As many of you know, December 24th is the most romantic night of the year in Japan. It’s the night when all good men should be taking their women to fancy dinners, which are typically lobster, beef and truffles at horrendous prices. I am against this (cooking dinner is a better demonstration, no?). Braving the […]
kaiseki
Hirosaku, Shinbashi (ひろ作)
Baron Destructo. Deliberately ignoring the basic research that would remind us where this nickname came from (and he came pre-named; it’s not an EOITwJ thing), let’s just say it’s been in a year since his last visit to Japan. He’s maintained, errrr, contact, with things Japanese in the interim (sorry) and here we are again […]
Uemura, Arakicho (四谷 うえ村)
This became a really long post, so I’ll spare lazy readers and say up front “Excellent. Good value if you’re an enthusiast for this style. Book 3-7 days ahead.” Arakicho is a neat place, tucked in between Shinjuku and Yotsuya, full of back streets and dark stairs and clubs and Japanese and French and everything else. […]
Toutouan, Higashi Akiru (燈々庵,東秋留)
Big day, eh? If you read the preceding posts, you’ll realize that Woodrow and I got up early, took the train way out west, did a solid hike, went to an onsen, browsed around, and then took several other trains to end up at this wonderful restaurant of his acquaintance. It’s really nowhere, and they […]
- Kyoto
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Sakurada, Kyoto (桜田)
Before we get to the mind-blowing kaiseki finale to this 2-day Kyoto jaunt, can we just see some random shots from the street? ‘Vehicle of God’ is, I suppose, an OK translation, but more a funny one (as you can see from the picture, it’s an omikoshi; koshi seems a little archaic to me, so […]
- Kyoto
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Kinmata, Kyoto (近又)
One kaiseki course in a day just isn’t enough. I came down to Kyoto with a simple restaurant strategy: Open Tabelog Kyoto. Call restaurant #1. Call restaurant #2. Et cetera. Of course I got rejected from some very lovely-looking places. But I booked the ones that were #8 and #9 on the day (it changes […]
- Kyoto
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Nishiki, Kyoto (嵐山 錦)
This is a nice bridge, isn’t it? Someone should write a poem about it. Or paint a picture of it. Eh, I bet someone had that idea already. Never mind. Kyoto’s northwestern temple district, Arashiyama, is also famous for the bamboo groves. Not without reason; it’s a really big species of bamboo, and the forests […]
Chinju, Marunouchi (大志満 椿壽)
Just got back from another business lunch at an area hotspot. I say that to be clever and ironic, because one doesn’t have business lunches in hotspots. And Japan’s definition of hotspot is maybe a little different. A little cooler. And less spotty. Spotless even. Compared to last week’s business lunch, this was cheaper, fresher, […]
- Otemachi
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Utage, Otemachi (宴)
Just got back from a business lunch at this place. I correctly diagnosed from the web site that it was not the sort of place I’d ever use my own funds to visit, but it was a bit better in practice than I expected. As a business lunch, you can’t expect to see any pictures. […]
Akatsuki, Jogasaki (暁、城ヶ崎海岸、静岡県)
Let me start off by saying that I don’t particularly want you to go here – we got a really weird last-minute deal (65% off? What were they thinking?) that made it worthwhile. If you paid full price, you’d be disappointed despite the excellent location just north of Izu Kogen, within walking distance of the […]