Umami Mart

One of the most memorable nights I had in Tokyo was an adventure in Nakano, a hip neighborhood in Tokyo. We met up with our friend and Umami Mart writer Will, aka The Ramen Shaman, along with Eri, who suggested a yakitori joint called Shimon-ya. Eri, editor of Ecocolo magazine, brought along her entire staff, […]

When something takes off in Japan, it gets huge. For a hot minute. People have no qualms with waiting in a long line for hours, out in the butt-ass cold, to get their hands on the newest HOT food trend from abroad that they saw on the morning news. Whether it’s bamkuchen, Krispy Kreme donuts, […]

Japan is noodle crazy. Each station in each town of each prefecture have their own noodle specialty. Being noodle fiends ourselves, Kayoko and I researched some of the regional noodles of Niigata prefecture before setting foot there last month. As soon as we arrived, we noticed a lot of ramen and soba. We wanted to […]

Trends in roll combinations in the States are rapid, with so many joints coming up with their own “house” rolls. Conversely, the combinations of rolls or makimono are very constant in Japan. In this post, I am specifically referring to hosomaki (or thin rolls). There are the staples: kappa (cucumber), oshinko (pickled radish) and kanpyo (dried […]

Nagi, Nagi, Nagi. This one’s been near the top of my ever-expanding ramen bucket list for a long time. I’ve been to a Nagi branch before — it was the first Tokyo bowl I had with fellow ramen blogger Brian from Ramen Adventures, and my first niboshi ramen (aka broth made from dried baby anchovies). […]

Whenever I visit Tokyo, I look forward to meeting newborns… especially when I’ve followed the progression of their parents. No, I’m not talking about newborn babies. I’m talking about new places to eat. On our first full night in Tokyo, Kayoko and I visited Jicca, our friend Tori-chan’s place. She opened Jicca last August in […]

We’re in Japan at the moment and there are luxurious, sparkling boxes of chocolates everywhere being sold for “White Day”. Huh? Oh yah, that’s right, it’s the day, one month after Valentine’s Day, when men give women chocolates. HUH??!?!? It’s true. In Japan, it is tradition for the ladies to gift chocolates to the men […]

I met a wonderful couple on Instagram, who I visited on my last trip to Japan. When they cook, they always use local ingredients prepared with such care and style. I look forward to their dinner picture everyday and I often leave comments telling them how great their meals look. One day a couple of […]

The temperature readings for the past week have been falling to lows of nines and elevens (that’s Celsius, for all you Americans out there). Ladies and gentlemen, I hate to admit it, but summer has passed us by. You could still kind of pretend in September that it wasn’t so, but we’re now well and […]

“I hate Tokyo.” S’s face was perfectly serious. “Sapporo is so much better — less people, nice weather, great seafood, lots of snow… and Tokyo sucks during the summer.” I’ll never hate Tokyo but you can’t argue with a Sapporo boy on that last point. Hokkaido is one of the best places to be during […]