DeOrio and I just posted another podcast dealing with Japanese baseball over at TPR .
This podcast deals with the Central League (the league that our beloved Tokyo Swallows play in).
I encourage you to read the article and listen to the podcast. The content differs quite a bit between the two...which is probably due to the fact that we were drinking when we recorded it.
I've been talking about food a lot lately, so I might as well stick with the theme.
Tonight we went to a new restaurant in Takadanobaba called "B side". Big Box, the concrete behemoth that stands guard over Takadanobaba train station, received a makeover this summer and reopened on October 19th, 2007. Those of us who had been there will recall that the place was dingy and had very little going for it. I used to use the toilet there on occasion, but that was about it (the toilet paper was clean).
Well now Seibu has smacked fresh wallpaper over all the dinginess, so everything should appear clean for a year or two. The elevator even apologized to us by flashing the message, "Sorry, this elevator is crowded." Too true.
Up to the 9th floor we went to have a look at the new tenants. They now have a couple of izakaya's up there which is an intelligent switch from the large, 70's era conference rooms that probably got very little attention. Takadanobaba is a town chock-full of students, and cheap eats are the way to go. Big Box finally figured that out.
We opted for the non-izakaya place that is up there. As mentioned before, it goes by the name of B side and it occupies the south side of the building, so you can see lots of apartment buildings and the JR line tracks from the seats near the windows.
Other positives? Let's see...they have Gargery Stout on tap! Gargery is a Japanese microbrew (?) that isn't half bad although I prefer their Estella (yes, the glasses are really shaped like that. If you need to take a leak while drinking a Gargery, just put the glass in your shirt's breast pocket).
B side is striving to be one of the pricier options in town. The Gargery was reasonably priced at 700 yen per glass (it's near 1,000 yen at my local watering hole), but nothing else was. There were so many things wrong about the place that I don't know where to start...
This was my dinner, beef stew. It set me back 1,800 yen. Wouldn't mind the price so much if it came with something. It didn't. A la carte doncha know. Had to pay extra for bread. And just to give you an idea of the portion I was afforded, I positioned my bread on the edge of the plate. Yeah, I found the bottom of the bowl pretty quickly...
Wouldn't mind the price so much if it tasted better than instant stew. It didn't.
The presentation was nice, but I was shocked by the flavor. The beef stew at Jonathan's family restaurant chain is twice as good (and half the price).
And Yong-nam's pork was about as good as I usually make it. Which begs the question, "Why should we come to your restaurant if you cook about as well as I do?" (The answer should be obvious to those of you who have sampled my cuisine.)
What gets me is that this restaurant obviously hopes to be a fancy alternative for the business people of the area. They got the jazz music right, and everyone is dressed up really nicely, but they serve soft drinks with straws and the expensive cutlery is teamed with paper napkins (much like at our place). And the cherry-colored wood ceiling near the windows? Nope, it's just wallpaper. I could go on, but I already sound foolish enough...
So all together, we spent more than 6,000 yen on McDonald's-level food and two glasses of beer. I recommend giving them some time to sort things out; maybe they'll figure out how to cook in a year or so.
Even then, I'd highly recommend taking your wallet and your stomach to Shakey's Pizza which is just up the street.
Labels:
food,
out and about
The same two teams will battle it out in the Japan Series this year.
The Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters from the Pacific League will take on the Chunichi Dragons of the Central League later this month.
The Fighters (not the Ham Fighters) won the series last year, and are favored by this observer to repeat in 2007. Fighters manager, Trey Hillman, recently accepted top job with the Kansas City Royals in the MLB, so this will be his last bit of baseball in Japan for a while.
However, Chunichi is a force to be reckoned with. They moved through the CL playoffs without dropping a game. They swept the Hanshin Tigers and the Yomiuri Giants in 3 and 5 game series, respectively.
The Fighters won the stronger Pacific League berth by winning a five-game series versus an impressive Chiba Lotte Marines team that won the title in 2005.
The Pizza Hut guy showed up with this pie earlier this evening.
It's the "Gourmet Pizza" outfitted with a "Cheezy Roll" crust. The doughy rolls around the perimeter of the pizza are filled with, you guessed it, cheese.
It was good. I don't really remember what was on top of the pizza except that there was no seafood. I requested that explicitly.
All I recall from dinner is the fact that every slice was followed by a couple of cheezy rolls.
Labels:
food
A bunch of us went to a good bar down between Motomachi-Chuukagai and Ishikawacho stations (not far from Yokohama and right next to Chinatown) last night.
I partook in the devouring of one of those chickens that are roasted in the rotisserie out front. It was good! Several other items on the menu are delicious as well, but I will definitely go back for the chicken.
Guinness on tap and a dartboard in the corner, so I was happy.
If you have a chance to stop by, I highly recommend it!
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Labels:
food,
out and about
The playoffs are underway in Japan! This is the first year that both divisions are going with a two-stage tournament to decide who heads to the Japan Series.
First, the third and second place teams in each division play a best-of-three series to decide who will play the regular season champion.
Both leagues have already made it through the first stage of the playoffs.
In the Central League, the Chunichi Dragons swept past third place Hanshin. The big difference between the two teams in that series was pitching. Hanshin has been weak offensively all season, but what they lacked in hitting they usually made up for in solid pitching.
That did not happen in this series.
Chunichi will face regular season champion Yomiuri in a best-of-five series.
In the Pacific League, the Chiba Lotte Marines were pushed to three games by the Softbank Hawks before finally booking their ticket to Hokkaido. Good pitching all around in that series.
The Pacific League Championship Series is already level at one game apiece. Defending Japan Series champions Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters took the first game with a complete game from Yu Darvish. Lotte came roaring back in the second game this afternoon with a ridiculous amount of offense.
Game 3 of the PLCS is slated for 6pm tomorrow night (Monday at Sapporo Dome).
We had already taken a day trip out to Kamakura with our friends, Arata and Junko. This is a picture of the Buddha statue that Kamakura is famous for.
We headed out that way again a couple of weeks ago to commemorate our second anniversary. Yong-nam grew up near the ocean, so she really wanted to go somewhere with water for once (we always head for the hills when we have time to get away).
Enoshima is an island that is basically a tourist trap. It is connected to the mainland by a bridge that carries bike, car, and foot traffic. We didn't really spend any time on the mainland beach because it looked like this:
Unfortunately, this is the first thing we saw when we arrived on Enoshima:
Enoshima is basically a rocky mountain out in the water that is dotted with soba shops, souvenir shops, a big garden (that you have to pay to look at), a few escalators (that you have to pay to ride), and about 9 million cats.
I'm kidding about the cats, but the deal with the escalators is true.
There are a lot of cats though. A lot of cats! Apparently Enoshima has a very progressive immigration policy regarding stray felines. Every time you turn a corner in Enoshima, you are bound to see at least one cat.
Here are a few that we stumbled across:
I don't really remember a whole lot about our short tour around Enoshima, but I'm proud of the fact that the only thing we spent money on was ice cream.
For the record, Kamakura is definitely worth the trip, but I would advise finding a different beach. I don't think it's possible for all of them to be that dirty. I would only recommend going to Enoshima if you've already seen almost everything else in the Kanto region of Japan.
Labels:
travel
