Back when I was young and first started coming to Japan, it was always for winter vacations. Because of that, Japan felt like the country of freedom, the place where I didn’t have responsibilities (an odd twist, wouldn’t you say?), and that made me love it here. To this day, certain things give me the […]
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- izakaya
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Sake no Ana, Ginza (酒の穴)
[December 2010: I see a lot of people getting to this page as a result of searches on the Google. I wanted to say: there are better places out there, even in the neighborhood. You should check out the Izakayas page. My new favorite is Moromiya, which is practically right up the road. Now back […]
- izakaya
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Santensan, Kamiyamada (三天参,上山田)
I hit the city ’bout 9 PM, loaded, loaded… OK, not exactly – 9 PM, but not at all loaded, and with no sort of Rob Halford vibe going on, I promise. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. On a loose whim, I made another one of these short trips to random, depressed country […]
- izakaya
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Kawashima, Musashi Koyama (川島)
In one of the standard books on drinking sake in Tokyo, there’s an establishment called ‘Sake no Ana’. I like to translate that as ‘The Liquor Hole’, although I’m sure there’s a more delicate way of putting it. If I had to assign a name to Kawashima, it would be ‘The Liquor Cave’. It’s a […]
- Kanda
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Hakata Fu-ryu (博多風龍)
Well, I think I finally know enough about ramen to say: I prefer Hakata ramen. Of course, I’ve been saying for ages that Ippudo is my favorite, so I should have realized this, but I was lazy about the research. And I still am, but at least I noticed that all the places with those […]
- bar
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Upset the Apple Cart, Shinjuku
Shinjuku 3-chome is an odd little block full of bars, serving as something of a slope to allow the declination of standards as one goes from Isetan’s glamorous flagship store east into 2-chome (no offense). This, to me, is what Shinjuku is all about – more adult than Shibuya, where they listen to pop music. […]
- bistro
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C’est la Vie Nagano, Shinjuku
After planning to visit the Salon du Chocolate at Shinjuku Isetan, it seemed almost like a requirement to visit one of the many eastside Shinjuku bistros afterward. I cast about with my new favorite tool, Google Maps (seriously – just search for ‘bistro’ or whatever you want, within the neighborhood that you want, and you’ll […]
Salon du Chocolat, Isetan Shinjuku
Tokyo has nearly limitless capacity to delight, and to disappoint. I thought I was terribly clever for proposing a late-afternoon trip to Shinjuku Isetan and the 2010 Salon du Chocolat. This is a fabulous event – what is ostensibly a trade fair for the chocolate industry in Paris is transplanted and reimagined as a consumer […]
- izakaya
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Umibatake, Ikebukuro (海畑)
Last year when I went to Sunny Spot in Ikebukuro, I left my camera on the bar. In fairness to myself, I was away from my seat for an extended period playing guitar, and during that time other people crowded around the spot where I had been sitting, which helped me forget the camera. But […]
- bistro
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Brasserie Bec, Yoyogi
There are a couple places I went years ago with my friend Naoko. They were all bistros – he was really good at picking bistros in outer suburbs – and after the visits I remained confused about where they were, ignorant as I was about geography in the year after I moved to Japan. In […]