Escape from LA: Japan

Tokyo-My favorite aspect of Tokyo may be the many closet-sized to bedroom-sized, low-key, calm and inviting restaurants that dot the cityscape. Most of my favorite experiences were in such places, with some of my favorites to be found in the relatively sleepy sub-city of Ebisu, a section of Tokyo that seems to whisper rather than shout, and one that seems quite comfortable with the fact it doesn't always end up in the guidebooks. One of the best meals I had was a simple set meal, with a group of Japanese 30-somethings we met, served in what seemed to be someone's living room, though it was a working restaurant.


Of course there are other things to do than hanging out in tiny restaurants...

Tsukiji Market (pictured above) is the largest fish market in the world, featuring rows and rows of fresh catch, and long rows of tiny restaurants (outside the main warehouse) selling fresh fish.



Sushi Dai (pictured above) is the restaurant I always come back to. The wait (at 8 AM) can be upwards of two hours. Once you make it past the coveted position of being pressed against the doorway you are escorted into a small dining room that seats about twelve, with minimal room for a post breakfast stretch. There are no plates, just a clean bar on which ridiculously fresh fish, with seemingly little in common with whatever you've had before, is laid before you upwards of 15 times in the course of your meal. The chef picks the majority of the meal for you, packing the fish atop the rice as you watch, and then politely instructing the audience, fish by fish, regarding the amount of soy sauce, if any, to add. Listen to him. The only downside is that you'll never really enjoy sushi again...until you come back.

The little restaurant across from Rappongi station marked only with kanji characters and a narrow door that goes down a spiral staircase to a glowing cavern of beer and udon-I know that my title has an inverse relationship with the concept of specificity, but if you find this place, and try the udon, you'll never be able to repay me for the recommendation. ALL udon I've ever had and, I suppose, will ever have, bears little resemblance to the sweating cauldrons of perfectly toned noodles and decidedly minimal broth at this udon spot of all udon spots. I only wish I had kept my receipt.

The tuna with fresh wasabi at Jackpot in Ebisu: The first time you have really fresh wasabi might be like the first time one hears Black Oak Arkansas after years of the Kings of Leon. Paired with good, red tuna, the effect is even more invigorating.

Piss Alley: Piss Alley, which may or may not be bulldozed by the time you read this, or make it to Tokyo, is as much a treasure as I've found anywhere in the country. If you go by the guidebooks, it's basically as close as one gets to Occupation-era Tokyo in the radically different city of today. What you find, off the north exit of Shinjuku Station, is a long, relatively narrow alley, with tiny, smoky, sit-down yakitori counters filled with drunk and half-drunk sararimen. I've been greeted somewhat coldly on one occasion, and like a respected emissary on another.



Department Store Food Halls: One of the greatest pleasures of Tokyo, besides the bearably cheesy onsen-theme park in Odaiba (a veritable Japanese Medieval Times), are the food halls that exist in the basements of the multi-level department stores of the city. Glass cases, top-soaked with drool I suppose, hold everything from perfectly sculpted donuts to jamon iberico to packaged mochi. I spent every meal of my last day in Tokyo at the Isetaan Food Hall in Shinjuku, with much of the time spent just dreaming, and obsessing over an inability to make a decision with the sheer mass of choices.

Lawsons: These are all over Japan, actually. Kind of like a Japanese 7-11, with refreshingly good rice balls filled with tuna, salmon or the simple - but undeniably good - seaweed with vinegar. Provided many a breakfast during my last trip.




Osaka- What was the best meal I had in Osaka? Maybe the tempura we had, in a quiet little bar (below) in Dotomburi, while enjoying beer and great conversation with the owner's son, whose mom kept scolding him for not paying enough attention to the couple who were actually enjoying a full meal. Maybe it was the okonimyaki (basically a Japanese omelet, or pizza, as they often refer to it), made for us on the street, right by the Dotomburi canal. Or maybe it was the yakitori we had, in the narrowest restaurant I think I've ever seen, in a neighborhood a bit off the path where Japanese businessmen walk around with 21 year old prostitutes. It was definitely not the takoyaki, though it wasn't terrible by any means.




Kyoto: I remember Kyoto more for the temples, and the bike rides, than I do the food, though some of the best meals I've had have been in this city.
If you do nothing else in Kyoto, spend a few hours one night with a traditional kaiseki meal, preferably in an old, off the path restaurant.
And if you can get a reservation, don't settle for less than Shiraume (in Gion, the historical pleasure district in central Kyoto). Shiraume is found on the Shirakawa Canal, which snakes through northeastern Kyoto, ending up in the Kamo River. When you arrive, you'll be directed to a private room (hopefully you've had the forethought to reserve the one right on the river, with a side view of the garden). What follows is a multi-course selection of seasonal foods - sashimi, pickles, hot pot, miso soup, broiled fish, more soup, tofu, perfect prawns, chilled vegetables, a fresh leaf from the garden - all carefully orchestrated and arranged on artful vehicles with absolute care and attention. I'm not sure how many times my mouth dropped in the course of two hours.




Also worth a visit is Nishiki Market (above), across the river from Gion. Once you find your way through much of the tackiness of the main shopping arcade, you'll find the more worthwhile food market. If you ever doubted the Japanese flair for pickling, there is ample evidence here (pictured on blog title). Storefront after storefront exhibit barrels full of vegetables waiting to be taken and used as one of the greatest Japanese condiments of all (if you don't like pickles, get ready to like pickles). In addition to pickles, there is dried fish...lot's of it.





But the highlight for us was the tiny little bar at the end of the corridor where hungry parishioners sidled up for oysters (above), grilled as we watched, and small glasses of crisp beer. Just as satisfying as the kaiseki in some ways.




Houtou Udon on Kawaguchiko-Along the banks of Kawaguchiko, one of the five lakes that surround Mt. Fuji, there's a prominent restaurant, with large lake-front windows that serves steaming iron pots of udon, cooked with tofu, vegetables and spices that seems appropriate for the cold, mountain setting in which it's located. The annoying part is the fact they sit the pot in front of you for what seems like forever as it continues to cook before they finally open it. If nothing else, you get a view of an amazing mountain creature (above) as you walk out of the second floor dining area.