Exotic delicacies are the attraction at this long-running restaurant offering traditional food eaten by the Shan people of Burma. The tofu soba, served with chickpea-made curd and topped with sesame seeds and peanuts, is a unique dish that tends to invoke mixed reactions, but really brave foodies can go even further with the fried bamboo worm (takemushi) platter. These cuties have a vaguely coconut-like, salty taste and go nicely with a cold Myanmar-brand beer. They’re also rich in protein and minerals, mind you.
Noisy college town, ramen shop ‘battleground’ and nondescript transport hub – the funny-sounding Takadanobaba is all of these things, but it’s also the birthplace of Natsume Soseki, one of modern Japan’s most celebrated novelists, the site of a legendary samurai duel, and home to a considerable Southeast Asian population. Cheap izakayas and other services geared toward students dominate the cityscape and receive a constant stream of customers not only from the famed Waseda, one of Japan’s elite universities, but also from the many vocational schools and smaller universities located in the area.
The curious place name means ‘Takada’s horse grounds’, after an actual riding site found here in Edo times, and residents continue to uphold tradition with yabusame (horseback archery) demonstrations held every October in a local park. As for the above-mentioned samurai duel, it took place in 1694 and ended in victory for Horibe Yasube, a warrior who years later joined 46 other men in avenging their dead master in an act that came to be immortalised in the legend of the forty-seven Ronin.
Take either the Yamanote, Seibu-Shinjuku or Tozai line to get in, note the Astro Boy anime theme song played before Yamanote trains depart the station, and start discovering Baba’s hidden highlights.
