ARGO, a French Restaurant in Hanzomon
The Hanzomon/Kojimachi/Akasaka area looks quiet on the surface, so there isn’t much for tourists to see, but it’s actually the de facto center of Japanese politics, home to the Imperial Palace, the…
The Hanzomon/Kojimachi/Akasaka area looks quiet on the surface, so there isn’t much for tourists to see, but it’s actually the de facto center of Japanese politics, home to the Imperial Palace, the…
Shibuya has so many people passing through that it’s hard to find long-established restaurants, but there are well-reviewed places tucked away that fly under the radar. VIRON is a chain started by a famo…
After a bowl of Inaniwa udon, I headed straight to the Koenji Station area to meet some friends. Nothing special to talk about, really, just an excuse to eat together. Rent is cheap around here and it has good…
Inaniwa udon is a specialty of Akita. I first saw it ages ago in Oishinbo, where they said it was made in a completely different way from Sanuki or Kansai udon yet was incredibly good, so I’d been meanin…
On my last business trip to Tokyo I went to Oedo Onsen Monogatari in Odaiba, one of the few proper hot springs in Tokyo. (I’d say Spa LaQua at Tokyo Dome is the next-best proper one… though of cour…
Shiraike Jigoku, the “White Pond Hell,” gets its name because, unlike the Blood Pond Hell, its hot water is white, but it’s actually better known for its aquarium. Piranhas and so on: they us…
I got up early thinking I’d have a soak somewhere, and where I ended up was Beppu’s hell tour. It’s seven hot-spring theme parks, each called a “hell,” but for hot-spring theme pa…
Arriving in Beppu late at night, there was nowhere to go. Especially nowhere to eat. I searched on my iPhone for somewhere good, but found absolutely nothing. And the local favourites all close for Golden Week…
The sky keeps getting darker and I’ve lost my way. At this rate, who knows when I’ll ever reach my destination, Beppu… Kurokawa Onsen wasn’t in the plan at first either, but Yufuin also…
On the way to my next stop, Beppu, which I wasn’t expecting much from, there turned out to be a cluster of famous hot-spring villages. The schedule was so rushed that I hadn’t had a proper lunch, s…
I was in a hurry on the way up for fear of traffic, so I took the photos I couldn’t take then on the way down, in a more relaxed mood. Going up we came from the Kumamoto side and coming down we headed to…
It isn’t that far, but the traffic was terrible and it was a real slog. Anyway, after all sorts of twists and turns – and thanks to the bold decision to drastically cut down our list of stops ̵…