Path: ccsf.homeunix.org!ccsf.homeunix.org!news1.wakwak.com!nf1.xephion.ne.jp!onion.ish.org!onodera-news!newsfeed.media.kyoto-u.ac.jp!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!i61-195-247-171.us.catvmics.ne.JP!not-for-mail From: Declan Murphy Newsgroups: fj.life.in-japan Subject: Re: Romantic restaurants in Tokyo etc. Date: Wed, 28 May 2003 12:10:01 +0900 Lines: 67 Message-ID: <3ED42889.6050707@hotmail.com> References: <3EC4C08B.2030000@hotmail.com> Reply-To: news@yamasa.org NNTP-Posting-Host: i61-195-247-171.us.catvmics.ne.jp (61.195.247.171) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: fu-berlin.de 1054091358 4894127 61.195.247.171 (16 [139419]) User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.0rc2) Gecko/20020510 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en Xref: ccsf.homeunix.org fj.life.in-japan:176 Thanks to all for the advice and various suggestions. On the basis of a thoroughly unscientific survey of romantic and not-so-romantic establishments in Tokyo over the weekend, here are some plus/minus points for some of the places we went to for anyone who cares. 1. The Fukuoka Kaikan just down the road from the British Embassy is not a good place for a romantic lunch, though the actual lunch itself was pretty damn good. We ended up eating there because the section of the British Embassy I needed to visit was closed until mid afternoon. (In case any one is curious, the British Embassy is also not a good place to start romancing. While she thought the architecture was rather natsukashii, the security at the gate shocked her a little. I had to drag her in there because I had to file some papers. We then had to head to the Irish Embassy, which inevitably perhaps, was actually quite fun) 2. A high ceiling, peace and quiet and some smoke free space is not usually what comes to mind when you say "The Shamrock" near Kichioji station. We were killing time before dinner. Her first ever Guiness was poured and brought to the table by a young gentleman wearing and speaking green. "What language was he speaking Dekuran?", "English darling, English", "It wasn't Irish?", "No darling, it was English", "Are you sure?", "Yes dear, it wasn't Mikawa-ben, so it must have been English", "But what language did you reply in?" etc etc etc. 3. Niraikamei Okinawan restaurant also in Kichioji was kinda fun, except that you are packed in elbow to elbow. The beer from Ishigaki was damn fine, and if you are reading this Ryan, I found that I actually liked eating fried pig's ears. The bar staff apparently also read fjlij - as Ryan's awamori based cocktail recipe was doing the rounds. In most cases with a dash of blue curacao, even though I couldn't see any gaigin around resembling Bryan. 4. Kubakan in Aoyama was simply heaven. 5. The bar at the top of the tower of the New Otani Hotel was surprisingly small and noisy, probably due to a table of 8 or so eurotrash gaigins across the way from us. Nice yakei views, though motoakasaka was just a great black hole. Enjoyed a very nice Fonseca port, but its not the sort of place to go down on one knee in. 6. Tete-a-Tete (mega thanks to John Yamamoto Hyphen Wilson) was also good. We didn't arrive until late, and with the exception of another couple had the place to ourselves. The duck was good, the wine better, the dessert wonderful. Very nice atmosphere. 7. Garden Lounge at the New Otani has a nice brunch. Its a nice place to slowly wake up in when you sleep in until 11. I hadn't been to the garden there before and was interested in its history. The garden itself is nice-ish, though nowhere as nice as the Ii family's other garden down in Hikone. About the only thing spoiling the place was a noisy sepponian photographer screaming and shouting instructions to the family he was shooting pictures of. 8. At Tokyo station, a lazy lunch/afternoon downstairs in Mikuni. The only time I've ever seen kaiten sushi look appetising. Dessert in the train style dining cars - a good idea as you have a lot of privacy but don't feel boxed in. -- The captain is brave ( Aye! Carumba! What a storm! ). The captain is brave, he's a fearless man, And Gilligan help him all that he can. The wheel, she break, and lose all control; S.S. Minnow do the rock-and-roll!