I went to Higomons, a Kumamoto ramen shop and the seventh and last ramen place at Shinatatsu. Kumamoto is a place name in Kyushu. Of all the regional ramen styles, the first one to make it to Shinjuku was Keik…
Kibi, the chuka soba shop from Kanda, was another place I’d wanted to try for a long time. It’s the kind of classic chuka soba that ordinary folks have loved for generations, and I was curious what…
My tour of the ramen shops at Shinatatsu is now past the halfway mark. This time it’s Asahikawa Ramen Saijo, from Asahikawa in Hokkaido. The place is known for its “legendary” shio ramen. The…
Tsukemen Tetsu is a ramen shop in Shinatatsu, Shinagawa. My office is nearby, so I’ve had plenty of chances to drop by Shinatatsu, and this place always had the longest line, which kept nagging at me. Th…
This is another one of Tokyo’s famous ramen shops. It became popular with a very unusual concept: kuro miso (black miso) ramen. It shows up on TV and in magazines all the time. Recently they also opened …
Hakata Tenjin is a popular ramen shop that’s been opening branches all over the city at a crazy pace lately. There seem to be more than a dozen of them already. It focuses on busy neighborhoods like Ikeb…
On the way back from my trip to Kamakura, I stopped by Yoshimuraya, said to be the originator of Yokohama iekei ramen. I almost never have a reason to go to Yokohama, so I figured if I didn’t go on a tri…
I’d enjoyed my meal at the Ikebukuro branch, but I still found myself wanting to try the main shop. My headphones had broken too, so I headed out to Nakano. The building The line is seriously long. Toda…
I’ve been going pretty hard lately, so I had no plans to push myself and party all night, but an acquaintance got in touch asking if I wanted to hit a club together on Friday night… I looked around…
I think Kamakura might be the best of the nearby sightseeing spots you can reach by train from Tokyo. From Shinjuku, the Shonan-Shinjuku Line gets you there in under an hour. Hakone and Nikko, by comparison, a…
Right behind the house where I live is a Chongryon-affiliated middle and high school called Tokyo Korean Junior and Senior High School. I see the students every morning on my way to work, but I’d never a…
Lately I’ve found myself surprised by my own photos now and then. It’s not so much that I took great pictures — it’s more like, was Tokyo really this kind of place? Was I always the kind of p…