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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Xi’an, Kanda (西安)
Well, Ricky and I are in the same boat despite working for different companies now, and it’s nice to get together and rehash the situation. It’s even better when he throws out a great idea for a place to eat; thinking back, it seems like his good ideas are mostly Chinese. Crazy stuff though – […]
- Kanda
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Sushi Dining Tatsu (辰)
With a bunch of critical meetings keeping important people busy or out of the office, plus temperatures nudging the high 70’s and clear skies, today was the ideal occasion for a long lunch. And long it was. I corralled Ponkan into visiting my favorite new neighborhood, the little corner of northerly Kanda with Mimasuya and Hanakago […]
Nana’s Green Tea, Ochanomizu
This looked nice when Seat visited, so I wanted to try it. One after while at the guitar stores seemed like the right time to go, and go I did. Being already after lunch, there wasn’t so much I could do about the menu, which stretches from plate lunches through tea drinks and desserty options. […]
- izakaya
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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 […]
- Chinese
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Fukurou, Yokohama (福楼)
The Peafowl wanted to fly down and strut around Yokohama, and I figured this was as good a chance as any to disprove my previously-held notions about how boring it is while also scouting out future destinations. As one does, we flapped down on the Toyoko line, and by the time we got there our […]
- Kanda
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Mimasuya, Kanda (みますや)
There’s no way you can not love a neighborhood institution, especially when it’s been going since Meiji 38 (1906, methinks), and especially when the neighborhood is Kanda? Even the most casual reader should know how fond I am of Kanda as a lunch destination; it’s something about the way just enough glimpses of the area’s former […]
- Other treats
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Matsusou, Yurakucho (まつ惣)
When Roofie and I agreed to meet for dinner in Yurakucho, visions of cheerful-cheep-chicken excellence at Tonton danced in my head. Unsurprisingly, they had started dancing in the heads of dozens of others long before we got there. This is why I always reserve these days; it’s just not worth the risk. And that’s how […]
Bigote, Nihonbashi
‘Bigote’, of course, is Italian for ‘bigot’, so it’s no surprise that the ample signage around the door of this otherwise-pleasantly bohemian cafe proudly proclaims “No Lesser Races”. Of course in the absence of specificity about which races that would entail, they seem quite happy to admit anyone for a pleasant sit on the mismatched […]
Marukin, Monzennakacho (丸金)
Why is it that some places sit right near my apartment and never get ‘the nod’? In the case of Marukin, it’s because it looks so spartan from the outside, or that’s what I thought. Why was I opposed to that? I’m not usually. And it was more clean and spacious than spartan, and I […]