Monthly Archives: May 2016

Verble, Margaret. Maud’s Line. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, New York, 2015. Kindle electronic version. F; 5/16. This is one of the runners-up in the 2016 Pulitzer fiction contest. I’ve already said I didn’t like the winner, I also wasn’t crazy about the … Continue reading →

Link, Kelly. Get in Trouble. Random House, New York, 2015. Kindle electronic version. F; 5/16. Lots of times in the past I’ve started a work of fiction and decided I didn’t like it, but then changed my mind. But I … Continue reading →

May 2016. We had some problems with the Michelin guide here in Kyoto. But this wonderful little noodle house was not one of them.  A “bib gourmand” listing, it satisfied fully. Eventually finding it in spite of Google Maps’s imprecision, … Continue reading →

Murakami, Haruki. Norwegian Wood. Vintage, New York, 2000. English translation by Jay Ruben. Kindle electronic. F; 5/16. This Murakami romance  set in Tokyo has a dark side full of death, evil, and nostalgic regret, and I read it while I was in … Continue reading →

May 2016. Strikes two and three for Michelin in this town. We were staying in the lovely residential North Kyoko neighbourhood of Kita-ku. It’s a grid of small streets, lots of modest but many traditional Japanese homes, and a nice … Continue reading →

Nguyen, Viet Thanh. The Sympathizer. Grove, New York, 2015. Kindle electronic version. F/5/16. A pretty dependent fiction addict, I troll the literary prizes so I don’t miss anything new and exciting. Part of my response to this book (which I … Continue reading →

May, 2016 Our first night in town, we went looking for “bib gourmand”, presented as good value in the online Michelin site. This place qualified and was within walking distance of our AirBnB, so we went for it. It was … Continue reading →

May 2016. On this Tokyo trip, this was our big culinary climax. Searching online, I was condemned to guesswork using somebody else’s idea of flavour and value as one always is. I was looking for something with a bit of Michelin-style splash … Continue reading →

May 2016. This place was highly recommended by TripAdvisor as a hot prospect tempura spot. Like Aoi Marushin – although it was a cut above – it proved to be another fast-food-style production kitchen popping out deep-fried stuff we wouldn’t … Continue reading →

May 2013. Tempura appears to cover a pretty wide range of treatments and quality in Tokyo, based on our small sample of three or four places. At Ginza Ten’Ichi we were treated, and charged, like royalty, and the food was … Continue reading →