When I head out for lunch in Hamamatsucho, there are two restaurants that always have a line. One is Echigoya, where I went this time, and the other is a place called Yamaya that serves all-you-can-eat mentaik…
I brought back all sorts of local specialties from my trip to Hamamatsu. Gyoza from Maruwa Shoten These are the gyoza that locals line up for, and they are quite cheap too. Even in Hamamatsu, Japan’s …
I got to Tokyo Station around lunchtime and, after dithering over where to eat, went into a restaurant inside the station. Surprisingly, there are quite a few decent places inside Tokyo Station. I could have h…
After arriving in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, I dropped into a Russian restaurant for lunch. It seems to be a pretty old establishment in this neighbourhood. Borscht soup It was closer to a stew than a soup. Plent…
Somehow I ended up on a trip around the Hamamatsu area of Shizuoka. Here are a few photos I took while wandering around. Manneken of Ginza at a highway rest area It looked like it had only just opened, and …
I had decided to set off on a trip early the next morning, and there was no time to put together a proper breakfast, so I came out to Tokyo Station to buy some bread. VIRON It has the feel of a Paris bistro…
While I was busy hunting for good restaurants within walking distance, I heard a rumor that there was a nice Western-style restaurant in Ryogoku, so I dropped by one Saturday for lunch. Ryogoku is famous for s…
One evening I could not be bothered to cook dinner, so I went to a Chinese place in the neighbourhood. Seian Tosyomen There are plenty of Chinese restaurants around here, but I had no idea which ones were a…
I heard there was a cream puff shop in Ningyocho that people line up for, so I dropped by one Saturday. They sell freshly made cream puffs in limited numbers three times a day, at 9, 12 and 5, and they sell ou…
Right in front of the entrance to the food floor of Nihonbashi Takashimaya, one of the top department stores in Tokyo, there is a cake shop called Au Bon Vieux Temps. Whenever I dropped by there were never any…
While wandering the streets of Asakusa I stumbled on a shop specialising in daigaku imo. Daigaku imo is candied sweet potato, what we call goguma mattang in Korea. It looks roughly like this. It has that sp…
After a good lunch, I headed to the next place for dessert. The back streets of Asakusa are full of famous old shops, and one of them is a well-regarded anmitsu specialist, so I gave it a try. The entrance …