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…
Whenever I get together with friends in Tokyo, it’s always Shibuya or Shinjuku. That’s because they’re easy to get to. Even among people who work in Tokyo, a lot of them live in Saitama, west…
Despite the name, Nakameguro is actually a fair way from Meguro. It’s closer to Ebisu and Daikanyama, and like Daikanyama it’s a quiet, stylish neighborhood. A small river called the Meguro River r…
I’ve been working my way through every ramen shop in Ikebukuro that’s supposed to be famous, and Menya Musashi is going to be the last one. If you count the not-so-famous places too, there are tons…
Mutekiya is one of those famous shops that always ranks near the top among Ikebukuro’s ramen places. These days I’m working my way through pretty much every ramen shop in Tokyo that’s worth a…