yoshokutei oohashi

Satoshi has had Yoshokutei Oohashi on his "to try" list for some time now.

Yesterday we went to check them out.

Before going I looked over the menu, so that I would know what I wanted to order...

I had this half omurice and half beef stew in mind...

I also told them that I didn't want miso soup.

I was surprised when a full sized omurice came out and half a beef stew...

Use the knife to cut the omelette open to envelope the rice...

Both were so rich and delicious. 

The beef stew was melt in your mouth tender and had some flat noodles as well as potatoes, and veggies

The omurice had ketchup chicken rice which wasn't cloying sweet, was topped with the omelette and delicious demiglace sauce all around.

I surprised myself and ate the whole thing.

Satoshi chose the garlic pork steak with fried shrimp.

He said he enjoyed this.

We enjoyed this place, it isn't too big and if you don't get seated in the first seating, then you will need to wait about 30 minutes until the turnover (we had to wait).

Still, we want to try other items on their menu...we'll be back.

Yoshokutei Oohashi (UPDATE: 3/2026 out of business)

1-29-6 Omorikita

Ota, Tokyo

Closed: Fridays and the 1st, 3rd, 5th Thursdays

Hours: 11:30-14:00 (lunch), 17:00-20:30 (dinner)

*cash only

back to spaghetti no pancho

Saturday, we went back to eat at Spaghetti no Pancho.

This time I ordered the small meat sauce...790 yen (tax included)

This was meaty, garlicky...delicious! (I also topped it with some parmesan cheese (no photo))

Satoshi ordered the same thing as he did the last time (napolitan & sunny side up egg) but ordered the small version...790 yen + 100 yen (egg) = 890 yen (tax included)

Even if it is a small...it is actually 300 grams of cooked pasta....

The nami (regular) is 400 grams, large is 500 grams and the mega is 600 grams of cooked pasta!

There was a guy sitting next to me that ordered the mega meat sauce! it was huge!

Super reasonable and tasty, I'm sure we'll be back

teppan no spaghetti

Teppan no spaghetti is a chain that serves different pasta (spaghetti) dishes on teppan (sizzling plates)

I chose the bolognese and ordered it (small) with 200 grams of pasta.

This was delicious, but I wished it had a little more tomato flavor.

Satoshi chose the tarako (pollack roe) shoyu butter, he ordered this (regular) with 300 grams of pasta.

This restaurant was tablets to order and cash machine to pay.

The only thing the "people" working there do is greet you and bring out the food

Not sure we'll be back here but it was nice to try.

Teppan no Spaghetti (2025: out of business)

7-2-3 Nishi Kamata

Ota, Tokyo

Open daily: 11:00-22:00 

end of an era

One of the cake shops in our area is closing next Sunday.

Enomoto has been in business since 1922!

The building needs to be brought up to code, so the owners decided to shut down their cake shop and will eventually tear down the building.

Sad to see them go.

It was one of the first cafes we explored when we moved to Tokyo.

Stood in line to get some cakes this morning.

At 9:45 I was 19 in line...at 10:00 when they opened many cakes were already sold out by the time I got up to the showcase.

Hope everyone in back of me was able to purchase something.

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Photos uploaded wonky...Saturday we went to Shimotakaido, which is at one end of the Tokyu Setagaya line.

The reason for visiting this area is that the tiny shopping arcade next to the Keio train line will be torn down in March 2024.

Satoshi has been here back in his college days, but we hadn't explored around here, so we decided to check it out.

We bought some agetofu (fried tofu) from Izumiya...220 yen (tax included)

Heated it up in a pan and had it for dinner last night with some taberu rayu (chili crisp) on it...ono!

The tiny shopping arcade is right next to the Keio line.

Most shops have relocated, but you can see how tiny this shopping arcade is.

A lot of shopping arcades in Tokyo are not covered, are wider so that trucks can deliver things and go for at least a mile or so

Then we went down the street to Tatsumiya for taiyaki...170 yen (tax included)

The taiyaki edges were so crisp! and filled to the "gills" with sweet bean paste...love!

This tiny shop is family operated and we were lucky there wasn't a line.

(There was quite a line when we passed by later.)

the biggest wasabi ever!

lunch at Asahizushi, the sushiya's tendon! 3300 yen (tax included)

They have several shops around Tokyo.

11 different seafood items top the bowl of rice, we should've shared this and ordered some sushi or sashimi instead, because two tendon was way too much food!

My favorite was the tempura egg yolk, scallop wrapped with shiso and ika (squid) wrapped with nori. There was also salmon, kisu (sillago), maguro, anago, 2 shrimp, cod and horsemackerel

After eating way too much, we decided to walk as much as we could of the Tokyu Setagaya Line.

On the way we stopped to buy a purple yakiimo from Fuji, 500 yen (tax included).

This was quite disappointing, was nothing like the photo they had on their wall...

Beautiful poodle

Stopped at Gotokuji.

We first visited this temple when we first moved to Tokyo

Glad we got to experience the fall foliage here.

We then found the Setagaya Castle Site Park.

Had we looked earlier on the map, we would've realized it was almost right next to Gotokuji!

Instead, we walked down toward the Setagaya train line, then back around...

And then we went to look for the Shoin Shrine, this shrine is dedicated to Yoshida Shoin, the original shrine is the one we visited in Hagi.

This particular shrine (in Tokyo) is where Yoshida Shoin in buried.

I'd been wanting to try De Carnero Caste's castella back when we lived in Osaka.

At that time, they only had a shop in Mie (the main one) and one in Tokyo.

I noticed on their website they now have a shop in Osaka.

We tried their spice and green tea azuki castellas, both are super moist and tasty...702 yen (tax included) for two.

In the end, we walked the whole Setagaya Line (5 km (3.1 miles))!

With all we ate it was a good thing we walked.

The weather was nice and sunny, though in the shade it was fahreezing.

Asahizushi

4-46-10 Akatsuzumi

Setagaya, Tokyo

Open daily 11:00-22:00

Tatsumiya

5-31-1 Akatsuzumi

Setagaya, Tokyo

Closed Tuesdays

Hours: 10:00-18:30

Izumiya Tofu

3-42-4 Matsubara

Setagaya, Tokyo

Closed Sundays

Hours: 10:00-18:30

Fuji (UPDATE: 2024 out of business)

1-7-11 Gotokuji

Setagaya, Tokyo

Closed Thursdays

Hours: 10:00-19:00

De Carnero Caste

3-17-10 Wakabayashi

Setagaya, Tokyo

Closed Wednesdays

Hours: 11:00-18:00

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A recent J-drama was modeled after Tomitaro Makino, who pioneered Japanese botany and used the Linnaeus method to classify many plant species in Japan

The drama recently ended and we realized we had visited some places featured in it like the Koishikawa Botanical Garden.

The land where his house once stood in Nerima was turned into a Memorial Garden after his death

I can’t remember where I read or heard about this but there is no admission to visit the garden because he wanted everyone to be able to experience and maybe get to love plants as much as he did.

He believed that no plant was a "weed".

His drawings of plant species were amazing and intricate!

And his study area was also replicated, tons of books! 

He never graduated from elementary school, but read voraciously about all sorts of things.

Some interesting plants in the garden...hyogi (blackberry lily)

sudajii (castanopsis sieboldii)

Since the drama just ended many people, including us, were out and about.

We then went to Minami Nagasaki to check out Tokiwaso, an apartment complex where many manga artists like Tezuka Osamu (Atom Boy), Fujiko F Fujio and Fujiko A Fujio (Doraemon), Ishinomori Shotaro (Kikaida, Robocon) who were just starting out lived.

The original building was located in a different area nearby and was demolished in 1982 due to aging.

In this museum, you can see many replicated rooms as well as their communal kitchen and bathroom.

On the bottom floor, they had an exhibit of Kiyohiko Azuma's manga, "Yotsuba".

Apparently there is also a character in the manga called Danboard (the japanese word for cardboard box)

We weren't familiar with "Yotsuba", but we were glad to be able to check out Tokiwaso.

Down the street from the museum is Matsuba, who has been in business for over 70 years and frequented by many manga artists.

The gyoza was gyoza snob approved.

He said he also enjoyed the ramen.

I ordered the yakisoba with meat.

This was delicious with lots of pork belly, but there was way too much sauce making it quite hard to eat after awhile.

We loved all the vintage buildings along Tokiwaso Street

It was like travelling to a different part of Japan.

Since we had to change trains at Ikebukuro, we decided to check out some things before going home.

But first, ginger soda for me and chocolate banana smoothie for Satoshi at Mermaid Cafe.

This soda was perfect for the heat & humidity!

Objet near Sunshine City by Kataoka Tamako, called "4 seasons of Edo" is a ceramic relief type piece and it was huge.

Gyu-tan ra-yu and Oyster sauce from Miyagi Antenna shop.

We've tried the gyu-tan (beef tongue) ra-yu before and I was interested in trying the oyster sauce since it is made in Japan.

It was nice to be out and about, even if it is still hot and humid.

Makino Memorial Garden

6-34-4 Higashi Oizumi

Nerima, Tokyo

Closed Tuesdays

Hours: 9:00-17:00

Tokiwaso Manga Museum

3-9-22 Minami Nagasaki

Toshima, Tokyo

Closed Mondays

Hours: 10:00-18:00 

Admission: 500 yen 

Miyagi Antenna Shop (Coco Miyagi) (UPDATE: 2025 moved)

1-2-2 Higashi Ikebukuro

Toshima, Tokyo

Hours: 11:00-20:00

shinkamata

There is a shop called Ogawa in the Shinkamata area.

It's about a 20 minute walk from where we live.

We've had them on our "to try" list since the pandemic, and recently learned they will be closing their doors on June 28th.

There is a huge open kitchen with counter seating for regulars going around the kitchen and there are also tables to eat at too.

I ordered the chicken katsu don...600 yen (tax included)

So ono! the chicken was cooked perfectly 

Satoshi had their ebi fry teishoku...750 yen (tax included)

He enjoyed this as well.

Everything was super resonable, even the alcohol! though we didn’t order any on this day

Their cat was so well behaved.

It was nice to listen to the conversations of the regulars as we ate.

Sad to see them close, but glad we got to have a meal here.

As we walked home, we ran into some friendly feral cats in the area.

Glad the rain stopped for just a bit too

Ogawa

1-15-8 Shinkamata

Ota, Tokyo

Closed Thursdays

Lunch: 11:30-14:00, Dinner: 16:00-20:30

this and that

So…She was originally near a sushi shop at the far end of the shopping arcade, this was near the rotary and noisy whenever there is an election or event.

I think she got shooed away from this spot because she's been here & the sushi shop put all of their bicycles to block her out

Caught this furry one sleeping...but wondering how it got up so high

Tried the taco rice from Cock-a-hoop, not sure what the name of the shop means because the Japanese they use for the shop name is "Cook-a-hoop"

The taco rice had lots of fried onions on top, and wasn't spicy

I felt it was missing something but just couldn't put my finger on what it was.

The taco rice was 880 yen (tax included) plus 100 yen for the takeout container.

I want to try their tacos, I'll be back.

Cock-a-hoop (UPDATE: out of business)

4-20-3 Kamata

Ota, Tokyo

Closed Wednesdays

Hours: 11:30-21:00 

And just as I was talking about Kanto and the rainy season, Kanto (East Japan) started their rainy season yesterday!

It’s been raining since last night so hopefully there won’t be too much damage in the same areas as last weekend.

Have a safe weekend.