Monthly Archive: August 2006 [37]
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August 31, 2006
フルーツパーラー フクナガ
フルーツサンド（ハーフ）とコーヒーのセット、６００円。
桃のパフェ、９５０円。
Fruit sandwich and peach parfait. The sandwich is just sliced fruits with whipped cream, the bread is not toasted(I wish it was). When I went I was the only customer and the owner was talkative and gave me a lecture about how you should eat the skin of peaches and not peel it away and waste all the nutrients in it...so my peach parfait came without having the skin peeled and I had to do it myself secretly, hiding the skin in tissue paper... ^^;; While I ate, two more loner customers came in and one girl seemed to be familar with the owner and she ordered the peach parfait too. When the owner started to give the same lecture, she said, "I WANT THE SKIN PEELED, JUST DO IT!" ^^;;; The parfait was okay...peach sorbet and vanilla ice-cream underneath.
フクナガ
Comments(5) [ cakes and sweets | 四ツ谷 ]
August 30, 2006
EL TORITO (エルトリート)
ファヒータ ブリトー、１１３４円。
Fajitas Burrito. Beef fajitas, onion and sonora beans wrapped in flour tortilla. The tortilla is soft and the beef is juicy, but...the whole thing is unbelievably salty and has too much pepper!! It was difficult to grab the waitress and get more water...after I struggled to finish it and got out, I ran into the first convenience store in sight for drinks... ^^;; This place seems to be a chain restaurant, huge space and very family restaurant feel with kids running around.
EL TORITO
Comments(8) [ 池袋 ]
August 29, 2006
Salsa Cabana （サルサ・カバナ）
スパイシーチキン エンチラーダ、９００円。
Spicy chicken Enchiladas. Hmm....the chicken tasted suspiciously like canned food, the green tomato sauce was too sour(supposed to be sour?), the corn tortilla was hard(supposed to be hard?), plus it was not ovened enough so not hot...just like my friend said about this place, the taste is very fastfood...while the price is not.
Salsa Cabana
Comments(4) [ 四ツ谷 ]
August 28, 2006
岩井食堂
イワシのオイルサーディン。トマトのオーブン焼き。
Sardine with olive oil. Oven tomato(some rare type of tomato apparently) and cheese with garlic. Both are very good.
コクレ鶏のハーブ焼き。ウニのクリームパスタ。
Some French bred chicken, grilled with herb. A bit normal.
Uni pasta. Not spaghetti but thicker type, probably linguine, cooked just right, but the uni cream sauce had not much uni taste...
失恋のパスタ。海老のトマトソースリゾット。
"Broken heart pasta", just Lasagne with corn beef instead of minced meat, and not grilled.
Prawn tomato sauce risotto. The prawn was a bit bitter...
A small restaurant with only counter seats. The chef is famous for being rude and noisy. ^^;; But since we were prepared, we were not too shocked. Still a bit nervous when ordering or asking for recommendations. He and his wife both smoked while cooking, which was something I had never experienced in Japan, even in cheap places. Because of the open kitchen+counter seats, all our clothes stank oily afterwards. 3 of us shared all the food and opened 2 bottles of wine, came up to 5000yen per person, quite cheap! But really, once is enough. ^^;;
岩井食堂
Comments(11) [ french food | 四ツ谷 ]
August 27, 2006
万惣フルーツパーラー＠神田須田町
フルーツオムレツ、１２６０円。白桃のフレッシュパフェ、１４７０円。
Fruit omelette. It is basically a massive souffle, wrapped in a thin layer of crepe, HOT from the oven. The egg smells great and the texture very soft! So soft that in fact there is not that much substance in that volume. ^^;; Very good though. Peach parfait is not bad, there are small slices of peach stuffed between vanilla ice-cream and raspberry sorbet. The ice-cream and the raspberry sauce are a bit too sweet though. btw I didn't eat both at one time, had the parfait first and saw other customers ordering the omelette and drooled, so went back the next day to try. ^^;;
万惣フルーツパーラー
Comments(4) [ cakes and sweets | 神田・神保町・秋葉原 ]
August 26, 2006
Bistro Chez AZUMA （シェ・アズマ）
有機野菜のサラダ。タイのマリネ。
Organic salad. Most are cooked vegetables, very nice!
Marinated sea bream.
オニオングラタンスープ。
My god this is the best onion soup I have ever had! The soup is clear but with rich onion flavour; the soft slices of onions, the grilled melted cheese, the French bread soaked with the soup, are all perfect! I want to eat it again~~
仔羊のロースト、ドライトマトソース。クレームビュレ、マンゴアイスとモモのコンポート。
Roasted lamb with dried tomato sauce. The lamb is soft and not too fatty, the sauce has strong herb and chilli flavour, the side potato gratin is good too. Then I was a bit disppointed when the dessert came out...but the Creme Brulee has very rich vanilla flavour, and the mango sorbet and the peach compote are not bad.
We ordered the 5000yen dinner course. The salad, the sea bream and the lamb came in big plates for sharing between two people. The onion gratin soup and the dessert are of course for one person. We printed out a coupon from the homepage and got ourselves free Kir Royal, very good and strong alcohol for a free drink! Also ordered glass wine later but it was like 600yen a glass, very cheap. The only thing is, whether you order A la carte or full course, you have to share from a big plate and split yourself....and I am the laziest person on earth and hate doing that especially in French or Italian restaurants...the food gets cold quickly. ^^;;
Chez AZUMA
Comments(3) [ my favourites | french food | 渋谷・恵比寿・代官山 ]
August 25, 2006
de sot bar NOZAKI(デ・ソト・バル・ノザキ)
スパゲッティ 仔羊とバジリコのトマトソース、１０００円。 Spaghetti with lamb, basil in tomato sauce. Came with a big salad, a small but quite good foccacia, coffee and a tiny cake. Spaghetti was quite good though the sauce was a bit thin. The open terrace was too hot for summer...even though there was air-conditioning inside.
de sot bar NOZAKI
Comments(5) [ 麻布・六本木・赤坂 ]
August 24, 2006
眠庵＠神田須田町
二種もり、１１６０円。牛肉と大根のバーボン煮、５８０円。
Bourbon-simmered beef and radish. The beef is a bit rough, but the radish is good. I ordered the half-half soba set with two kinds of soba, and they came separately. They look the same in pictures though, actually taste similar too...the second one only a bit thicker than the first one. The place is a bit difficult to find as the narrow entrance is easy to miss. Very small place, with only three tables and a few counter seats. There is air-coniditioning but still quite hot inside...The two ojisan sitting next to me were hotly discussing high school baseball and saying the pitcher of this year's winning school is too cute and too thin/short/small-bone to really become a professional pitcher...haha...^^;;
眠庵
August 23, 2006
野らぼー 錦町本店
釜揚肉ぶっかけうどん（玉子入り）、７１０円。
Meat udon with raw egg. Very nice! The simmered pork and the onion were sweet, while the soup was just the water used to boil the udon, and there was a bottle of slightly sweet sauce that you add yourself for additional flavour. I have been to other branch before, but I prefer the udon I ordered this time. The portion was very big too!
野らぼー
Comments(4) [ good cheap eats | 神田・神保町・秋葉原 ]
竹子
坦坦麺、７５０円。 A very rundown ramen place with only counter seats and all customers were male...took some courage to go in alone. ^^;; But the spicy noodles is very good! Noodles are thin but not too overcooked, the soup is spicy and the pork is soft.
竹子
August 22, 2006
千疋屋フルーツパーラー 日本橋総本店
スペシャルパフェ、１５７５円。After a rather bad dinner, not full and not satisfied, we went upstairs to this fruit parlour for desserts. I had Peach parfait last time. Special parfait, with banana ice-cream and mango ice-cream and strawberry sauce at the bottom, very good~. Ended up very stuffed though. ^^;;
千疋屋
Comments(2) [ cakes and sweets | 新橋・銀座・日本橋 ]
LA BETTOLA per tutti （ラ・ベットラ ペル トゥッティ＠日本橋）
３９９０円のディナーコース。
米ナスとモッツァレラのオーブン焼き。うにのスパゲッティ。
Oven aubergine and mozzarella. Uni spaghetti.
スペアリブ。ビターチョコケーキと焼き菓子の盛り合わせ。
Spare rib. Bitter chocolate cake.
I have been to the original restaurant and its sister restaurant, which are only a few minutes' walk away from each other. Both were very good, especially the uni spaghetti. There is also a branch in Shinjuku which I had lunch before and was no good, and they didn't have Uni spaghetti in the lunch menu. A friend tried to book the original restaurant but she was told that the seats were fully booked for 2 months...even the sister restaurant was an impossible wait. So we tried the newly opened branch in Nihonbashi...it bears the exact same name as the no-good one in Shinjuku, and I wasn't expecting high...turned out it really was no good. ^^;; The worst was my spare rib, so hard and rough! The uni spaghetti was okay, not too much uni taste and quite watery...
LA BETTOLA per tutti
Comments(3) [ italian food | 新橋・銀座・日本橋 ]
August 21, 2006
根津の谷
日替定食、１１００円。夏野菜の揚出、さしみコンニャクとオクラの酢味噌かけ、あらめの煮つけ、玄米ご飯、みそ汁、漬物。
An organic restaurant that doesn't use meat, fish, egg, dairy products, refined white sugar...etc. Today's lunch is fried summer vegetables, sashimi konjak and okra with vinegar and miso, simmered string seaweed, brown rice and miso soup. Love the vegetables and the brown rice. Though the konjak had some really bad fish smell...^^;; After I took picture of the interior, customers kept coming in and filled up the place, all of them either elderly or girls.
根津の谷
August 20, 2006
Patisserie Madu (パティスリー・マディ)
Pear and grapefruit tart. The red part is a thin layer of grapefruit. It was take-away and I left it in the fridge for hours, so the tart got a bit soggy. The pear and the bottom part of the tart were very good though. Definitely should have eat-in.
Lemon cake. Matcha and red bean cake. Both very good. Like the matcha one more.
Galette(rich egg taste and has some salt on the surface), financier(rich almond paste, very good!), madeleine(funny shape, taste okay).
Bread: On top are strawberry bread and apple bread. Bottom ones are gorgonzola and walnut(very good!), and french bread with red bean paste and butter(when I reheated the bread, the butter melted and was all squeezed out through the hole when I tried to eat it...almost got burnt). All the bread are soft type, very good!
Ｐａｔｉｓｓｅｒｉｅ Ｍａｄｕ
Comments(6) [ cakes and sweets | 渋谷・恵比寿・代官山 ]
August 19, 2006
美噌元
八品目の冷汁麺（味噌仕立て）、７１４円。８品は豆腐、きゅうり、トマト、胡麻、しそ、みょうが、しょうが、と季節の野菜（枝豆）。
Old entry here. Miso soup cold noodles with tofu, cucumber, tomato, sesame, shiso, ginger and green soybeans. It is very good! So cooling so healthy-tasting. The noodles are very chewy too. Too bad it is such a tiny eat-in space with only counter seats...very embarassing to take pictures. ^^;
美噌元
Comments(5) [ 池袋 ]
つるとんたん (Tsurutontan Bis Tokyo)
海老のクリームおうどん、１２００円。明太子のおうどん、１２００円。
I had the prawn cream udon, quite good. My friend had mentaiko udon, apparently so-so.
つるとんたん
Comments(6) [ 有楽町・丸の内 ]
Cordes-Sur-Ciel(コルド・シュール・シエル)
Chocolate mousse with passion fruit. Very mild tasting but quite smooth. The cake shop is still pretty new, located in an office area so when we went on weekend it was completely empty.
Comments(3) [ cakes and sweets | 麻布・六本木・赤坂 ]
Le Chinoisclub
マンゴーパフェ、８００円。Mango and lychee(both very very frozen), coconut milk and tapioca, mango pudding(oddly liquidised), star-shaped nata de coco at the bottom, and coconut ice-cream. Hmm, so-so.
Le Chinoisclub
Comments(5) [ cakes and sweets | 渋谷・恵比寿・代官山 ]
August 18, 2006
Hommage(オマージュ)
フロマージュデュテット(豚の頭の煮凝り)グリビッシュソース。
Aubergine puree and tomato sauce. Pork head jelly with Gribiche sauce(made from egg and mustard), hmm, kinda tasteless.
カボチャの冷製ポタージュ。スズキのポワレ、バターソース。
Cold pumpkin soup, very sweet, had some curry taste and a few drops of pistachio oil on top. Pan-fried Sea bass, not bad but...isn't the portion a bit stingy?(That day the fish market was closed for obon holiday so that could be the reason...)
仔羊背肉のポワレ スパイス風味。カルダモンのクレームブリュレ。
Lamb chop, with spice. The meat was soft, the first two bites were great, but half of it was plain fat and overall very oily, felt a bit sick halfway. Not sure where the spice was. The other choice for the main dish was not tempting to me so I ended up choosing the lamb again(last time I had lamb too). Cardamon creme brulee and raspberry sorbet. So mediocre....
I came here before and it was not mind-blowing impressive but each dish was quite good and the whole course was well balanced. This time was a disappointment...though this time we chose the 2900yen course, cheaper than the 3900yen course last time, that could be the reason too...
Hommage
Comments(5) [ french food | 浅草 ]
August 17, 2006
Il Teatro(Four Seasons Hotel)
Banana pancake and French toast. I saw this hotel breakfast on TV and it looked really good, so dragged a friend to try with me. Well, another example that TV gourmet recommendations are not trustworthy. Both are no good! The French toast is so dry that it gets stuck in your throat and won't go down. There are orange puree and nuts in the toast, and apple cinnamon on top. Very little or no egg. My friend's pancake is slightly better, but really, nothing special, you need to add a lot of syrup and butter to get it down your throat. We ordered coffee and it came up to 2700~yen each.
Four Seasons Hotel
Comments(6) [ cakes and sweets ]
August 16, 2006
LA TABLE de Joël Robuchon
A casual dining space of a high-class French restaurant. I have had dessert here before, also at another branch. The cheapest lunch is 2800yen(not including tax and service charge), to include dessert is plus 900yen, which we decided not to.
Pork rillette.
豚の塩漬け三枚バラ肉 夏野菜と香草のジュレ寄せ。
The bread were not warm, but still quite nice.
Salted belly pork and summer vegetables jelly. Light and cooling. Love the herb taste too.
フォアグラのポワレ パルメザンのリゾットと共に。
Pan-fried foie gras with parmesan cheese risotto. Finally some fresh and good quality foie gras~. The risotto was rich, very good too.
As expected the portion was small, and I was not even half full by the end. When I get rich I am coming back to have a full course dinner at the main restaurant, ha!
LA TABLE de Joël Robuchon
Comments(4) [ french food | 渋谷・恵比寿・代官山 ]
August 15, 2006
Delizioso Italia (デリツィオーゾイタリア)
ラザニア 牛肉の煮込みソースとモッツァレラチーズ パルミジャーノのオーブン焼き。ランチ１２６０円。
Lasagna(Beef, tomato, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, mozzarella cheese). The meat and cheese sauce was quite good.
Delizioso Italia
August 14, 2006
レストラン チャモロ
柔らかい厚切り牛タンオムライス、１５００円。
Cow tongue omelette rice. The cow tongue was indeed soft as it said on the menu, but it didn't taste like tongue meat at all, more like boiled beef, very bland tasting. I wish they cut the meat into small pieces and stir-fry with sauce or something, instead of giving one big piece. The ketchup rice was soggy. Both the rice and the tongue were not hot. The egg was very soft and good though, the portion was huge too.
チャモロ
August 13, 2006
川上庵 青山店
海鮮と野菜の掻き揚げ天せいろ、１３００円。
I was attracted by the stylish front door when I walked past, so decided to give it a try. Soba with seafood and vegetables kakiage(like tempura, but ingredients are cut into small pieces and deep-fried with batter slightly thicker than the usual tempura). The ingredients were prawns, small shrimps, mushrooms, pumpkin, carrot and burdock root. When it came out, it looked so good that I took loads of pictures, adjusting the angle and stuff...but it tasted no good!! ^^;;; The kakiage looked big but most of it was batter and the whole thing fell apart on the first bite. The soba had no soba taste or smell, and some of it was stuck together and hard.... A disappointment!
川上庵
Comments(5) [ 神宮前・青山・広尾 ]
August 12, 2006
正 GOKAKU
１８９０のランチコース。
野菜小鉢３品： モロヘイヤ ポン酢、つるむらさき お浸し、 いちじく胡麻だれかけ。
野菜料理： 旬の野菜 フリッター、沖縄の塩とレモンで。
A stylish Japanese place specialised in vegetables. For the 1890yen lunch course, you can choose 3 out of 5 options for the appetizer and choose 1 from the 2 options for the main. Unfortunately most of the names of the vegetables were something that I never heard of...I picked Mulukhiya in ponzu(top one), malabar spinach(bottom left, funny sticky texture) and the safe option "fig with sesame sauce"(bottom right). All were very good! I liked mulukhiya the most, juicy and sweet. For the main, I chose the vegetables fritter. It included, okra, babycorn, green beans, zucchini, green pepper, onion and sweet potato. The batter was thin and light, and the vegetables were very sweet.
小さなおかず： 冬瓜のあんかけ。
しまい： 減農薬米釜炊きごはん、香ノ物、お椀。
小さな甘味： 杏仁豆腐。
Then came the rice, miso soup and winter melon. The dessert was almond tofu. A very satisfying lunch!
GOKAKU
Comments(6) [ japanese food | 神宮前・青山・広尾 ]
August 11, 2006
VACANZA
小柱とブロッコリーのクリームソース、フェットチーネ。ランチ１０５０円。
Fettucine with baby scallop and broccoli in cream sauce. The fettucine, and even the broccoli was too over-cooked...hmm.
VACANZA
August 10, 2006
Napule (ピッツェリア・トラットリア ナプレ)
ビッツァ マルゲリータ ランチ、１４００円。 生ハムトッピング、５００円。
Margherita, and I ordered prosciutto topping. Actually the prosciutto was unnecessary...it was too much and too salty that I ended up putting it aside anyway. The tomato sauce was the sour kind, quite watery and made the pizza kinda soggy(I wonder if it is supposed to be like that?). The pizza bread itself was not bad, and big portion. I went late, avoiding the busy lunch time, but its second floor and third floor were still completely packed! Very popular so it seems. The waitresses were very friendly and the atmosphere was lively.
Napule
Comments(6) [ 神宮前・青山・広尾 ]
August 09, 2006
Aigre Douce (エーグルドゥース＠目白)
カスレット（シュー生地の中にキャラメル風味のバナナ入りのカスタード）、ティラミス フィグ、チーズケーキ。ケークキャラメル。
Left: The crust is the same as that of cream puffs, the surface is the crispy sugar layer like that of creme brulee, and the inside is caramelised banana and custard cream. I like this one the most. Top: "Tiramisu fig", sponge at the bottom is soaked with alcohol(rum?) and mixed with fig, then cheese cream all the way up, a little chocolate powder and fig slices on the surface. Right: Cheese cake, hmm pretty mild and normal. Take-way: Caramel cake. The surface is caramel-glazed and very hard. The whole cake is basically caramel and more caramel...one small slice would be delicious, but I had to finish the whole cake by myself....(nobody's fault ^^;;;)
Aigre Douce
Comments(3) [ cakes and sweets ]
August 08, 2006
知音食堂
四川冷麺、８８０円。紅油水餃子、１９０円。
The Szechuan cold noodles are just noodles and chilli sauce and some beansprout at the bottom. Not my cup of tea.
Comments(3) [ 池袋 ]
August 07, 2006
俺のハンバーグ山本
俺のハンバーグ（コーンクリーム入り国産牛煮込みハンバーグ）、１５００円。Hamburger with corn cream inside. Saw it on TV and looked good, so went to try. Even on weekday lunchtime there was a queue....I guess a lot of people were like me. ^^;;; Taste-wise....it is a very normal tasting hamburger, the corn cream doesn't do wonder, but overall it is okay, very mild and healthy-tasting, with lots of vegetables. The tiny potato with fish roe topping is quite good. The juice that comes with the lunch is apple juice, with a bit of goya, spinach and celery juice.
俺のハンバーグ山本
August 06, 2006
Toshi Yoroizuka
Creme Brulee Pistache, with lavender ice-cream. It is very good!! The pistachio cream(cold) is very rich, and the surface is grilled crispy. Only thing is the cream is quite heavy and it is so big that it is surprisingly hard to finish. I wish the ice-cream were bigger and the creme brulee were smaller, then it would be perfect. When I went on a weekday lunchtime, the eat-in space was full(only 6 seats) and 2 people before me were waiting. I had to wait for about 20 minutes, but after me....people kept coming and coming and I counted 11 people waiting...-o-;;; Bought lots to take away: galette(round cookie), financier plain and financier Earl Grey(rectangular), Amande(almond, rich with egg and butter, my favourite!) and chocolate cake with walnut(very rich too).
Comments(4) [ cakes and sweets | 渋谷・恵比寿・代官山 ]
Restaurant Provence(closed)
クロスレビュー
Vichyssoise(potato potage).
Royale de Foie Gras(the glass one, like foie gras flan), Lentil with Pancetta.
Filet de St Pierre(Matodai or Targetfish), petite aubergine fondante, yuzu flavour.
Duck Aiguillette, with turnip and radish.
La pyramide de Chocolat Gianduja, with citrus sorbet.
Supposed to be a spice fair, where cumin, curry, coriandar etc are used in the course...but couldn't taste the spice that much. Lunch course was 3800yen. The bread was good, the white wine was good, the dessert was not bad, but the others...not much impression.
Comments(2) [ french food | 本郷・根津・湯島・上野 ]
August 04, 2006
葵丸進
野菜天丼、１０００円。Vegetables tempura rice bowl. It has asparagus, okra, baby corn, pumpkin and shallot. Quite nice, but the portion is a bit small...well it is the cheap lunch version.
葵丸進
Comments(2) [ 浅草 ]
August 03, 2006
BUTAYA (ぶた家 本店)
本日の豚めし：豚焼き（しょうゆ、にんにく、唐辛子）、８５０円（小）。
This place specialised in pork. I had the grilled pork with soy sauce, garlic and chilli. For some reason, the waitor strongly suggested that I ordered the "small" portion....even though I would have no problem finishing the "normal" portion but I ordered the small anyway. Turned out to be a good idea cos although the pork was juicy and nice, it was really oily and the sauce was too salty.
BUTAYA
August 02, 2006
牛かつ おか田
ビーフランチカツセット、１１００円。Beef cutlet lunch set. Pork cutlet is common in Japan but beef cutlet is not so and usually quite expensive. That's probably why this place is so popular because it is cheap? I had to queue to go in, but the wait was not long. There was a sign outside saying "(The beef) is fried for only 30 seconds. We won't make you wait long". I think I got the not-so-good part...a bit tasteless and not juicy. The ojisan next to me got one thick piece, which looked good...
牛かつ おか田
Comments(3) [ 新橋・銀座・日本橋 ]
August 01, 2006
千疋屋フルーツパーラー 日本橋総本店
ピーチのパフェ、１５７５円。An old and prestigious high-class fruit shop, which I never thought of going, but my friend wanted to try so we thought we would just "look at the menu first outside the shop", but before we knew it, we were guided and seated and handed the menu inside the high-ceiling hotel-style parlour....^^;; But surprisingly, the price was not that ridiculous. My peach parfait, was only 1575yen, and it had shockingly yummy cream, fresh peach, peach sorbet, vanilla ice-cream and more peach at the bottom. My friend had the regular parfait with different kinds of fruits and mango ice-cream...I have never seen her squeal like that. ^^;;
千疋屋
Comments(7) [ cakes and sweets | 新橋・銀座・日本橋 ]
さか田
夜メニュー： 鴨ねぎ棒。土佐沖のきびなご唐あげ。
Duck and spring onion stick, this is good! Some fried little fish...not sure the English name, a bit easy to get tired of the taste.
うどん三昧： ぶっかけ冷、生じょうゆ冷、かやくの３種。
A udon set where you get to try 3 types of udon: hot soup one, cold udon with radish and spring onion and sweet soy sauce, and cold udon with simple soy sauce and fresh lime. The set is only 1200yen, very cheap for the amount of food you get. The udon has strong and chewy texture - my favourite kind!
UPDATES! (Mar 2008)
This place used to be in Ginza but have now moved to a different location in Hibiya. Price is still very reasonable, even during dinner time, and the seating is much more comfortable than before(used to be very crowded). Food I had in the new location:
Tarako and butter udon. Cabbage and butter udon in soup. Was feeling adventurous and ordered some weird options....hmm I think I will stick to the normal kind next time.
Left: The same 1200yen udon set with 3 different styles.
Rgith: Tempura Bukkake udon.
Menu(J): 1, 2.
Old entry here.
さか田
Add: 3F, 1-6-1 Yurakucho, Chiyoda-ku
Tel: 03-3563-7400
