I’ve now moved my reviews to my blog section so people can comment more easily (so you may have already read this part).

Okay, So Let’s start with this: I’m only reviewing the Japanese restaurants I like (at least for now). I have favorite (and secondary) sushi, ramen, yakitori, yakiniku, and izakaya-style spots that I go to in the LA area (mostly near home, sorry valley-dwellers), and those will be the first reviews. I don’t go out for shabu-shabu or nabe because it’s so easy to buy the meat and vegetables at a Japanese supermarket (of which there are at least 10,000 in the South Bay- and yes, I’m pretty sure that’s an accurate count), and cook them at home; less money=more meat.

I haven’t tried everywhere (and nowhere in the valley) so there may be better places out there for the style of food I review, but I’ve found some pretty good ones and I hope you’ll try them. I have no outside incentives (I’m trying to plug a book here after all), and am writing this section only because I’m often asked for recommendations. No, having lived in Japan doesn’t make me an expert on anything Japanese (see my “About” page for background), but I’ve eaten A LOT of Japanese food and you may like my suggestions. So try a couple and see if your experiences agree with me (not all of my spots are solely about the food), at which point you can either return to Yelp, or look for my next review (though the two are not mutually exclusive).

If I find Japanese restaurants that I like in other cities I will review them as well. I do have some spots in Kyoto, Nara, and Osaka that I will get to. I apologize that on my recent lone visit to Houston I did not go out for Japanese food, but when I noticed the Japanese grill restaurants are called “hibachi,” which is a traditional room-heating implement in Japan, I decided to stick with the steak and pork chops. Those, I can happily report, were outstanding.