After eating in all these “alpha” sushi places in Tokyo the standards for fish and rice get pretty high. I don’t want to sound snobbish – the first time I went to Japan I was so ignorant, I thought that sushis are the most basic meal to prepare, something everyone…

Sushis in a random sushiya somewhere in Japan.. Nothing in common with this or this. Looking from a European point of view, the fish in “a random sushiya somewhere in Japan” was still better than anywhere in Europe. The rice was a disaster though. You get what you pay for…

Last time I had a kaiseki dinner, I promised to myself that I won’t have it “any time soon”. “Not any time soon” was exactly two years. I don’t even know if you can have dinner in Kanamean Nishitomiya if you don’t stay at the ryokan. The ryokan has only…

Staying in a ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) in Kyoto was a very special experience. Let’s say, hoteliers who are willing to learn how to host a guest in their hotel should stay in a high-end ryokan for at least one night. The experience was “special” from the moment my taxi…

While some environmentally conscious countries are proposing to ban the international bluefin tuna trade, in Japan business keeps going. The first tuna auction this year fetched a price of 1.55 million Yen ( around 11 600 euros) for a 150 kg fish. For an obvious reason, Japan is opposing the ban…

Harutaka (1*, Kawabata Building 3F, 8-5-8 Ginza, tel. 03 3573 1144 ) – the last sushiya from the sushi from Tokyo series this year. And my favourite so far. Harutaka Takahashi ( left) comes from Sukiyabashi Jiro “school”, so you can see many similarities with Sukiyabashi Jiro Roppongi (and, I…

I missed my plane back to Europe, so instead of waiting at Narita for the evening flight I went back to Tokyo and had lunch at Sukiyabashi Jiro in Roppongi Hills. (The one Michelin English speaking sister restaurant of the three Michelin Sukiyabashi Jiro in Ginza. The sushi chef is…

If you love Japanese culture, you must have seen or heard of an eighties movie called “Tampopo”, Japanese comedy about love, life and ramen. The movie starts with a younger truck driver Gun (Ken Watanabe) reading a book about ramen to an older truck driver Goro (Tsutomu Yamazaki). The younger…

Only in Tokyo – 3 melons for around 500 dollars, found in a fruit shop in Ginza… No, I didn’t buy one.