An unintentionally caustic remark on one of the information boards that adorn Rainbow Bridge exposes the Gordian knot resting at the center of the vast Odaiba reclamation project in Tokyo Bay. "In the distance are Mount Fuji and the Keihin/Keiyou oil refineries," it reads. The challenge ...
As Notes From the Smoke afternoons go, the one I spent in Monzennaka-cho got off to an unpromising start. The area around exit three of the station was dominated by a spiteful wind and a towering, mucus-colored amusement arcade that could have stored oil tankers. A ...
Going to the movies is one of life's great simple pleasures. Going to the movies in Japan and managing to stay solvent is one of life's great achievements. The Ginrei Hall cinema in the leafy, cultured neighborhood of Iidabashi is a godsend for parsimonious film buffs. A ...
Culturally speaking, yakitori is as about Japanese as sumo wrestling, origami and the cultivation of square watermelons. Spiritually, however, there is something profoundly Scottish about your average yakitori experience; a lot of drinking, smoking, ribbing and swearing accompanies the joyful devouring of mysterious gizzards. It was ...
Major Sports Bar #23 in Takadanobaba is a real sports fan's sports bar. While several other Tokyo establishments in this sector are strewn with strippers, karaoke machines and other moral hazards, genial owner Kazuyuki Yamauchi keeps things simple at #23. For a start, the bar has ...
