A Stroll Through Shimokitazawa Beers & Burgers!

Beers & burgers towards the end if you want to skip.

I took my wife out to dinner yesterday in Shimokitazawa. It's the first town we lived in together and we haven't been back together since we moved away 16 years ago. Since that time it has changed A LOT.

Shimokitazawa is an arts town near Shibuya. It used to house several playhouses, live houses, art galleries and more. I say used to because I am not sure if those venues are still around since so much has changed.

We exited the Northside because this was always the livelier side. Also, my wife wanted to visit some handmade shops so off we went.

We were pretty surprised at how much it had changed. We barely recognized any shops aside from the Peacock supermarket. So many stores were new and bustling with people. We were also surprised at the number of foreigners there. I recall the days when I was the only foreigner for miles.

Some of the trends we saw there were burger joints and pancake houses. For some reason, Japan is suddenly in love with both. We wanted to grab a pancake, but as you can see in the photo above the line was a bit long.

Instead we headed over to "Needle" a handmade shop @tokyowomanslife wanted to visit. It is actually part of another trend here, renting out small spaces to crafters to sell their goods, a trend America saw several years ago.

Moving on we headed up and down the small streets trying to take in the shops, restaurants, architecture, etc.

I'm always attracted to the design of shops here. It's mind-boggling the amount of design and money that go into shops here. I guess you have to in order to be competitive.

On the Southside we headed off to the first izakaya for the night, "Totoshigure". I will blog about it Friday because it really deserves its own post. After Totshigure we found a liquor store that specialized in microbrews​/craft brews so we ducked in, but we heeded the sign out front.

Most of the beers were Japanese, but there were some American and European beers as well. I settled on a Baird "Suruga Bay IPA". Baird beer is probably the biggest microbrewer in Japan. Their beers are always a safe choice if you aren't feeling adventurous. Suruga IPA is a fairly well balanced IPA.

Then it was back over to the Northside for more browsing and another drink. We stumbled on a tasting shop called "Tap & Growler". It was tucked down at the end of a street we hadn't walked down earlier so we decided to grab another beer.

It offers Japanese craft beers by the 1/2 pint and take home sizes at 32 & 64 oz.

While it's a bit expensive, it was a nice way to wind down the night. @tokyowomanslife ordered a Vertere Passiflora, a fruity IPA. I stuck with a straight IPA, Kobushihana. In this case, the more expensive beer, my wife's, was much better. My IPA was boring, nothing stood out. Her's, however,​ was very flavorful, but not overwhelming. I couldn't put my finger on the fruit used, but it was delicious.

After drinking our beers we passed by a hamburger joint. I love trying Japanese hamburgers because there is a serious boom of them here. The place was called "Village Vanguard Diner".

They had this amazing looking cheeseburger​ with a monster slice of ham on it and it was something we just couldn't pass up. We ordered that and an order of guacamole with tortilla​ and renkon chips. I have to say the renkon chips were excellent with the guacamole.

A note about the burger, someone had commented that it was the best thing they had ever eaten in their life and they print that on the menu. I will say it was a damn good burger. Definitely not the best I've had, but better than 95% of the burgers I've had in California. The cheese was real cheddar cheese, not some fake, processed shit. The ham slice was lightly seasoned, the bun was perfect, like an Umami Burger bun and the hamburger was delicious. I'd definitely head back to this place as well as recommend it if you happen to be in Shimokitazawa.

On the way back to the station we found a glorious shop with a motto to die by...

Now that the jetlag has worn off I should be back to posting a full, weekly schedule. I'll update you on some things happening in Japan, like our meeting today with the @Steemit-jp core team as well as some upcoming events we are planning.

Thanks for reading!

[//]:# (!steemitworldmap 35.662582 lat 139.665653 long A Stroll Through Shimokitazawa Beers & Burgers! d3scr)

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