At the end of May I had to make a sudden trip to Tokyo. The schedule was so packed that I barely got to eat properly. It was a bit of a shame, but I’ll post the few good places I managed to drop by along the way.

Azumabashi Yabu Soba

If I’m going to a soba shop in Tokyo, this is the first place that comes to mind. It’s a pity they only open for lunch, but there’s hardly anywhere else with this kind of value for money.

Tenzaru soba

Both the tempura and the soba are top class. They never let me down. If you’re not sure what good soba is supposed to taste like, I’d suggest trying it here once. The price is very reasonable too (1,500 yen plus 8% tax).

By the way, now that the consumption tax is 8%, price labelling feels like a mess. Going from 5% to 8% isn’t actually a huge difference, but the real problem isn’t that prices went up; it’s that it’s harder than before to work out how much you have to pay. With so many places where you have to pay in cash, and the obligation to display tax-inclusive prices gone, I kept getting confused about how much to hand over. It’s a problem you can solve by stuffing your wallet with cash -_- but it took me a little while to get used to it.

Soba-yu

The soba tea was good too, and it was a pleasant lunch. I’d like to come back again, though I have no idea when that will be

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