Umami Mart

Living in Japan, I’m not used to spending a lot of money for ramen. But recently, while visiting New York – Brooklyn, to be exact – I shelled out $20 for a bowl of ramen and I would do it all over again. I would hand over, without a second thought, a sum of money enough for 2.5 mammoth […]

Seattle is for grown-ups. I really enjoyed the city when we were there over the summer — it has a sense of sophistication and plentifulness that I can enjoy in my thirties. I must have just glazed over it all when I visited over a decade ago — perhaps I have less angst now and I […]

Kayoko and I rolled into Portland at around 3pm from Seattle during the first days of summer — and Portland delivered on their end of the summer deal. It was dry, hot and there was no escape from the sun. After attending a meeting and feeling pretty beat overall, we headed over to Noraneko, a new […]

It’s so important to travel. Not to say it needs to be lavish or romantic or life-changing every time, but it’s really necessary to get out of your comfort zone and visit new places, even if it’s only an hour away. Remember that Sex and the City episode where Miranda was dating a guy who […]

I’m afraid I’m becoming one of those older Asian ladies who gets really grumpy after not eating noodles or rice or something with soy sauce flavoring for a few days. Although who am I kidding: I am grumpy if I don’t have noodles in some form at least once a day. On our last trip to […]

Shanghai restaurant is our go-to in Oakland Chinatown for meetings and hang-outs over lunch or dinner. The food is consistent, always fresh, delicious and everyone on staff knows us. It’s a nice, no-frills local joint where you probably won’t run into anyone you know. Hooray! Yoko went to Shanghai recently and lavished our humble blog with […]

People in Japan are cuckoo for beer. It remains the most popular alcoholic beverage in Japan, accounting for two thirds of all alcohol consumed overall (says Wikipedia). When going out with friends or coworkers after work, it is an ongoing tradition for the table to order a round of draft beers for the first kanpai […]

Let me start off by saying that I think Abura-ya is the most exciting dining experience in the Bay Area in the last few years. By “exciting” I mean: doing something spectacularly new and genre-bending — all deliciously, and not one bit bank-breaking. Abura-ya specializes in Japanese fried chicken, but it is so much more […]

Instead of reaching there via a Wardrobe route, Nagoya is about a two-hour bullet train ride from Tokyo. It is the third most populous city in Japan, with 2.3 million people living within 11 square miles. Car geeks may know Nagoya as Toyota HQ. Gamblers may take note that it is where pachinko was born. […]

My trip to Kyoto was awesome for many reasons. Temples, new friends, raw nature, or scenes like this one, just three boys feeding hawks like a flock of seagulls. Despite its rural look this is in the heart of Kyoto. And there was this: My couchsurfing host just happened to live within walking distance of […]