After not really having much fun at Shimomiya, and not even being able to drown our sorrows due to the ordering difficulties and overall stylistic incompatibility, Bird and I were desperate to go somewhere else. Since we were up for whatever, the conversation went like this: “Hey, there was another place I attached my eye […]
Nakano
- izakaya
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Shimomiya, Higashi Nakano (しもみや 東中野)
It’s been a while since I’ve seen this, and maybe you too. JR platforms can get completely jammed, especially when it’s the combined Yamanote-Sobu platform at Shinjuku. I was bound for the metropolitan hotspot of Higashi Nakano. [I jest, but Higashi Nakano also houses Tokyo’s single best sake bar, so it’s not exactly a joke.] […]
- izakaya
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Ajiyoshi, Nakano (酒道場 味吉)
Ahhhh, Japan. People always talk about how quirky it is, but they’re only focused on the maids and the Alice in Wonderland bars and the dancing rockabillies and costume kids in Harajuku. Actually, that’s more than enough. But the real quirks are sometimes beneath the surface. Take this place – it would be all too […]
- Other treats
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Aji no Machidaya, (味のマチダヤ)
No great service is being visited on the world because I’ve visited Aji no Machidaya, but it was pleasant to walk there from Ochiai station, then backtrack and ‘urban hike’ over to Mejiro for dinner at Le Mont. This little liquor shop has featured in various online writeups over the years, but I saw it […]
- izakaya
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Omasa Komasa, Higashi Nakano (大政小政)
Really, apologies to all my sake-drinking friends. I don’t know what possessed me to go to Tachikawa today – and you didn’t miss anything out there, I promise. But on the way back I got to thinking…passing through Nishi Kokubunji always does that too me. I only went there twice. The first time was to […]
- Other treats
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Kaeru ramen, Nakano
Setting out for a day of adventuring in the hinterlands, I decided to stop off in Nakano for a rousing spot of…well, lunch. Nakano seems like a place that would be famous for ramen, but I don’t think it is. Certainly there were not that many places looking likely – a couple in the covered […]
- izakaya
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Omasa Komasa, Higashi Nakano (大政小政)
He means well. I want to preface all that follows with my emphatic belief that he does mean well. The waitress at Ranman (who was really lovely, in such a sweet and motherly way) told us it would take about 15 minutes to walk to Higashi Nakano, but warned that “It’s really dark.” While a […]
- izakaya
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Ranman, Nakano (らんまん)
No joke, after Okajouki we needed something more satisfying. (Nuts, did I really just write something that stupid? Well, you know the rules – no edits.) Ranman was it. In our party (which enlarged at this point) there was general agreement that this is one of the best pure izakayas ever. EVER! In the history […]
- 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 […]
Katou Spa, Nakano (香藤湯)
Well, after enjoying my dip at one of Fukagawa’s local furoyasan, I was a bit hooked. And I’ve never gotten out of my head the pictures that I saw years ago in a documentary about one of the last bathhouse painters – the guys who used to paint the traditional murals on the walls of […]