Frankly, being in a new neighborhood is confusing these days. I’ve spent so much time wandering a few blocks of Kanda that it feels like home, and it’s disconcerting to visit streets that have the same faceless similarity of most of Tokyo…but aren’t the same. And that’s cool! I was standing on a corner, dithering […]
lunch
- izakaya
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Daitetsu, Kanda (大鉄)
Japan’s construction philosophy is often described as ‘scrap and build’. You’d think that the narrow buildings and cramped neighborhoods would impede construction, but no…it just means they find ways to be careful. Here, a building is being torn out from between others, and a pint-sized backhoe is perched atop the rubble. But that’s not particularly […]
Yamagoya Ramen, Kiyosumi Shirakawa (山小屋、清澄白川)
Years ago I visited Yamagoya and pronounced it ‘undistinguished’. On the other hand, I didn’t have a clue about ramen. Now I can tell you with a little more certainty that it’s a decent Fukuoka-style ramen. The most notable things about it weren’t in the bowl – both were out in the room. First, as […]
Kinariya Ramen, Jimbocho (きなり屋)
Pretty much hopeless to try to classify ramen in Tokyo, isn’t it? Maybe even if you venture out to other famous places the ramen also defines description? Surely in Hakata there’s no confusion, and pretty much everyone has Hakata ramen? Kinariya looks nice from the outside, if by ‘nice’ you mean ‘Gonna have some thick, […]
Matoi ramen, Jimbocho (まとい)
Do you think a little thing like pouring rain is going to stop lunch from happening? nnnnnnno, it’s not. It will produce some concessions though. If you go underground, you can can get from the office to the subway without seeing sky, and then you can take the train one stop north to Awajicho, which […]
- Kanda
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Sanshuya, Kanda ( 大衆割烹 三州屋)
Things are so hot in Tokyo at the moment that whole sections of street keep spontaneously combusting, forcing the fire department to work overtime racing to conflagrations for liquid refreshment. But it’s always cool as an uri up in Kanda, where this branch of the Sanshuya chain is dishing out tasty dishes. Hard to say […]
- Kanda
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Yatsudeya, Kanda (八ッ手屋)
There’s a lot of pleasure in visiting old places. The danger is that the theme-park attraction of them is often not met by anything resembling food, Alternatively, you can be forcibly reminded that the theme park is in your head, and the people who own and run these places aren’t doing it to be retro […]
- Other treats
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Kichiemon ramen, Yachiyo (きちえもん)
With nothing but clear skies and bluegrass ahead, the first order of the day was to pick up a rental car and hit the highway. This is the Keio Road, which runs east into Chiba. Tokyo’s highways really look like video games, don’t they? Or rather, driving video games have probably evolved to look like […]
Uoju, Kodemmacho (魚十)
Tokyo has a garment district, did you know that? Loads of cheap-looking clothing stores, and of course fabric and whatever bits ‘n’ bobs you need to, y’know, make clothes. (If you want to check it out, it’s in Bakuroyokoyama; you could walk from Kodemmacho on the Hibiya line or else there’s a direct stop on […]
Fujiya, Nihonbashi (フジヤ)
Around my place, we adhere to the ‘dirty is good’ philosophy. This may get you in trouble in, say, India or Vietnam (where I prefer to say ‘dirty is deadly’), but in Japan health standards are such that you’re never going to get sick from restaurant food. Fujiya exhibits layers of steamed-on grease from long simmering […]