How to Eat
Eating alone is treated as a third-rate option in most cities. In Tokyo it is structurally normal — even preferred. The reasons are physical, social, and economic, and…
Ingredients & Craft
The soba you eat at a station-counter chain and the soba you eat at a serious shop are not the same dish — they share a name and…
Culture & History
If you eat at a serious Tokyo restaurant, you'll see the word shun (旬) on menus, in chef's notes, in conversation. It is usually translated as "in season,"…
How to Eat
The mid-tier and high-end sushi counters of Tokyo run on rules nobody writes down — because everyone who eats at them already knows. Here are the rules, and…
Tokyo Living
Tokyo has more coffee shops per capita than any other major Asian city, distributed across two parallel cultures that barely overlap. Knowing which one you are walking into…
How to Eat
You may have read that tipping in Japan is "not expected." That phrasing softens what is actually true. Tipping in Japan is, in most settings, a small social…
How to Eat
Most English-language menus translate omakase as "chef's choice." That translation is technically true and substantively wrong. What you are actually doing when you say omakase is something specific,…
Culture & History
The form of sushi that the world now eats — vinegared rice, a piece of fish on top, the whole thing held together by hand — was invented…
Ingredients & Craft
Tokyo's most aggressive bowls of ramen taste of dried sardines — bitter, oily, savory, almost confrontational. The reason has less to do with cooking and more to do…
Culture & History
The ramen at a Shinjuku tsukemen counter and the ramen at an Ogikubo shoyu shop are not just different bowls — they are different worldviews, shaped by which…
How to Eat
Most of what tourists hear about ramen etiquette is either wrong or out of date. Here are the rules Tokyo regulars actually follow — and the ones nobody…
Culture & History
Tsukemen — the dipping-style ramen that now sustains queues across Tokyo — was invented by a single chef in 1955, in a tiny noodle shop in Nakano. The…