Occasional visitors to Japan (hi Mom and Dad) will recognize this tiny, fading place as the one where we had lunch one day around 2005. Or not. It’s in the row of places across from the north entrance to Morishita station, along with Fuji. It’s a real get-there-before-they-die sort of place. So many of them […]
Morishita
- izakaya
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Mitakaya Sakaba, Morishita (みたかや酒場)
I almost feel bad writing about Mitakaya. Let me count the ways. Just two, actually. 1. It’s on my street, and I like to support local business, but it took me approximately 2,500 nights to go for the first time. 2. The Mitakas, and their customers, are the nicest people, and I would hate for anyone […]
- Other treats
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Kyokin soba, Morishita (手打そば 京金)
Years it’s been that I’ve been jogging by this soba place on Kiyosumi Dori thinking it looked good. I mean, it was there long before me – over 100 already, while I’ve only put in 7 – but it still looks good. Somehow I neglected a picture of the outside, which is much the best […]
Echigoya Wakasa, Morishita (越後屋若狭)
Some time ago, I was idly perusing the tabelogz as I like to do on many a quiet afternoon. Looking at the top 20-rated restaurants in Tokyo, I spotted an oddity. It was on my side of the river. One of Tokyo’s best 20 restaurants out of 160,000 listings? An easy walk from home? And […]
Daruma, Kiyosumi Shirakawa (だるま)
Weird stuff, my friends. As I was leaving work I realized that not only was I really hungry, but I was thinking “It’s good to be hungry. Maybe I’ll skip dinner.” That sort of thinking has got to stop, and since I needed to go to the rice store I decided to eat a bunch […]
Fujimura, Kiyosumi Shirakawa (藤村)
These lazy days of not working really agree with me, especially when they’re Wednesdays. It was getting late and I was on the way home from my epic wander around Sendagi and Nezu, but I saw this sweets store on a street near my house and stopped in. I’ve been in the area for quite […]
- Other treats
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Hope Ramen, Morishita (ホープ麺店)
I think it’s basically this year that I’ve been actively into ramen, though I see in consulting the archives that as recently as April I was still trying to bullshit and say I wasn’t that into ramen…bullshit. Since I’ve gotten into it, and explored a few traditional-style places like Bigakuya and Isono, I’ve had a […]
- izakaya
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Yamato, Morishita (山登)
Sometimes people ask how I find all these places. Much like Eddy Merckx describing his approach in training to be the world’s best cyclist as ‘Ride lots,’ I spend an inordinate amount of time looking. Seek and ye shall find. I actually find the looking almost as enjoyable as the finding and eating, because it’s […]
- izakaya
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Fuji, Morishita (藤,森下)
Every day I sink a little deeper into Fukagawa. Which is a shame, because Fukagawa is slipping away a little every day. I hate it when travel journalists strike a maudlin tone about this sort of thing, because the single biggest factor in the slipping-away of Fukagawa’s heritage was almost certainly extensive firebombing in WWII, but […]
Echizenya, Kiyosumi Shirakawa
Heavens, how many times have I bemoaned the lack of availability of 720ml bottles of really excellent sake? Yes, far too many times (internally if not in writing or verbally). Well, look no further. It turns out the alley-like space squeezed in next to a Sankus a few blocks from my apartment has an astounding […]