Michikusa, Otemachi (道草)

まず, readers should remember that the initial impetus for EOITwJ was actually to create a Roppongi Lunches site, as suggested by Shaklee long ago. Given the coverage of expensive restaurants in many quarters, sniffing out unusual lunches around the office seemed like a more worthwhile and socially-useful function (if blogging ever is). With the move to Otemachi, the Research Team has been focused on finding Otemachi lunches. The expensive stuff is more fun, but also in some ways peripheral. Anyway, it’s a broad target audience, and we’ll continue working to meet its demands.

Another day, another funny expression in Japanese. While this will not be news to any Japanese readers, if such a species exists, Michikusa’s name means something like ‘loiter’ (in addition to the more obvious ‘roadside weeds’ sort of meaning).

I guess the implication is that you can just hang around in this relaxing environment, or perhaps “Please enjoy this food for your relax time”, or other aphorisms appropriate to omiyage packaging. I must admit, I was strangely attracted to the concept, which I didn’t expect from a restaurant with open seats at 12 PM in the greater Otemachi area. But, company or environment, I was pleased to hang around this place today.

Funny system – pay for your teishoku at the counter on the way in, then get a ticket and a little tag of plastic (smaller than, say, the tag on a locker key) color-coded to your choice. Snapper Teriyaki’s tag was pink. The snapper itself was moist, very fatty, mildly flavorful, and (deeply joyous from Koala’s perspective) bone-free. The accompaniments (you know them by heart, it’s a teishoku) were in general quite cheap and artificial-tasting. Ponkan’s pork (sort of tamago-toji tonkatsu, I didn’t see what they called it) had a sweet and spicy taste buried in the fat.

Hey, they were Y850. Whaddya want?
03-3270-1785