Umami Mart

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 […]

Remember when the Ramen Shop guys brought the 500 pound Richmen, the massive ramen noodle making machine to Umami Mart back in October 2012?! In case you were not there, let me fill you in. Two months after Umami Mart opened, we invited the Ramen Shop guys over for an event. Sure we wanted to […]

Growing up, I would visit Japan about once every two years or so. It would always be to see our extended family, who all lived in the Tokyo area. The trips would be jam-packed time for family in Saitama, Yokohama and Chiba, and we never made it out much to other areas of Japan. My […]

Sometime last week, Dave Chang of Momofuku fame declared ramen dead (in the States). You can read his diatribe in its entirety over at Lucky Peach, but he makes several ludicrous claims there, including, “Access to instantaneous information from the Internet has killed innovation in ramen,” “Ramen was always a fringe pursuit in Japan” and, most […]

Fall has arrived in Tokyo and with it an indefatigable sense of nostalgia, or natsukashisa. My time in this country might be coming to a close (maybe not… I’m working on it) and some blasts from the past have re-entered and re-exited my life like some Princess Mononoke tree spirits. So the time seems right […]

Menya Musashi’s namesake is one Miyamoto Musashi, regarded as one of Japan’s greatest swordsmen and creator of the two-handed swordfighting technique niten-ryu, which translates to “Tarantino Wet Dream.” According to legend he never lost a duel in over 50 years as a wandering warrior — which I am inclined to believe since back then you […]

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 […]

It’s no secret that I have a massive man-crush on Ramenate, a ramen blog written by a guy named Nate. For the longest time I didn’t know his name and thought the blog was pronounced ramen nah-tay, like French. He’s one of the rare bloggers whose writing holds my interest regardless of the subject matter […]

On Sunday, April 6, my picture and story was in the Kanagawa edition of the Yumiuri Shimbun, one of Japan’s three biggest newspapers (yes only the local Kanagawa edition… but still). Read it here if you can read Japanese. If not you can look at my picture and Google Translate your way to such gems as: […]