"Kou-don" restaurant in Oi-machi

2015/04/12
"Kou-don(幸丼)" is an Oi-machi's local restaurant which serves Japanese style rice bowls topped with stewed and roasted pork fillet.
"Kou(幸)" means happiness, and "don(丼)" means a rice bowl.

There are two "Kou-don" restaurant in Oi-machi.
One is located near the city hall of Shinagawa-ku.
The other one(branch) is located near Mitsumata crossing.

This is Mitsumata crossing branch.

The inside is very very small.
There only three seats.
So you can take away the box you get.

Before you enter the restaurant, at first you need to buy a meal ticket from the vending machine outside.

1000yen bills and coins are available.
A typical and most recommended menu is "Kou-don bara(幸丼バラ) 690JPY" which means rice bowl with "soft" roasted pork fillet.
If you want to get it, insert money and push the button indicated with red circle above.
After you get a ticket, pass it to a staff inside the restaurant.
Then he or she will ask you whether you eat here or take away.

At this time I selected "Eat here".

The inside is very small but fortunately there is no guests except for me...

Waiting about 5 minutes, the bowl was coming.

A cup of miso soup is included.
Pork fillet is very soft and easy to cut to pieces using chopsticks.
It is deeply stewed and grilled until the surface gets slightly burned and you can feel the savory smell of roasted pork.
It is seasoned with soy sauce, garlics and various soup, topped with small pieces of welsh onion.
You can enjoy strong taste of grilled pork.

After you finish to eat two thirds of the rice and pork, you can ask a staff to add "soup" into your bowl.

This is so called "Soup-wari" in Japanese.
This "soup" is hot Japanese tea in this case.
"Wari" means the thing mixed with soup.
You can enjoy different light taste of soup and rice.

"Kou-don" restaurant serves a bowl which can be tasted in Oi-machi only.
When you have an opportunity to visit Oi-machi, I believe it is worth going.

Location :
"Kou-don" restaurant Mitshumata crossing branch (Google Map)

Opening hours : (as of 2015/04)
Mon-Sat : 11：00～14：45、17：30～24：00
Sun : 11：00～15：00、17：00～21：00

Official site (Japanese only)

"Bulldog" restaurant in Oi-machi

2015/04/05
"Bulldog" restaurant is one of the most famous restaurant in Oimachi, Tokyo.
The size of a portion is extremely big for Japanese(maybe normal size for American...) and of cource it is tasty, so it is covered in many Japanese TV media.

"Bulldog" is located in "Higashi-koji restaurant street".

it is a 5 minutes' walk from Oimachi railway station.
「ブルドック」 in Japanese repesents a bulldog and the pronounciation is the same as English.
It is a Japanese old-fashioned style, small restaurant.
It serves homemade western cuisine localized for Japanese.
The inside of the restaurant is small and crowded with local citizens at mealtime.

One of the typical menu, "Menchi-katsu Tei-shoku(メンチカツ定食)" (1150JPY).

"Menchi-katsu(メンチカツ)" is a fried cake of minced meat shown in the right part of the above photo.
It is much bigger than my face!
"Tei-shoku（定食）" means a set menu.
So a dish of rice ,a bowl of chunky miso soup ,and pickled vegetables are served together.
"Menchi-katsu" is very crispy (and fatty).
You can feel rich flavor of beef and a feeling of your fullness is guaranteed.

Most of guests are Japanese local people and I have never seen foreign tourists.
Some of restaurant staffs seem to be Chinese speakers.
If you are very hungry and not satisfied with the amount of a meal in Japanese restaurant, I reccomend to try to visit here.

Please refer to the site below for more details.
Kitchen Bulldog (Tripadvisor)

Oi-machi city

2015/03/29
My home town Oi-machi(大井町) city is located next to Shinagawa (south district of Tokyo) and I think the location is very convenient for foreign tourists.
So in this article, I will introduce the Oimachi city.

What exists in Oi-machi ?

Oimachi city is not a big city and it doesn't have any famous spots for sightseeing.
However you can stay in quiet circumstances and feel Japanese everyday life syle.
There are several hotels, some Ramen noodle shops, many convenience stores, Gyu-don(Beef bowl) shops, a 100 yen shop, shopping centers ,and discount electric store "LABI Oimachi" and so on.

You can enjoy various foods and shopping as the same as Oimachi citizens.

You can also enjoy modern style Japanese public bath (Ofuro-no-osama(お風呂の王様), which means the king of bath)

It is located in Ours Inn Hankyu shopping center.

There are small old‐fashioned streets and restaurants.

You can see many druken office workers in week days...

Furthermore, 3 trains are stopped at Oimachi railway station. so you can go to major spots such as Shnjuku, Shibuya, Tokyo, Akihabara,and Odaiba directly by train without transfering.
So I think the location of Oimachi is very convenient for foreign tourists
.

Access from/to Haneda Airport

You can come to Oimachi from Haneda Airport directly by Keikyu Limousine Bus.
You will get off a limousine bus in front of the west exit of Oimachi railway station.

After getting off, you can see two high buildings of "Ours Inn Hankyu Hotel" in front of your eyes as shown in the above photo.
The left building is its Single Tower "S", and the right building is Twin Tower "T".
Sinse they are reconstructed in 2011-2014, so they have new and modern facilities.

The bus stop for Haneda Airport is located in front of the shopping center "Ito Yokado".

A limousine bus for Haneda Airport departs from Bus Stop No.3.
It takes about 30 minutes from Oimachi to Haneda (depending on traffic condition).
You can also access to Haneda Airport by trains but I think using bus is more comfortable because you can sit down and store your baggage to its cargo space.

I am willing to introfuce more things about Oimachi in later articles.