A Walk around Shin Okubo / 新大久保の散歩

Last week we decided to head to Tokyo's Korea-town. It's located in an area called Shin Okubo. It was a beautiful Sunday and we planned on having lunch there. After lunch we were going to go walking around to check out all the stores selling everything Korean - from kimchee to CDs, DVDs, and other assorted paraphenalia of Korean stars. I also wanted to check out what became of the space where my favorite Tunisian restaurant, Hannibal was (it had moved from Shin Okubo to Harajuku or rather, a second restaurant opened in Harajuku but the original one closed). I also wanted to check out this place called the Hyaku Nincho Yatai Mura - it was like a small restaurant village featuring Asian and Southeast Asian cuisine. In Hannibal's place was another Tunisian/Moroccan restaurant called Sahara. We will have to check it out another time. Yatai-mura was remodeled and lost it's Southeast flavor of being busy, noisy, and just a tad filthy - that's what made the place so great before.


先週東京のコリアタウンに行った。場所は新大久保。またまた日曜日は散歩日和の日で、そこでランチを食べて、食べた後に回りを散歩して、韓流グッズの店をいろいろ見に行きました。僕は個人的に調べたい事もあって、（昔よく行ったチュニジア料理店「ハニバル」の場所がどうなったのかと百人町屋台村もどいう風に変わったのか）。調べたらびっくり、ハンバルの変わりに別のチュニジア料理店が出来た。詳しくはチュニジア・モロッコ料理店のサハラが出来た。いずれは行ってみたいな。百人町屋台村はリニュアルされて昔の雰囲気は一切残ってない。昔は込んでて、うるさくって、ちょっと汚い‐でも食べ物は超美味しかった。

We were going to have lunch at a restaurant called the Omuni Shokudo. It has become the restaurant that all the Korean stars go to. But before going there we had to meet up with Yong-jun Bae (as pictured above) and bought some Korean instant noodles and snacks. We were also given a free sample of bonggashi. Mikako also had her picture taken with a Korean star Song Seung Heon.

ランチはオムニ食堂に行く事を決めてた。その店は韓国のスター達にも大人気。でもその前はヨン様を会いに行って（上記の写真）、私たちも韓国のインスタントラーメンとお菓子を買った。あと、ボンガッシという韓国風せんべいみたいな物を試食しました。美香子も韓流スターのソン・スンホンとツーショットを撮った。

Pictured above is the Omuni Shokudo which probably translates to something like Mother's Diner. We ordered the seafood nabe and a plate of toppogi (an omochi-like dish), which also came with an assortment of kimchee.

オムニ食堂で海鮮鍋とトッポギーを注文した。もちろんキムチの盛り合わせが付く。

Seafood nabe

海鮮鍋

The seafood nabe is filled with shrimp, cod, squid, crab, oysters, Venus clams, scallops, mussels, and sea squirts along with tofu and vegetables.

海鮮鍋の具はエビ、タラ、イカ、カニ、カキ、ハマグリ、ホタテ、ムール貝、小ホヤ、で豆腐入りです。

Toppogi / トッポギー

And a beer for me.

あとはビール一杯。

And dessert - green tea ice cream and chocolate ice cream.

デサートは抹茶アイスとチョコアイス。

And lastly we were given sticks of gum to freshen our breath.

最後にガムを貰いました。