I was strolling right through the middle of Ginza when I ran into an event for Toyama Black ramen. Toyama Black is a somewhat extreme style of regional ramen, and I had my eye on it because it has been doing w…
My friends and I decided to grab a meal somewhere around Ginza, but there was no obvious place to go. The good spots either need a reservation, or cost too much, or have a queue, or just are not the kind of pl…
Hamamatsucho has great transport links, so knowing a few good places to eat around there comes in handy. I stumbled on this udon shop while passing through and popped in. Konpira is the name of a mountain in S…
The second place we dropped into was La Matière, a French restaurant in Kagurazaka famous for its value for money. It has been well reviewed since the day it opened and is notorious for being all but impossibl…
I came in through Narita and arrived in Ueno, and since I was right there I finally dropped by Dominique Saibron, the croissant specialty shop inside Ueno Station that I’d been wanting to try for ages. …
Kagurazaka is full of high-end restaurants with Michelin stars, but it also has plenty of places that are great value for the money. Brasserie Gus is one of those well-reviewed spots. Precisely because it is s…
I was flying back to Korea on an evening flight out of Haneda, but I had dinner plans, so I met a friend in Hamamatsucho. The monorail from Hamamatsucho gets you to Haneda Airport’s international termina…
Having come all the way to Karuizawa, I could hardly skip its most famous restaurant. Auberge de Primavera is a French restaurant well known among Tokyo gourmets. It has even appeared in Drops of God. I had t…
There was a Hoshino Onsen area near our pension. Of course the most famous place around here is Hoshinoya Karuizawa, but I didn’t see much point in staying at a pricey ryokan, so I’d planned to ski…
I was going back and forth on where to stay in Karuizawa, and by the time I’d made up my mind, all the decent hotels were already booked. That’s peak season for you. So my fallback was a pension, w…
The first place I visited after arriving in Karuizawa was the Mercian Museum. Those who know Mercian will know it as a brand of inexpensive Japanese wine. The museum is run by Kirin, famous for its beer, and b…
It was a short trip, but I found a gap in the schedule and went back to Echire, the butter pastry shop. It’s been open for quite a while now, yet it’s still popular enough that you have to queue on…