December, 2014

E.O.Y.



Drinking in Sasebo, Kyushu.



Yup, this is a military town.



The best burger in Japan. Blue Sky. Cooked by a lone old lady who is famous for never having smiled in her life.



Keep it G Sasebo.



Middle of the night, walking by this temple in Hakata. Some old guy creeps up and tells us to watch. Drops 100 yen into an inconspicuous coin collector.



Boom. Kind of rad.



Free info for the tourist with an agenda.



What a beautiful deer! Yakushika, Yakushima's own brand of deer, have become smaller and smaller over the centuries. No predators to speak of, they are tame and generally don't give a fuck when you drive right up next to them.



I guess they aren't endangered, as a local pizza shop was serving stewed yakushika on their pizza. By the way, this pizza was mega tasty.



What does it mean!







Randomly got to witness the launch of the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft.



Speaking of pizza, Devilcraft in Hamamatsucho will have brunch service from now.



Bloody Marys made from straining pizza sauce. Legit.



Thank you for the Toy Run donations!







Eat soba in the countryside. This one came with 5 bowls of slimy things to mix into a 5-layered soba bowl.



I found a Hanger Museum. Near Asakusabashi Station. You are welcome.



Meanwhile, at my English school.



61% of people falling onto the tracks are drunk. Stay safe everyone!

Sushi - Summer 2014

京辰 - Kyotatsu at Narita Airport

If you have traveled out of Narita International Airport, you have probably seen this place.

Their unfortunate sign made me dismiss them when I first saw it many, many years ago. "Last place to enjoy Good Sushi and Good Sake Before you leave !!"

Your use of capital letters is atrocious! Word crimes.

Anyways, Kyotatsu turned out to be decent, though a bit overpriced. 7000 yen is almost Ginza prices.

I think I had the 2500 yen set, which was normal, but good. You can eat sushi for sub-3000 yen in Tokyo and get a much, much better deal.

The shop also does a brisk business selling takeout boxes. I watched as these poor sushi chefs made order after order of spicy tuna rolls for a line of cabin attendants and pilots.

I ate a lot more sushi in the summer (it is now winter). I'm currently planning on a 3rd website devoted to sushi, so bear with me. Sushi Adventures will hopefully launch sometime in 2015. I'll take a look at sushi from a realist point of view. Almost every sushi post on a food blog is written by people with tons of cash to spare, and the concept of spending $1000 for you and a friend to eat isn't a big deal. On the other side of the spectrum, posts about sushi are just casual, fun, facebook-post-feeling trips to that one shop in Tsukiji that the guidebooks tell you about (Sushi Dai is mega good though).

Word.

2014 Tokyo Toy Run Tomorrow

Thanks for the donations!

Yayoi Sugi, an Old Cedar Tree

3000-year-old Yayoi Sugi. Located on Yakushima, an island south of Kagoshima.

November, 2014

November. Let's get this out of the way.



The new E7 Shinkansen. I jumped on to the Gran Class cabin (1st class) to snap a pic. Luxury to Nagano. Only an extra $60 for the 100 minute ride.





The cherry burger at Burger Mania in Hiroo. Mega-good.



Ore no Italiano. Kind of overrated. It is a gourmet spot with no seats. You stand and drink and eat. The prices are less than you would pay at a place with chairs, but you still end up dropping a lot for a quick bite.



This restaurant (a fish place in Nakano) made me cover up the tattoo. That's a first!

Also, in retrospect, fuck you fish place.





The Oriental Lounge at the Mandarin goes at the bottom of my list of hotel bars until I saw this:



$50 for essentially a sniff of high class whiskey. Nuts, yo!

Out of focus, but the bottom says that you get a free snack.





Miyazaki Fuck Street " Drive.



Great cafe in Nakano. Zingaro. Go there.



Jake having a nice time.



I told my High School girls some Christmas jokes. They voted on the hilarity of said jokes. The results were not promising. Also, no one knew who Elvis Presley was.



Friend's house has side by side toilets. His and hers style.





Booze. Buy a bottle if you have a chance.



What kind of meat?



Oh, that kind.



Sushi Sho is probably one of the most legit sushi places in Tokyo. Around $300 a head for dinner. But . . . if you go at lunch . . . it is less than $20 for this awesome bowl. I haven't been for dinner, so don't take my word.

Tokyo Toy Run 2014 Charity Event!

Tokyo Toy Run 2014

Once a year, the gaikokujin motorcycle community of Tokyo (well, all of Japan is invited) puts together a charity event. It's time again for the Tokyo Toy Run!



There I am back in 2011 on the Honda CB1000. As you can see from the pictures, the concept is simple. We collect toys and money, dress in our finest Santa suits (420 yen from the Japan dollar store), and ride down to a local orphanage. What follows is truly an awesome day for the kids. Kids from infants to teens. A couple hundred motorcycles, a couple dozen pizzas, and toys for everyone.



Part of the fun is strapping all these toys to the bikes. I can't believe these survived the ride!



A safe, responsible ride is the only way to ride!



So what can you do to help? In the past, fans of my blogs have donated via PayPal, and I've used the money to buy toys in Tokyo. I'll do the same this time around. Please send a personal payment to macduckston@gmail.com. Or click here:

If you are in Tokyo, you can give me a toy in person. I'll have an informal gathering at the Hobgoblin bar in Roppongi (site here) on Friday, December 5th from 8-10pm (probably until later). Come by for a beer and hand off the toy then. Please follow Ramen Adventures (shameless plug!) on Facebook for more info on that.



Previous years were a huge success:

2009
http://www.japanbash.co/2009/12/2009-motorcycle-toy-run.html

2010
http://www.japanbash.co/2010/12/tokyo-toy-run-2010.html

2011
http://www.japanbash.co/2012/04/2011-toy-run-charity.html



Thanks, and remember, any amount helps.