I have five more days in Tokyo. I am filling up on soba, genmai cereal and tan-tan men every opportunity I get. My dad always said, “Japan will always be around, America will always be around.” So I am not totally distraught — comforted by the fact that the noodles, sashimi and oolong-hais in Tokyo […]
Author Archives: Yoko Kumano
December 24, 2009
Tokyo JUNKtion: Usaya
Update May 10, 2012: This location has since closed. Shimokitazawa is hands down my favorite part of Tokyo. It’s teeming with youth and the elderly, shopping for knick knacks in a part of Tokyo that has no high-rise buildings — preserving a quaintness that is absent in the major hubs of the city like Shibuya […]
December 6, 2009
Tokyo JUNKtion: Green Tea Umeshu
One of my favorite drinks I discovered since living in Tokyo is Kishu Ryokucha Umeshu (Green Tea Plum Liquor). I am a sucker for green tea anything, and when I discovered that there was a drink that fused green tea with one of the other things I am a sucker for — umeshu, I was […]
December 4, 2009
Tokyo JUNKtion: Ichimaru Unagi Bone
I went to visit my dad’s grave yesterday and on my way there, we had to transfer trains at an adorable little station, Surugaoyama in Yamanashi Prefecture, at the foot of Mt. Fuji. At the kiosk, I spotted a snack named “Unagi Bone” made by Ichimaru foods. I loved the retro packaging and that there […]
November 10, 2009
Tokyo JUNKtion: Preparing Salmon Seminal Fluid
I bought a sac of shirako at my local supermarket for 90 yen (85 cents). I never knew that shirako was so cheap since I had never had the balls to prepare it until now. Shirako is the seminal fluid of fish who shoot their sperm onto roe. It is served in many different ways […]
November 5, 2009
Tokyo JUNKtion: ChocoBari Love
My new favorite ice-cream product is Chocobari. The closest translation for the Japanese word “bari” in English is the onomatopoeia “crunch.” I first knew of Chocobari in the summer months when they were running ads for it on TV. I couldn’t find the actual ad I saw on Youtube, but here’s one I was able […]
October 31, 2009
Tokyo JUNKtion: “Here’s LOOKing at you!”
My husband and I took a stroll around Tsukijishijo (Tsukuji Fish Market) yesterday after running an errand in Ginza. I used to work near Tsukiji and never had the privilege of spending a day-off there. It was the same Tsukiji I went to on my lunch breaks, but it makes it a lot more exciting […]
October 23, 2009
Tokyo JUNKtion: Caramel Pudding Kit Kat
After trying two Kit Kat flavors available in Japan with gag-inducing colors: light aqua for the Ramune Kit Kat and salmony orange for the Mango Pudding Kit Kat, I was seriously relieved to see that the Caramel Pudding Kit Kat was poo-colored just like the OG chocolate Kit Kat. As I busted open the package, […]
October 6, 2009
Tokyo JUNKtion: So NOT Bored at the Park Hyatt
I did the Lost in Translation thing for the first time and went to the Park Hyatt’s New York Grill. I suppose that after living in Tokyo for four years, it was about time. And given the fact that I will be leaving Tokyo in three months back to my home state of California, it […]
October 3, 2009
Umamiventure #19: Din Tai Fung (TYO)
Din Tai Fung was the site of the first Umamiventure outside the United States. On September 27, for Sunday lunch, six hungry Tokyoites and a visitor piled into the busy Din Tai Fung branch on the 12th floor of Shinjuku’s Takashimaya Square. I arrived there first with Anders and was greeted with a line of […]