Finding cheap eats in expensive Tokyo

The counters fill up past at the restaurants in Yakitori Alley,
a food street that's Tokyo's best value

 Every time I go to Tokyo, I always stumble upon something new and interesting.

When I was in Japan's capital last month, for instance, I went out looking for some cheap eats and was directed to Yakitori Alley, a small street on the edge of the Ginza that runs parallel to the city's main elevated rail line on which the super fast Shinkansen (bullet) train rides.

In the hollowed out crevasses under the elevated line, restaurateurs have set up shop and sell everything from sushi to horse for very reasonable prices.

The best restaurants in Yakitori Alley are the ones with the longest lineups - like

Midori Sushi, where people start lining up as early as 4 p.m. to eat some of the freshest fish I've ever tasted (bought daily at Tokyo’s legendary Tsukiji fish market). The prices at Midori are very reasonable - two can eat for as little as $30; a steal in expensive Tokyo.

When you enter Midori Sushi, the chefs behind the long counter frantically preparing dynamite and California rolls yell out a welcome - it's a tradition in a lot of Japan's neighourhood restaurants. A la Carte selections like shrimp, sea urchin (you can have medium or extra fatty - guess which one I chose?),  abalone, flatfish and something called striped jack fish (delicious!) cost between $3 and $7 each and sides of chawanmushi (an egg custard filled with fish that's topped with a crab claw and is now one of my all time favourite dishes) run about $10.

The counter is the hottest seat in Midori Sushi and the local atmosphere is truly wonderful.
Yakitoti, by the way, means "meat on a skewer, and as you can imagine, there's plenty of barbecue places in the Alley toasting morsels of meat (beef and lamb) as well as fish and chicken on small habachis.

The Izakaya restaurant around the corner from Midori Sushi - across from the International Arcade - was another of my favorite Yakitori Alley hangouts - lots of Tokyo businessmen come here after a hard day at the office to eat and sip beer and sake while the bullet trains rumble overhead.

There's a great "local" atmosphere in Izakaya but beware of what you order - the dish being consumed at the next table that looks so good could be horse. Not to worry, this eclectic eatery also dishes up chicken, pork, beef and fish - all at very reasonable prices.


The Yakitori Bar Tonton restaurant, tucked away in one of the arches off Yakitori Alley, is another of my favourite places to eat. I consumed lots of skewers of pork and beef but shied away from the smorgasbord of organ meats served in this restaurant, like heart, gizzard, liver, tongue and intestines.

There's also plenty of Western-style restaurants in the Alley.

Finding Yakitori Alley can be a bit of a challenge - the closest subway station is Hibiya (take exit A2)

Turn right at the top of the stairs and walk along the elevated rail line until you see the passage way with the glowing lights and the grill smoke rising from it.

Exit C1 from the Ginza station offers more subway line connections and isn’t too much farther away. From here you’re closer to the "uncovered" yakitori stalls rather than the original ones under the tracks.

The freshest fish is always on the menu in this Alley.

Taiwan's Kinmen a treasured island

Student soldiers put on a show for the
tourists each day by firing blanks from
the big guns that protected Taiwan
from China's mighty army a few kilometres away.

DATELINE KINMEN ISLAND - Travelling through Taiwan is like peeling an onion - every layer exposes new wonders.

Like this incredible island that once stood as the first defence against China's mighty communist army but today is being transformed into a vacation wonderland where local officials like Kinmen Magistrate Wo-Shih Li is hoping that his tiny piece of paradise will soon be overrun by tourists from China's mainland.

In anticipation of that day, Kinmen has cleaned up its beaches - that means they've rid 80 per cent of their beaches of the land minds placed on them to try and halt a Chinese advance had one ever come.

China and Taiwan have been feuding ever since Chinese came here in the 1940s to escape communist rule. Bombs rained down on Kinmen from China - only a few kilometres away - during that period but now, thanks to diplomatic efforts, the two countries are much friendlier - Taiwan is even the biggest foreign investor in China now.

Now efforts are under way to have a 6 kilometre bridge built between Kinmen and China's Xiamen, a popular resort town that I can see from where I'm standing on the Taiwanese island. Xiamen gets 30 million tourists a year and with a bridge, Magistrate Li anticipates a lot of those tourists will be drawn to his island. Already, Kinmen gets 360,000 Chinese visitors a year - they come by ferry.

Of  course, linking Taiwan to the mainland is always a sensitive issue among the Taiwanese thanks to Chinese insistence that Taiwan still belongs to it.
 

When the day finally does come and the bridge is complete, the Chinese will be thrilled to find an island lush with vegetation, a dramatic coastline and some of the loveliest people in Asia.

They'll also find a local liqueur known as Kaoliang that packs a punch sans hangover; peanut candies that are crunchy and sweet; thousands of bird species which migrate here each year; quaint villages that were built during China's earliest dynasties; and a culture that dates back 6,000 years when Kinmen was first settled.

The Chinese have been denied passage to this island for too long - it's time to bridge the gap because Kinmen is a treasure that more people should see.