Jonelle Patrick's Only In Japan
Every day, stuff you'd never see anywhere else.
Oh. Wait. At Tokyo Midtown this summer, they are! On the lawn that hosts those amazing winter illuminations, they’ve constructed a wide wooden veranda enclosing a “rock garden,” complete with … Continue Reading If Only Japanese Rock Gardens Were Filled With Cooling Mist & Illuminations…
Okay, is this a book lover’s ultimate fantasy, or what? A romantic read, dished up by a handsome young man with a talent for whispering sweet nothings in your ear … Continue Reading Let’s Go To The Crowdfunded Host Club!
-1- Make a wish that you could draw as well as the other visitors at the anime & manga shrine Where: Kanda Myoujin Shrine (Kanda) • -2- Get your warts disappeared by the … Continue Reading 25 Obscure & Amazing Things To Do In Tokyo
The kopi luwat civet poops coffee. Or, to be more precise, it climbs to the top of coffee trees, eats the ripest beans, digests the fruity bits around the seed and, … Continue Reading How About A Nice Cup Of Civet Poop Coffee?
Do you even have to ask? Of course Tokyo has a restaurant where you get locked into a cell and made to drink cocktails with eyeballs in them! Every group … Continue Reading Haunted Prison Restaurant? Yes, Please!
Fembots, scantily-clad taiko drummers, battling transformers…okay, I admit the Robot Restaurant is more like Vegas on steroids than ye olde Nippon, but you’ve really gotta see this extravaganza once in … Continue Reading The Robot Restaurant
Can’t decide whether to drown your sorrows or get your nails done? Now you don’t have to! Get thee to the Bar Maria With Nail, and you can sip your … Continue Reading The Cocktail & Manicure Bar
If your life’s ambition is to be waited on hand and foot by a handsome foreign man in tie and tails, get thee to the Butlers Cafe on the double! … Continue Reading Princess For A Day At The Foreign Butler Café!
Next time you hoist a brew over the sad story of the one that got away, nobody is going to believe it was a NOODLE. But if you want to … Continue Reading Catch Your Own Noodles
Join veteran host Sakura-san as he teaches his new recruit “Yua-kun” the ropes! First, a run-down of a typical day in Yua’s life: 11:00 a.m.: Wake up* Noon: Go to … Continue Reading A Day In The Life: What’s It Like To Be A Host?
Like any good bar owner, Hana waits to greet her customers at the door with a look of cheerful recognition, even if she can’t remember if you’ve been there before … Continue Reading The Bar Owned By A Dog
Alice In Wonderland X Jules Verne! Gothic Lolita X Victorian Mourning! Manga X Edwardian Gentleman! In the land where costume is king (and often queen, even if you’re not a … Continue Reading Tokyo Steampunk!
I have to admit, until last week I’d never been to a restaurant where my waitress brought me an egg, set it on fire and turned it into a chicken. … Continue Reading Magical Food At The Ninja Restaurant
I hope the patrons of this little all-night bar in Nishi Azabu don’t take the name too literarily, or the bartender/owner will find himself without repeat business. Which would be … Continue Reading A Perfect Bar For Bananafish
Now you don’t have to trek to the aquarium in Ikebukuro to see your favorite wiggly and bite-y creatures of the deep – right next to Ebisu station is Medusa, … Continue Reading The Jellyfish & Shark Bar
The average Japanese teenager may have it rough when it comes to taking entrance exams that will determine his whole future, but he never has to spend hours in front … Continue Reading Getting Carded, Japanese Style
Hmm, I’ve never gotten food poisoning in Japan, even from the sketchiest of conbini bentos, but eating at the Biohazard Cafe seemed a little too close to giving Fate a … Continue Reading Biohazard Cafe
Up four flights of stairs in Shimokitazawa is this drinkery I don’t know the name of, but it’s got a killer light-up bar and specializes in an Okinawan spirit called … Continue Reading Great Balls of Fiery Okinawan Spirits
The owners of these Tokyo watering holes clearly believe in calling a spade a spade! • Read a novel set in Tokyo…
Here in Japan, “highballs” (whisky & soda) are often served in beer mugs, but this is the first time I’ve seen them offered on draft! • Read a novel set in … Continue Reading Whisky On Tap
Remember how I was talking about shoebox-sized businesses here in Tokyo? Well, around the corner from Eat A Peach in Shimokitazawa is the Apollo Jazz Bar. As you walk by … Continue Reading Live Music for Eight
Saw these advertised outside an izakaya in Ikebukuro last weekend. For your happy hour entertainment: RED EYE: Beer + tomato juice SHANDY GAFF: Beer + ginger ale DOUBLE BERRY: Beer + … Continue Reading Cola Beer and Other Cocktail Delights
This is abura soba, which – confusingly enough – is neither loaded with fat (abura) nor made with traditional buckwheat noodles (soba). It is, however, one of the best lunches … Continue Reading Fat Noodles
In a country where many people live in places too small for pets, cat cafés are a booming business. For about $10 an hour, anyone (over the age of 12) … Continue Reading Gateway to Kitty Nirvana
Unless you live in Japan, you may not have experienced a Croque Monsieur made with…pancakes. Yes, here in Tokyo, pancakes are regularly repurposed as sandwich fixings and dessert. At the … Continue Reading Pancakes: Not Just For Breakfast Anymore
Conveyor belt sushi joints are a fast food fixture in Japan, but I’d never been to one that delivered the special orders on a red speedboat before. This place near my … Continue Reading Speedboat Sushi
Vinegar is not my favorite thing. Not even close. So I was kind of lukewarm on the idea of going to a café where the house specialty was drinks based … Continue Reading The Vinegar Cafe
That’s the name of the tiny bar in Shimo-kitazawa where we ended up last night after listening to Brazilian jazz at Apollo, a slightly larger drinkery where you sip your beer … Continue Reading Eat A Peach
Saturday night I went to the monthly Goth party at Club Marz and met up with famed author/journalist/TV host La Carmina, who was filming a segment for NHK Tokyo Kawaii … Continue Reading Midnight Mess
Yep, it’s pretty much Oktoberfest all summer long in Tokyo, where a roving beer party moves around from district to district between May and November. It’s set up for 10 … Continue Reading Oktoberfest in…September?
After cavorting at the Dog Petit Resort Joker, Yoko and I took Fuki and Sala to their favorite Odaiba lunch spot: the Puppies Café. Every table comes equipped with a … Continue Reading Canine Dining At The Dog Café!
Um, that would be “brand” as in “home on the range,” not as in “Louis Vuitton,” in case you were wondering which kanji character was used for the “Jesus Brand … Continue Reading Black Rage Of Satan Pizza & Other Delicacies
In case you didn’t immediately recognize the gourmet tidbits in the lovely dishes above, the one on the left is “Shrimp and udo plants dressed with salted and fermented bonito … Continue Reading The Most Expensive Bonito Guts I Ever Ate
Tonight my friend Ayumi and I odori-ed ourselves to happy exhaustion with the fangirls at the Shibuya O-West. It was the annual visual kei Zany Zap Summit, and it did … Continue Reading Dancing with the Fangirlz
Tonight I saw Duel Jewel at the Liquidroom in Ebisu, a ‘live house’ with standing room for about 400. The band is a classic example of visual kei: glam metal overlaid with … Continue Reading Boyz in Pink Hair and Eyeliner
