Today I was thinking of Italian, but Zoner said ‘Fish’, and this popped into mind after I had seen it just yesterday. I may be re-calculating my remarks about the relative sadness of this 2nd-floor area of Tokyo Station, because the shops seems to be OK (if a little sad. Ooops, there I go again!) […]
lunch
- Chinese
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Toushe, Tokyo (多謝,北町ほろよい通り)
Japan is a different country, and there are different attitudes toward a number of things (plus they have a different word for everything!). One of the really weird ones there is…drunkenness. Public drunkenness. In Japan, it’s just OK! It’s fine to be that guy who’s too drunk to walk, thus just falls asleep on the […]
Kita no Maru, Otemachi (北の丸、新大手町ビル)
There’s a weird ‘network’ concept going on in Marunouchi. All of the buildings above a certain size seem to belong to a sort of neighborhood association for mutual benefit. Nothing sinister, of course – here in Japan even the mafia aren’t sinister. But they cross-promote each other through magazines, video screens and takeaway pamphlets in […]
Beck’s Coffee Shop, Tokyo
Well, completism runs rampant, but I’m able to tick off another item on the under-track extravaganza. In my defence, I did go to a genuine fine-dining restaurant on Saturday (in case you missed it, nestled among the dross) and had never been to a Beck’s before. The oddest things about this Beck’s experience were as […]
- Kanda
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Ramen Y’s, Kanda (わいず)
For the whole of this month, I’ve been thinking about ramen. It’s a lousy idea – now that temperatures are over 90, we’ll walk around outside in the sun before settling into a narrow, cramped, galley-style restaurant where the stools are packed like pins in a cushion and the other customer are similarly big, male […]
- Other treats
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Steak Seitou, Tokyo
July 16th, 2009. 8:33 AM. Ding has pointed out that the reason I couldn’t find the website for this place was that I was spelling it wrong. A thousand pardons.________________________________________________________ Ahhhh, Japanese people are really into things. I love that cliche, especially when I get to live it. One of my newer colleagues recommended Saitou […]
- Otemachi
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Tateshina Soba, Otemachi
You’ve been taught that business cards are of vital import in Japanese business life, right? I thought so. Now ponder what it means when a restaurant doesn’t have a card to give you, and in fact the very request sends the staff off in peals of laughter. I think it’s supposed to mean they’re too […]
Isola Smeralda, Marunouchi (丸ビル5階)
Do you get these cravings sometimes? Maybe you’re pregnant so you understand (I made some pickles on Sunday. They’re getting pretty good now!). Sometimes I eat so little meat that I just get desperate for beef. Today it was…cranberry juice. I thought Meijiya was the place to go, but they didn’t have it. In any […]
- Other treats
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Okazuya Heikuboncho, Marunouchi (Oazo)
You’d be for given for thinking I’d sneezed in some spectacular way,what with the length and glottal spasming of that name. But no, that’s what they call it! The first part is something like ‘side-dish seller’, and that’s a pretty accurate capsule review here – great side dishes, lackluster mains. (I feel unusually compelled to […]
Koukaibou, Fukagawa (Monzennakacho)
Somehow I’ve been craving ramen recently but unable to make myself eat it for lunch – despite the abundant options in the area of the office, especially in Kanda. So here it is Saturday, it’s great to be alive and not at work, and I’ve invited some noodles to help me celebrate with a bowl […]