For those who love both cooking and shopping, a visit to Tokyo’s Kappabashi Dori aka Kitchen Town is a must. Located between Ueno and Asakusa – just 10 minutes’ walk west from Senso-ji (temple) – this stretch of road is lined with dozens of shops selling everything a restaurant could need, except for the food! ... Read more »
One of the (many) pleasures of train travel in Japan is buying a delicious bento box to enjoy during the journey, especially if you are taking a longer trip on the shinkansen (bullet trains). Bento boxes sold for this purpose are so popular that they have their own name, ekiben – eki means station – and most ... Read more »
As with most addresses in Tokyo, Zenyaren is difficult to find. When your overnight but sleepless flight from London landed only a few hours ago, it’s doubly challenging. Luckily, Pete and I are with two Tokyo friends who manage, with the aid of smartphones, to track down my chosen venue. How did Tokyoites navigate their ... Read more »
Although the tourism marketing folks would rather it be known as Omoide Yokocho (Memory Lane), this narrow alley, tucked in by the railway tracks near Shinjuku station in Tokyo, is more commonly and crudely known as Shomben Yokocho aka Piss Alley. This, and a second alley running parallel, are said to be a throwback to ... Read more »
Just a few days before we left for Japan, a fortuitous discovery of a national holiday meant I needed to change the first couple of nights of our itinerary, including our hotel reservation. After investigating where to stay in Tokyo and booking a hotel in Shinjuku, I had a look around the internet for dining ... Read more »
By the time we arrived at our hotel in Shinjuku in the early evening, we were absolutely exhausted. It’s a long, long way from London to Tokyo! After checking in and taking all our luggage into our room all we wanted was a quick early dinner and to go straight to sleep. But when we ... Read more »
The Place of Onions, in old Lille. After last night’s rainstorm the intense sticky heat has broken and today is cool, breezy, fresh… I love it! A drop of… [more]
We went to Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire at The Void this morning, an amazing VR experience where we got to be Rebel Alliance members going undercover as… [more]