I came to Tokyo Midtown in Roppongi for the first time in a while, showing some visitors around. But wait, Le Pain Quotidien has moved into the spot where Tsutaya and Starbucks used to be? This bakery …
Tokyo Station gets so much traffic that it has quite a few interesting shops. Press Butter Sand Apparently it is a butter sandwich cookie specialty shop produced by BAKE, the Jiyugaoka brand famous for…
On the way back from L’atelier de Plaisir I made a quick stop at Komaba-Todaimae. There was one more place I wanted to see. An ultra town This is Soshigaya-Okura Station, said to be the birthplac…
I lived in Japan for a long time, but I never really had the chance to properly explore the Setagaya area on the west side of Tokyo. Setagaya itself is an enormous area, the transport is not great, and since i…
I’m always checking the Tabelog rankings, and a place had climbed to what was effectively the number one spot in the bakery category, so I planned a trip out to Setagaya around it. Plaisir is the place i…
Futako-Tamagawa has an ayu (sweetfish) ramen shop that has been famous for ages. Do sweetfish and ramen really go together, though? Come to think of it, the manga Ramen Hakkenden (published in Korea as Ramen C…
When work gets busy I have no time to go out to eat, so I just grab something from a convenience store. Here are the items that turned out to be pretty good. Morinaga Pino, limited edition The fruit co…
Here is a quick roundup of the things I had for lunch. Ramen at Tenko It is a ramen shop with an unusual concept, where a lady in a kimono welcomes you in, but the ramen itself is just so-so.. She does…
Work was so busy this summer that I couldn’t get out to drink whisky at all. About the most I managed was heading to Campbeltown Loch whenever The Whisky Hoop released something interesting. GlenD…
My regular round-up of scenery photos. Tokyo Tower The sky Tanabata event Tokyo Tower on Tanabata Zojoji was absolutely packed with people. The newly…
There is a Spanish restaurant near the office, and it somehow looked tasty, so I went in. The front entrance When a menu is packed with descriptions, the odds are good that the food is tasty. Sa…
I heard that Tsukugon, the oden fish-cake specialist, was closing at the end of June, so I paid one last visit. Tsukugon.. Such a shame, really. Tsukiji Shouro I had heard their tamagoyaki was …