a snack after waiting in line or just after walking from Monnaka up to here Phew! Not as long as it […]
cafe
- Italian
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North Side Cafe, Shimo Kitazawa
An afternoon of walking Shimokita. Believe it or not, this was outside a music store. It sounds positively filthy, doesn’t it? In a way that’s dirty and yet mysterious, like some kink you’ve never heard of. Indeed. This is not where we ate dinner, but that’s not the subject of this post. The subject is […]
Fujimura, Kiyosumi Shirakawa (藤村)
These lazy days of not working really agree with me, especially when they’re Wednesdays. It was getting late and I was on the way home from my epic wander around Sendagi and Nezu, but I saw this sweets store on a street near my house and stopped in. I’ve been in the area for quite […]
- coffee
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Midori no Mame, Toyocho (緑の豆)
It’s such a pleasure to be wandering around my neighborhood during business hours on a weekday (this was the day I renewed my driver’s license, so I had the whole afternoon off). Usually it’s a weekend, which doesn’t feel the same, or it’s 6 in the morning and I’m running or cycling or something. All […]
- Kyoto
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Sagatake (さが竹)
Continuing the random walk around Arashiyama (punctuated by lunch), there are plenty of pleasant little sights to see. If you’re tired of weathered shrine gates, you’re tired of life. ‘Saga’, by the way, has nothing to do with the prefecture. This area is named for the ancient emperor who lived here (嵯峨, not 佐賀, and […]
- coffee
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Barrington Coffee House, Barrington
Gentlemen? Several weeks after this event, the Barrington Coffee House publicized what had happened as their ‘League of Gentlemen Weekend’. On this evening Jim, Greg and I went through a decent set of Jim’s songs plus covers (and Greg and I played a couple songs with a guy named Chris who did a whole set […]
Mood’s Farm Market, Mullica Hill
When I was but a young pup, piloting my Centurion Ironman Dave Scott (and I’m deeply sorry that the best picture I can find of this frame in my rigorous 30 seconds of googling is one that’s built up as a fixed-gear, but mine too has been a fixed-gear since about 1994) around the wilds […]
- Other treats
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Boissier, Yaesu
Boissier, the Daimaru Tokyo cafe-style outlet of a French patissier, is a place that I noticed in passing once when taking the elevator up to the Daimaru restaurant floor. You wouldn’t think it, but there are cafes on most of the intermediate floors too. And they (this one at least) are enormous. I was expecting […]
Nakamuraya, Enoshima (中村屋)
You’ll have noticed from all the pictures that I think walking around Tokyo and looking down little alleys is one of the funnest things in life, way more funner than, for instance, being beaten with branded leather goods. In the case of Enoshima, as you climb out of the shopping area, you’ll see all sorts […]
Comme Ca Cafe, Shinjuku
I find myself in the curious position, dear readers, of wanting to recommend a place that really irritated me even while I had a good time. Cafe Comme Ca has a LOT of things going against it, but the cakes are incredibly beautiful and taste pretty good too. Strike 1 – it’s a clothing-branded […]