From day two we rolled out with a proper crew. You really need four at a table to go to one place and eat properly, after all. After picking up a new member arriving from Korea at the airport, we headed straig…
If Hazumiya was a modest starter, Tama was where this food meetup really got going. Tama is in Higashihonmachi in Matsue, and its regulars are mostly the serious food lovers of the neighborhood. They run thei…
Around mid-December we had a gourmet meetup to welcome the winter. The town I live in now faces the sea, so seafood is plentiful in winter. The idea was to invite some serious foodies from Korea and Tokyo and …
Over the year-end holidays I booked a table at Papa Chubo for a get-together with a few fellow Koreans. In Japan, when you get a craving for something spicy, a Sichuan-style Chinese place is a far better bet t…
I’m up, so it’s time to eat. A quick search turned up a well-rated bakery near Sannomiya. Kobe streets in the morning A street with real atmosphere. I like it. The entrance of Boulangerie Comme …
The best part of a Japanese matsuri has to be the food stalls. Without yatai, it just doesn’t feel like a festival. Yaki ramen, a Fukuoka specialty Yakisoba is famous all over Japan, but yaki ramen wa…
Lunch had filled me up, but calling it a day right there felt like a bit of a waste. So I decided to squeeze in one more stop and headed over toward Kitano. The front of the Kobe Kitano Hotel It was on the w…
I was wandering around trying to decide what to have for lunch when I happened to stumble on a branch of Igrek. It’s on the 6th floor of the Uniqlo building near Daimaru. I’d already eaten a pretty…
On the morning of Saturday, December 11, I suddenly felt like seeing the Kobe Luminarie. It is apparently an event that has been held every year to commemorate the Great Hanshin Earthquake, and figuring that i…
Tama is an izakaya run by a pair of brothers who are fishermen, and since I’d heard they get great ingredients in, I picked a day and went. That’s the perk of a town by the sea. A place where peopl…
Ogikubo has much the same feel as its neighbors on the Chuo Line, like Asagaya and Koenji. There’s a shopping street with some history and a fair number of decent places to eat, but since it’s a qu…
I’d had an all-night wine party with friends I hadn’t seen in ages, so there was no way I was getting up on time. I somehow managed to open my eyes around 11 and headed out for lunch. Before lunch…