Tag Archives: Koshinzuka

March 13

Sexy Red Undies Opposite Day

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So, there’s this street in Tokyo I’ve written about before that’s known as the “Grandma & Grandpa’s Harajuku” because it’s where all the oldsters go to stock up on the latest elderly comforts and fashions. My favorite store on Koshinzuka Street is the “Red Underpants” shop, which specializes in many, many, MANY styles of lucky red underwear […]

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April 14

How To Make Poisonous Dried Snake Tea

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First, you take a dried snake. A dried poisonous snake. Then you chop it into little pieces. Add some dried ginger and garlic and a few other secret ingredients. Powderize it all in your industrial snake grinder and pour it in a medicine bottle. Mix one teaspoon into a cup of hot water every morning […]

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August 04

Yes, It’s Exactly What It Looks Like

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  If you guessed squid guts, squid guts and squid guts, you win the trifecta! But very tasty ones, apparently, since they sell a mountain of these at the Hokkaido store in Sugamo. I’ve occasionally been faced with these at the Japanese restaurants called izakaya, where you’re served a small snack with your drink order […]

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July 06

The Peril Of The Red Panty

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“Notice: When sleeping, “Red Panty” may cause you excite and make you sleepless. So put on ordinary color underwear when you sleep.” A thousand apologies for not immediately publishing this instruction sheet on how to properly use Lucky Red Underwear – I bet you were wondering about that mysterious case of insomnia that developed after […]

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May 07

Magic Umbrella

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Yesterday when my phone’s weather app completely failed to warn me that as soon as I stepped off the train I would be assailed with buckets of rain and Dorothy-Goes-To-Oz wind, I could have used this fine product. It’s plain pink until it gets wet, then the cherry blossom pattern appears! (Brilliant display outside this […]

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March 08

Potato Candy

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Yes, please, I think I’ll have another! Before stopping at this shop in Sugamo, I’d only encountered sweet potatoes in their ordinary form – roasted over a charcoal fire and sold from carts pushed by old uncles singing “Yaaaa-ki-mo! Yaaaa-ki-mo!” I have to admit, I don’t actually like yakimo much, but every winter I’m seduced into buying […]

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February 24

The Honorable Duck Butt of Sugamo

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Yes, it’s exactly what it looks like: a giant, stuffed, fake fur duck butt enshrined in a hut. Apparently, the Sugamo merchant’s association created a duck character named Sugamon as their mascot (sort of like Doraemon, only not blue and not a cat) and someone thought this giant model of its hindquarters would draw people […]

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