Nakasendō Soba

I have been walking the old Nakasendō road this year, trying to catch up to my old walking group, which has been difficult as I have been busy and away from Tokyo for much of the past few months. But I finally made it to Karuizawa, a hike that included climbing over the Usui Pass, an elevation gain of some 700 meters through a forest full of bears. We did not see any bears, but they had […]

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TOKYO FOOD-X, 2026

Every year for the past six or seven years I have gone to Tokyo Food-X, a big food trade show held at Tokyo Big Site, in Ariake. It is mainly an event for foreign food and beverage companies to try to get their product into the Japanese market, although there are also Japanese producers who want to show off their wares. I have been introduced to quite a few “interesting” things (sake made from mare’s milk) and […]

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Vending Machines

Tokyo, as well as the rest of Japan, is famous for its vending machines, both the number of them as well as what they dispense. There are of course machines that sell cold and hot drinks, everything from green tea and iced coffee to hot coffee and hot tea, as well as water, soft drinks, and juices. Pretty much everywhere you look you will find some sort of vending machine. There are so many that when Tokyo […]

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Tokyo Craft Beer

I recently stopped by one of my favorite craft beer breweries, Folkways, over on the east side of the Sumida River near Kiba Park and met a family from San Francisco who were in Tokyo to visit breweries and drink craft beer. I have met many Japanese people who have gone to Portland, Oregon (my hometown) specifically to enjoy the craft beer scene, but this was the first time I had met people from the U.S. who […]

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Chagusaba (茶草場)

This week I read an article in The Japan Times about a traditional method of growing tea that is practiced in Shizuoka prefecture known as chagusaba. The process involves growing silver grass (a weed) and sasa (ground cover bamboo) to use as a mulch between rows of tea bushes. The grasses are dried, then composted, before eventually being applied to the fields, the mulch providing natural nutrients for the bushes as well as insulation against the cold […]

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Tōfu ya Ryōri Yomoyamo 豆腐屋料理　四方八方

Last night, after talking about it for several months, my wife and I finally walked a few meters down the street to try the fairly new restaurant Tōfu ya Ryōri Yomoyamo. It is located in Ningyōchō, on Amazakiyokochō in the space formerly occupied by Sukeroku, a long-time yakitori restaurant that closed its doors a while back. And despite the presence of tōfu and yuba making equipment in a small room facing the sidewalk, the cuisine turned out […]

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DAISHICHI SAKE 　大七日本酒

On May 22, 2010, my wife and I, along with other members of a group of people that were into food and things related to food, went up to Nihonmatsu in Fukushima prefecture to plant rice for a special sake that Daishichi Shuzō would make with it. I had almost forgotten about it and then a couple of weeks ago my wife and I received messages informing us that some of the sake made with our rice […]

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Sakuma さく間

To celebrate my birthday last week, my wife made reservations at a local restaurant we had never been to before, Sakuma (さく間). I was familiar with the restaurant, and one time talked to the owners about what sort of cuisine they served, but then the pandemic hit and our dining out became less frequent and I kind of forgot about the place. That may be in part because it is located on a side street in Kakigarachō […]

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New Versions of Two Old Favorites: Edomasa and Shukuzū

Two of my most favorite restaurants near where I live recently were more or less forced to undergo some major changes, in one place for the better, and in the other, I still not sure. Both are tachinomi-ya (stand and eat and drink) places I have frequented for nearly my entire time in Japan, Edomasa, in Higashinihonbashi, and Shukuzū in Ningyōchō. First, the change for the better:   For the second time in the past seven years […]

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Tōfu

My wife frequently says that the Ningyōchō of today is not the same as it was ten years ago. Or even five years ago. And nothing, in my opinion, epitomizes that sentiment more than the loss of our neighborhood tōfu shops. When I moved here fifteen some years ago there were six tōfu shops within a few minutes walk, one in Kakigarachō that was the first to go, perhaps because the tōfu wasn’t really all that good; […]

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