Tokyo: Omoide Yochoko Dining
After all the walking today, Mom’s knee was not feeling too good, so she opted to stay in the hotel while Max and I went to seek out street food dining in Omoide Yokocho (Yokocho of Memories) near Shinjuku station. It was close, so we walked.
Yokocho are narrow Japanese alleyways, often found adjacent to main streets near train stations, packed with tiny, intimate izakaya (pubs), bars, and food stalls. Translating to “side street,” they are famed for their nostalgic, post-war Showa-era atmosphere, offering a close-up, smoky experience of local, affordable dining.
The area itself is not large, so it is easy to explore first before choosing a place, or multiple places, to sit down and eat and drink. At this time of the evening, the area is very busy and lively. We ended up eating at three places:
- Morimasu (酔い処 もります) 🗾. This izakaya, half open to the alley, was chock full. We got a seat at the bar and had various yakitori, and also some scallops, all accompanied by biru (ビール).
- Yakiniku Tsutsui (焼肉 つつ井) 🗾 Next to Bar Albatross. Here we ate a “grill it yourself” Wagyu beef dinner, with three cuts of beef. The accompaniment here was Nihonshu.
- Kabuto (カブト) 🗾. This was our final stop. We had unagi two ways, and some more beer. Besides us, there was one other patron, presumably a local, and the woman proprietor. This enabled us to have a conversation with both, of course, with a mix of English, Japanese, repeating words, hand signals, etc. A nice interaction.
Most establishments provide extremely reasonably priced food, but do often require a minimum purchase, including a drink. Nonetheless, everything we had this evening, including Wagyu beef, probably cost us significantly less than $100 per person (including the drinks): inconceivable in the US, forgetting about the fact that this kind of experience is not even available.