Happy new year? I was interested in visiting a kotatsu cafe and finally found one in Shimokitazawa! It was called Cafe Stay Happy and made me happy ? The atmosphere and food was really good ❤️

Went to a soba restaurant in Akabane called "Zenmi Kotobuki" (禅味寿). I got the "天せいろ" (Ten Seiro "Tempura Soba Served on a Bamboo Wicker Tray" If I had to translate it literally I guess lol). Cost 1350 yen and it was 大盛サービス (free extra serving of noodles). And who am I to turn down free noodles? The choice was obvious and so I got the extra helping! I really liked the atmosphere of the place too. The waitresses were wearing Japanese-style clothing as well, which made it a really nice experience. I always enjoy visiting small shops like this where the owners have it decorated in their own style and you can see all of the bottles of sake or whatever else is used to create the atmosphere of the restaurant. Anyways, as for the food, the tempura was cooked really well and the soba was the perfect texture. At the end of the meal they brought some hot soba water so I could drink the remaining tsuyu (soba sauce) as a sort of warm drink. Was a great experience that I haven't had in a while!

Like I mentioned yesterday, I went to "Tokyo Portcity Takeshiba" over the weekend and there were a ton of restaurants. The one that I chose to eat at was a tough choice, but I ultimately settled on "Do Miso Tokyo Portcity Takeshiba" (ど・みそ 東京ポートシティ竹芝店), but there was also an Okinawan-themed restaurant right next to it called "Okinawa Bar Kafu" (沖縄酒場 かふー) that looked really nice as well, and smelled good. Either way from across the isle I got to eat some delicious ramen while listening to the Okinawan music which was really relaxing and created a nice atmosphere. I'm not sure what the ramen I got was called it was just the normal miso ramen from my understanding and I believe it cost ¥1100. There's another one that looks similar, has a similar name, and costs ¥1200 but that's a white miso ramen and not the one that I got. Either way, I'm sure it tastes good as well, because my ramen tasted great! I really liked that the restaurant had metal cups as well, it gives the water a different flavor and always makes it feel more refreshing too (in my opinion at least). One thing I forgot to mention about the building; if you open up their website, another futuristic feature you'll find is that the building actually shows the number of people in the building at any one time and also shows that percentage of male and female visitors. I thought this was really amazing. I'm not sure how it's done, but they must have censors located at the doors or in other places around the building that can analyze body structure or something similar. Either way it's a cool place!

Went to Ootoya again and ordered something new. The dish used to come with meatballs if I remember correctly but it seems they changed it to fried chicken. Goes much better with the meal in my opinion and the grated radish over the top of it was a nice touch. I also really liked the pumpkin croquettes, I'm used to just normal croquette's (I'm not even sure what they're filled with), but this was a nice change of pace and was kind of refreshing, probably because it felt very healthy lol. As always all of the side items tasted great and it was all only ¥740, so pretty much a steal if you ask me

Went to a place in Nihonbashi called Hakata Dojo (博多道場) and had a really nice lunch. It's like an izakaya but it had a really nice lunchtime atmosphere as well. I ordered the 日替わり肉ランチ which cost about ¥1000 but it tasted great. I really liked the moyashi that came with the beef plate, lots of flavor and the moyashi were really juicy as well so that was nice. It was a really nice place overall, I'd like to go back and see what it's like at night, maybe they have some special courses or something as well. I really liked the lanterns though, I think that's probably what contributed most to the place having a nice atmosphere. That and it wasn't exceptionally loud like some izakaya I've been to. Also the interior was decorated quite nicely as well, besides the lanterns.

Stopped by Saizeriya for lunch and got a cod roe and shrimp doria (たらこと海老のドリア). Saizeriya is always a great place to stop by for lunch as it's generally quick and cheap. It was a set meal so it came with a soup and salad as well, but I forgot to to photos of those. The soup was a sort of consommé soup and was nothing special, but it tasted good and was all-you-can-drink so that was pretty nice. I ended up getting a few cups of it. The shrimp and cod doria was great and I love the nori on top - plentiful and tastes great. The best part is all of this was only ¥500 so it's really reasonable, as you'd expect of Saizeriya. Just thought I'd share this today, nothing too special

Was in Kanda the other day for an errand and stopped by this place called "Soba Dokoro Kameya" (そば処 かめや) outside of Kanda Station. It says "立食い" which means "standing noodles," but I didn't actually see any places to stand and eat so maybe it just meant that it was simple and quick like a standing noodle shop. I've never actually experienced what it's like to eat at a standing noodle restaurant (and actually stand while eating) but I think I prefer sitting anyways. I like to relax when I eat so I suppose that's why, but I should at least try it once, who knows, I might like it. Anyways, the place seems really affordable. I ordered the Ten Tama Soba since it was the most popular dish and it tasted great. The soup was really good and the egg was perfectly cooked. The texture of the noodles was also perfect. It's definitely a place to check out if your in the Kanda area and looking for some noodles. I think they may only be open during the morning and night, but I went around 4pm so maybe they close around that time to prepare for dinner.

Visited a Chinese restaurant in Akabane called Maraeki (麻辣駅, Malaeki?) over the weekend and got some spicy Szechuan noodles (四川風麻辣麺). The photo looked really good and they had tan tan noodles as well but I wanted to try something different. Unfortunately, I was not the biggest fan of the flavor. I think the noodles were great, and the bok choy tasted good as well, but for me the soup wasn't exactly what I was expecting. That being said I don't think it's that the flavor was bad, just that it simply wasn't for me. I enjoy spicy ramen, and the "麻辣" part of the name is "mala," apparently a spicy, numbing sauce made of Sichuanese peppercorn, chili pepper, and other ingredients simmered in oil. I went in not knowing this and paid the price I suppose. The noodles weren't actually that spicy in my opinion, but like I said, the flavor just wasn't for me. I think for anyone who enjoys Chinese food though it's a great place as it's quite affordable and the other dishes we ordered (fried rice and xiaolongbao (steamed buns)), although not pictured here, tasted great.

Went to Ootoya for lunch today and got a nice Alaska pollack set meal with vegetables pickled in black vinegar (すけそう鱈と野菜の黒酢あん定食). Cost 920 yen and it tasted great. I really like Ootoya because it's a nice place if you're looking to eat some traditional Japanese food and I'm surprised it's actually not more popular. The food is always great and you even get to choose the types of rice you want and how much. It's pretty reasonable cost-wise considering what you get as well. The ordering system is really convenient as well. With the electronic ordering tablets it's easy to add something to your order and they have English as well so if you're not confident with your Japanese you don't need to worry about it

Went to a restaurant called "Taraku" (寿司たらく尾久駅前店) near Oku Station that I've passed many times. It's name says it's the Oku Station branch so I suppose it must be a chain restaurant, not sure how many there are though. The place was quite nice and they had single-person counter seats as well as table seats. The tempura set meal was ~1000 yen and again I got another discount using the PayPay app so it only cost me about ~700 yen. It's a pretty nice place though and they seem to have a bunch of different set meals as well as seafood bowls and other stuff like that. Definitely a place to drop by if you're in the mood for sushi, tempura, or whatever kind of sushi you're thinking of. They have a lot of takeout items as well and I think they do delivery as well, so they're probably on the Uber Eats and Menu apps as well but I haven't given them a look yet. The potato salad and miso soup tasted great as well. Tsukemono is always good so there was no difference here either lol. Everything tasted great. Definitely recommend checking it out!

Went to a restaurant in Shinagawa called Ogasawara Shoten. They had some really tasty yakiniku and the drinks were really cheap as well. I ended up getting some sort of kalbi set, I don't remember the name but you can see what it came with in the picture lol. The yakiniku tasted great but the grill was a little too hot at first so I had to turn the heat down. I had to flip my meat over really fast to make sure it didn't burn at first ?. It was a fun experience though. After I got it turned down though I had a nice relaxing meal. The miso soup was nice as well (it all tasted great to be honest) and afterwards they had a free coffee service which was a nice way to end lunch. They had a pay pay campaign going on as well, so I got a nice discount for using it. Really handy app

We went to a small restaurant in Meguro called "Meguro Flat" over the holiday and had a really nice lunch together. The place had a nice atmosphere and seemed very multicultural. There were newspapers on the walls in some other languages (I'm not sure what languages, but they were Latin based at least) and posters of wines from different countries and the menu was interesting as well. If I remember correctly, jerk chicken is a local specialty of Jamaica and I've never had the chance to try it before, but this place was offering it so I decided to order it. It tasted really nice and the salad that came with it was refreshing. There was also a spoonful of mashed potatoes on the side with the pickled carrots and the place also offers all-you-can-eat bread! I love bread so that was a plus. My girlfriend ordered an assorted platter and the cream in the middle went really well with the bread so we got another free basket to eat it with lol. Incidentally, I look like I'm posing for the camera, but I was actually just admiring the atmosphere of the restaurant lol. Anyways, it's a nice place, so anyone visiting Meguro or looking for something to do should check it out. It's like a ~5 min walk from the station. I think the nighttime menu might be different as well, but I'm not certain of that.

Went to the Shinagawa Aquarium for the first time last weekend. It was my girlfriend's sister's birthday and so we made reservations for a restaurant and bought tickets to the aquarium in advance. We ate at Grill & Bar AW55, they had an all-you-can-eat salad bar, a drink bar with different types of flavored water, and some soup as well. All of it tasted really good, I really liked the Bolognese pasta, but the salad and soup both tasted delicious as well. After eating we went to the aquarium and it was really awesome, I liked seeing the jellyfish (as always) but the dolphin shows were really awesome as well. We actually stayed long enough to see the afternoon show and the night show, both with different themes. On top of that, we unintentionally got to participate in a wedding?. It was totally unexpected, they even did a special show with the dolphins to celebrate it. It was quite the spectacle to see. After enjoying the aquarium we went to get some dinner and found this hole-in-the-wall yakiniku restaurant that was unfortunately going out of business, probably due to the pandemic. Luckily for us, all drinks were 100 yen... Between the 3 of us we ended up ordering like 25 different drinks I think, we started with a round of beers that each would normally cost 600 yen, for just 100 yen, and after that we ordered a bunch of different meats and just drank every different type of drink on the menu lol. I was trying everything; plum wine, sours, beers.. we were a little drunk on the way out of the restaurant but we ended the night with some cake around 11pm still! All in all, it was a total blast.

Went to a place called Menya Tenno (麺屋天王) between Oji Station, Tabata Station and Oji Station (Tokyo Sakura Tram) and ordered some miso ramen. Before the pandemic I went there once or twice and it was great both times, but I decided to revisit for the first time in a while. I think it was just as good or maybe even better than before, but it's definitely tasty. I remember the last time I went I ordered the standard thin noodles since that's what the stores specializes in, but this time I figured I'd try the thick noodles and see what it was like. I couldn't really compare the two since it'd been so long since I went to this ramen shop but I remember the last time tasted great and this time tasted great as well, so I don't think the thickness of the noodles changes the quality in any way. The chashu is also really good as well, I added that as a topping for ¥200. I can't remember if I ordered gyoza the last time I went, but I ordered them this time and they tasted delicious, better gyoza than most ramen restaurants I've been to in my honest opinion, and they're nice and juicy as well. I tried to take a photogenic angle of the gyoza but it was difficult with the lack of space?. I did my best though! Anyways, it's a tasty ramen shop, so I definitely recommend it to anyone in the area!

Went to a soba restaurant in Ueno called Rengyoku-an (蓮玉庵) over the weekend and ordered same really tasty tempura and soba. I ordered the Tempura Seiro Soba (天せいろそば) and it was a bit pricey at 1750 yen but it tasted great. What I really liked about the restaurant though (besides the food), was the atmosphere of the place. It had a bunch of really awesome art hanging on the walls that was reminiscent of Edo Period art and I'm a pretty big fan of that so it was really enjoyable. The inside of the building was grey but it was very stylish. I'm not sure what the walls were made of, but it seemed to be some sort of granite and the coloring of the seats was also in a similar fashion but very tasteful. I definitely want to go back here again and try some more of their dishes! It's pretty close to Okachimachi Station so it's pretty easy to drop in for lunch.

I forgot to post this photo as it wasn't at Asukayama Park, but it was on the way. As we were walking to Asukayama Park we looked over the side of this bridge and I saw this small little garden and just thought it was really nice. To the right of the garden there's a small French bistro that looked like a nice quiet place to grab a bite to eat but it wasn't open at the time. I was curious so I did a little research about the place and it turns out the chef used to work at the Imperial Hotel for more than 20 years. It makes sense too, because I looked at some of the food they serve at this bistro and it looks pretty darn good. I'd love to stop by when it's open. Hopefully next time I'm in the area!

Dropped by a cafe near Oji Station the other day and ordered a small chocolate cake and a tea. It looks strikingly similar to the one I had at the pasta restaurant a few days ago, with very minor differences lol. I didn't take a photo of the tea unfortunately, I was too focused on eating the cake?. I suppose it's a popular dessert combination as it seems quite easy but delicious at the same time. The cafe is called Dining Cafe Tagen (ダイニング カフェTAGEN). When I passed it on Halloween they were opening the large doors at the front of the shop and preparing some sort of Halloween event, although I wasn't able to see exactly what was going on with it. They had a big speaker as well, so maybe they were going to sing and give candy away lol. I'm not really sure though. I think they were wearing costumes as well, it looked pretty interesting. It's a nice place though. It can be a bit cramped at times but otherwise it's a nice place to go for a coffee and dessert if you're in the area. You can also take the streetcar (Tokyo Sakura Tram) to get there as well which is a plus!

Went and had some pasta at a small cafe called Abbraccio the other day. I got a cream and mushroom sauce penne which tasted great. The salad was served with a small slice of bread which complimented it quite well. The desert was really simple but tasted excellent. Just add a bit of the whip cream (I think it's whip cream anyways) and the (what I thought was) cherry sauce and it a great way to finish the meal. They had a PayPay campaign going on as well and we managed to get a 50% discount and only ended up paying ¥700 per meal, which was pretty incredible considering we got the drink sets as well, which unfortunately aren't pictured here, but I ordered a chamomile tea I believe. Or something similar to that. It was also quite refreshing. The place seems to have a couple of balcony seats as well but I'm not sure if you have to request them or reserve them or what, but by the time we noticed them we were already seated so we decided not to ask. Overall it was a pretty good place and the service was good as well

Went to the local restaurant Gigi again and ordered ahijo with some bread, always a great combination, french fries like we usually get (we'd already eaten some before we took the photo lol), karaage that reminded me of zangi a lot with the texture and flavor, and then we ordered an assorted appetizer platter with a bunch of stuff. I really liked the bread and the potato salad, and the crackers were great too. I think they were served with cream cheese or something like that on the side, but it tasted great. I also ate them with the thinly sliced meat that was on the plate. Every time we come here the food is always really good and the atmosphere is nice as well. The lights are dimmed and it's really relaxing. We also ordered a pizza but forgot to take a photo of it this time. The Japanese name is「ピッツェリア＆トラットリア ジッジ」I believe

Went to Shinjuku over the weekend and found a really awesome plaza with an open-style food court that had several different shops inside of it. I was kind of craving some tacos or something ethnic at the time so I went and got a burrito at "Chronic Tacos" because it looked really tasty. It's kind of a "build-your-own burrito" system which is nice. You can choose the type of meat you want in your burrito (I chose spicy pork) and and other toppings I think. I also added guacamole to mine. You can add it on the side or have it put into the burrito as well. I wanted to try a taco as well but since there were other restauraunts I grabbed two slices of pizza at a place called "Cucinova." The pizza tasted great, and the spicy slice that I got had the perfect amount of spicyness! The food was definitely great at both places, although maybe the burrito was a bit expensive. I think it was ¥1200 for a drink and the burrito. They could probably make it a little cheaper, although Mexican cuisine always seems to be a bit expensive in Japan. Maybe it has to do with ingredients. Not sure though. Overall, I definitely recommend checking it out. They've got a coffee place as well and while I didn't get a coffee from there the scones looked pretty tasty! I think there was a bar as well if you're looking to grab some drinks with a friend.

Went to dinner last night at Tokyo Butchers in Okachimachi. The place had a really great atmosphere and reminded me of an American restaurant sort of. The food tasted great and there was a lot of different stuff to try. A lot of the stuff they served was presented very stylishly and each dish left an impression on me. I particularly liked the steak and fries (probably something to do with my American roots lol). I believe the second dish was "Pate de campagne" which is French for "country pate I believe. It tasted really good though. I think it's a ham steak with ground pork? Not entirely sure what type of meats are used in it exactly. The salad was great too, I really liked the dressing as it was quite refreshing. The champagne glasses came nice and full as well! Can't complain about that lol! The strangest thing we ordered was definitely the melon and ham. It was... an interesting combination. I wasn't really a fan of it so we just ate it separately and it tasted good that way as well. I really like that olives too. Now that I think about it, I don't get the chance to eat olives much since I've come to Japan. Definitely recommend this restaurant for a date or just a fun night out though!

Autumn rice ?

Went to Chiba over the weekend and we were originally planning on visiting Mt. Nokogiri but decided to stay near the bay area instead since the weather was so nice. It really felt like we were in a resort area and it was a lot of fun. We managed to book a cruise of the nearby factories and it was a blast. They had snack bags for feeding the seagulls on board the ship that you could buy for ¥100 and once we started moving the seagulls started to follow and it just became a feeding frenzy. You’d throw the chips out to the seagulls as the flew side by side with the ship and they were really skilled at catching the chips as well. If it was a weak throw or the wind caught it, the seagull would dive down to catch it. Even if they missed it, another seagull behind it would swoop into the water and grab it. We bought two bags and halfway through the second bag you could tell the seagulls were getting full or tired because they weren’t as agile as they were at the start?. We also ate at a few restaurants. The steak and fried rice and the beef ramen was from Niku no Gyuuchu (肉の牛忠) I’m not sure if it has an English name or not. And the pizza was from a place called “Salvatore Cuomo.” Both tasted pretty good, I enjoyed the Italian restaurant more I think, but the steak restaurant had a nice, relaxed atmosphere compared to the rest of Lalaport which was pretty lively. I somehow lost the pictures I took of my pasta and the salad unfortunately. We also went inside Chiba Port Tower and it had some nice views and a “lovers corner” for taking photos, etc. They also had heart-shaped locks that visitors could buy and lock to a wall to signify their love or something to that effect. Overall it was a really fun experience and not too far from Tokyo. Would definitely like to go back and visit again!

I stopped by Tokyo Station over the weekend to take care of an errand and decided to have lunch at the gyutan restaurant "Rikyu" (利久). Everything tasted amazing and the stew was especially good. I always enjoy the soup served with gyutan, it's sort of like a refreshing break in between the savory bites of beef. Plus the beef inside of the soup is soft from being boiled and has a really nice texture to it. I was pretty surprised at the salad actually, as well. I usually am not a fan of the salads served with gyutan but this one had the perfect amount of beef on it and the dressing tasted quite nice, so that was a welcome surprise. The wagashi served with it tasted really good. I'm not sure about what it was exactly, but it was red bean paste with some sort of white filling, maybe even white bean paste, but it was a good way to finish the meal.

Went to Hanaya Yohei, a restaurant near Oku Station and ordered the Miso-Nikomi Udon. It tasted pretty good and cost less than ¥1000 yen. I'd like to go back as the atmosphere of the restaurant was quite nice and it seemed like there was a lot of different menu items to try. I'd walked past the restaurant so many times in the past, and just never had the opportunity to go in until now. Overall it was a pretty good place and even though it seemed like there was a lot of people we got seated instantly which was nice.

Had a really good looking and tasting bowl of ramen in Shinjuku over the weekend and decided to take a bunch of pictures of it lol. There's so many ramen shops around Shinjuku Station that it was hard to choose where to go at first but we ended up choosing this place - Manbaken Ramen (萬馬軒). The chashu looked amazing just seeing the photos so I decided to get the miso chashu ramen with an egg topping. The ramen tasted really great and the chashu was thick, had a nice salty flavor, and the texture was really nice as well. My girlfriend ordered the spicy miso ramen and unfortunately we didn't think it tasted as good as the normal miso. It was almost like there was yuzu or sansho pepper inside of it and it gave it a strange tangy flavor that neither of us were huge fans of. I still definitely recommend the normal miso ramen though! The normal miso chashu ramen was ¥1100 and a normal bowl of miso ramen is just ¥790

I wonder if it's a good relationship... The arrival of autumn

Went out and ate ramen over the weekend. Was the first time I've done so in a while. The restaurant was called '背油とんこつらーめん 雷門' in Monzen-nakacho I got the spicy miso ramen (I don't remember the exact name, it was something special) and it was really good. My girlfriend got just a standard miso and it was good as well. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be going back there because I want to try the other ramen they serve now lol. The miso that I got was more of a brown color than the usual orange that I see so I was kind of skeptical at first, but it turn out to be delicious and the chashu was really thickly cut and also tasted great. There was even an egg topping and I didn't have to pay extra for that or the chashu! I definitely recommend it to anyone that likes ramen! Other than that the whether wasn't so bad this weekend, but the leaves have started falling so we're definitely in fall at this point. It's starting to get colder outside as well. I've already starting using the heater instead of the air conditioning. Looking forward to some hot pot and oden though!

Starting to rain more and more lately. I guess we've finally left summer and are headed into fall. I had some nice Okinawan noodles today. Really tasty restaurant. The karaage was really delicious as well. I usually eat the karaage and salad separately but I was curious to try them together this time and it tasted amazing. I regret always eating them separately now lol! I don't remember what the restaurant was called but it was somewhere in a shopping mall. I can't remember what the seaweed dish is called either but it had an.. interesting flavor. Really healthy I imagine though! The cookie was a great dessert too. Just a small little snack and not too sweet either. I definitely want to go back here and try some of the other stuff they serve!

Man, yesterday I was just too busy to even log in. I did manage to eat some delicious pasta though. It was a small restaurant I found at Oji Station called "Ombra." The noodles were really interesting. They were thick and hollow. I forget what they were called but the pasta tasted great and the salad did as well. I definitely recommend eating here. I didn't manage to take a photo of the outside of the restaurant but it shows up on google easy enough if you just search it. The interior was really nice as well. Quiet and dim and there were a lot of photos on the wall as well. It made waiting for my food quite enjoyable. There was also an award on the wall as well, although I forget exactly what it said. If I remember correctly, it had something to do with excellent quality, or something similar to that. Also the pasta seems to change daily so I'll have to go back and try the other kinds