Chestnut desserts don’t really get the respect they deserve back home. They basically don’t exist unless you really seek them out (and even then they’re difficult to find), and I don’t understand why. They’re quite tasty.
Add this to the always-growing list of line-based discoveries. The line-up at Yanagiya Taiyaki is pretty intense, even by Tokyo’s line-loving standards.
If you haven’t seen Kantaro: The Sweet Tooth Salaryman on Netflix, you need to rectify that immediately. It’s basically a sitcom crossed with a food/travel show, all filtered through a lens of grade-A Japanese weirdness. It’s delightful.
I’ll admit that I wound up eating at Hinoya Curry almost entirely due to its proximity to my Airbnb on the outskirts of Tokyo. I walked by it a few times, and eventually the delicious-looking photos posted outside of the restaurant wore me down.
Japan was amazing, but it’s time to move on.
Aside from Sakurajima, Sengan-en is one of those things that comes up a bunch when you’re looking for things to do in Kagoshima.
There’s a place in Kagoshima called Tmtrmnstr that sells tomato ramen, which is basically like a bizarre amalgam between a standard bowl of ramen, and spaghetti with tomato sauce.
One of the things Kagoshima is best known for is its proximity to Sakurajima, an active volcano on a nearby island (or what used to be an island — the lava from a 1914 eruption actually connected it to the mainland).
One of the many (many many) things I love about ramen is how much variety you get from bowl to bowl. There are so many different styles and types and varieties of ramen that what seems like it should be a simple dish (it’s just noodles and soup) has so much to offer.
After my shockingly great Korean McDonald’s experience — and considering how good all of the food in Japan is — I had high hopes for a similar experience here.