Had to work today, afternoon meeting plus some cleanup that finished around 5:30. After that, went up to Asakusa and discovered that it was Sanja Matsuri on the day, one of old Edo’s big 3 festivals. Another of them is Monzen Nakacho’s Hachiman Matsuri, which is so f-in awesome that it’s only held every 3 […]
expensive
- Ginza
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Uzuki, Ginza (うづき)
I sure do complain a lot, don’t I? Well, at least I eat a lot, so there’s usually something to talk about. The thing that reminded me that I complain too much is that I was going to complain about people who say they have ‘culinary adventures’. Going to a restaurant and paying money to […]
- bar
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Tama, Ginza (球)
For a couple of weeks, I’ve been mentally turning over the idea of a publishable profile of late-night Ginza. I, of course, have barely scratched the area’s surface, but I think that’s true for almost everyone except those who own bars there. With my limited surface-scratching, the two words that keep turning over in my […]
- izakaya
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Okajouki, Nakano (陸蒸気)
Well, I had promised to meet The Woodsman at 5 PM, after my bath. Due to excessive bathing and the sluggishness of mind that immediately follows it, it took me some time to get back up to the station and then start north along Nakano’s enormous, insane, pack-em-in covered shotengai. I didn’t even have a […]
Koto, Monzennakacho ( 古都 魚河岸料理)
Back when I was young and first started coming to Japan, it was always for winter vacations. Because of that, Japan felt like the country of freedom, the place where I didn’t have responsibilities (an odd twist, wouldn’t you say?), and that made me love it here. To this day, certain things give me the […]
- Other treats
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Ricolo, Tokyo
Seafood teppanyaki? Well, when you cross out the places on the 12th floor that are over $30 for lunch, and disregard the places with lines, you’re left with this option (aside: an hour for Maisen? I wouldn’t piss on their tonkatsu if it was on fire!). And it was pretty good! For some reason I […]
Tamanegiya, Kagurazaka (たまねぎや)
Friday night…errr, Wednesday night before the Thursday holiday…saw me walking around Kagurazaka, freezing my nuggets off, in search of sake. It’s been 2 weeks since I last brought you any sake exploration (the last was Ikebukuro’s Umibatake, which I still remember fondly) – a short low-consumption period to recharge. Feeling better now, thank you. Having […]
La Chasse, Roppongi
If I were the type of guy who gave his posts descriptive titles that made it harder to search for them later, I’d be calling this one “At the Sign of the Skull”. I don’t know how they got permission for this, but La Chasse has taken a perfectly normal building deep in Roppongi-3 (the […]
- Ginza
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Vinorio, Ginza
Dinner with the Swans was supposed to be a fairly quick one, followed by live music. Instead it stretched out a bit and became the main event of the evening – partly our inability to order decisively, partly the speed of service. If you were doing nothing of an evening except dining, I would say […]
Jiyugaoka Grill, Tokyo (新丸７階)
For the usual reasons, I had an inclination toward meat, fat, grease, whatever at lunch today. Not in a bad way, but it seemed like something substantial was indicated. 鈴寺 was fortunately amenable to this, and off we went to a yoshoku place. Out of habit, I steered toward a place that I hadn’t tried […]