Wow, everything that’s great about Japanese dining, under one roof! I was positively euphoric after this dinner – so fresh, so delicious, seasonal, well-cooked, nicely presented, reasonably-priced…it’s a mystery to me why this Tsushima isn’t profiled in the usual places or rated more highly. It’s also a mystery why I didn’t visit for the first […]
washoku
Uomatsu, Monzennakacho
Post-ice cream, pre-dinner snack? Check. Uomatsu opens at 3 PM on Sundays, and is always full when I walk by at night. Has to be something going on there. They specialize in cheap, fresh seafood, cooked ‘beach style’ on the red charcoal grills that sit on every table. For lunch they advertise the ‘one coin’ […]
En, Marunouchi (だし茶漬け えん, 新丸ビル)
I swear that the current boom products are ochazuke and tsukemen. Both of these are, for me, in a class of “nice, but a little too subtle”, and for some reason I want to describe ochazuke as ‘pallid’. It’s a very gentle sort of snack. Anyway, En is a counter fast food ochazuke place that […]
Tsukudaya, Monzennakacho (寿司割烹佃屋)
OK, so it was probably a mistake to go out for a little dinner, alone, two days after the new year. But it was Friday night, I didn’t feel like sitting around home any more, and plenty of places were open. Despite the length of time I’ve lived in Monnaka, there are still plenty of […]
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Tobishima, Sakata (酒田、山形県)
One dangerous thing about having a car is that you’ll tend to drive it. So when faced with the prospect of nothing to do in Akita and a train late in the day, we looked at the map and set out semi-randomly for the coast. Sakata in Yamagata was the nearest city, and 2 hours […]
Okuyama Ryokan, Doroyu Onsen, Yuzawa
If you saw this while out for a Saturday drive (ominous smoke, signs warning you not to get out of the car…) you’d hardly get excited, no? The pleasant approach to Doroyu Onsen (yay, “Muddy Hot Water”, sounds great) looked like we were entering Hell Town. Get ready for a long digression. This reminded me […]
Motoyu Club, Yuzawa
Not being really in the business of reviewing onsen (nor foreign prefectures, for that matter), EOITwJ will concentrate on the food at the various Akita onsen where we just stayed, and probably just the interesting food at that. If you’ve ever been to an onsen you have a pretty good idea what to expect; variations […]
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Shioya, Roppongi
In the basement of this building you’ll find the famous grilled-pork specialist Tontokoton. Upstairs there’s a very dignified-looking sushi place, and a very un-dignified-looking Okinawa place specializing in salt-grilling. We went the undignified route! Not a lot of options at lunch – today there was sanma (I thought the season was over! O’Hara served us […]
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Kokonotsuido, Futakotamagawa
Yummy washoku anchored by soba in a basement setting calculated to remind you of rustic farmhouses. I think you’ve been to places like this before, but the food here is quite good. In a strange twist for Tokyo, and I must say one that makes you think of the country, this place feels big. The […]
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Zen, Roppongi (膳, 芋洗坂)
In troubled times, nothing comforts like soul food. Thus on a difficult day like today, suffering through bizarre work orders from various sides, trepidation about the future of the team, and existential angst about life, it was a pleasure to be turned away from two other establishments on Imoraizaka and find ourselves in Zen. (The […]