Great Kara-age lunch at “WA CAFE AIM” in Kayaba-cho

(This blog is continued from the last one, “Thinking about economy and management at Tokyo Stock Exchange on a walk in Kayaba-cho”, so I omitted the usual introduction this time.)

Contents

Kabuto Shrine

Well, let’s get back to the main subject as I’ve been too far. There is a street at the right of Tokyo Stock Exchange.

If you walk along this big building at the right, and there is a bridge overhead over the building. This is Metropolitan Expressway, and under this bridge,

There is a shrine called “Kabuto Shrine” which is the origin of the name of this town, “Kabuto-cho”.
“Kabuto-cho” is also the word to describe “the center of Japan’s economy” because Tokyo Stock Exchange locates.
Then, what is the origin of the shrine’s name?

That is this rock, “Kabuto Iwa”.
Seeing Wikipedia and other internet sources, this is the place called “Kabuto Yama (Kabuto Mountain)” because it’s where the war helmet (“Kabuto” in Japanese) of Tairano Masakado ,who was a famous commander in the Heian period was buried.
The shrine was built on this mountain, so it was named “Kabuto Jinja (shrine)”.

On the other hand, another story was written on the explanation board at the shrine.

The story of Tairano Masakado was not mentioned.
It said that “Kabuto Iwa” was named after a story that Minamotono Yoshiie who was a general in the Heian period placed a war helmet on this rock to wish their win before an expedition to Tohoku (northeast area of Japan) in the 11th century.
When Tokyo Stock Exchange started to be built in 1878, “Kabuto Shrine” was established as the guardian deity of the exchange.

There are more different stories on the internet, but I’d like to take this one of Minamotono Yoshiie as the shrine itself explains so.
There are as many stories as the number of people.

By the way, this shrine was shadowy.
That was not because of the woods, but because of the huge buildings of Metropolitan Expressway (all you see at the left of the shrine is the expressway), Tokyo Stock Exchange, and a notary’s office.
I have a small sarcastic idea that the stock price and the economic aren’t so bright because the guardian is enshrined in such a dark place.

WA CAFE AIM and Japanese version-AIM

After I prayed for a thriving business of myself, I went back the way I came because I had found an interesting restaurant when I was walking to Kabuto Shrine.
This is it below.

“WA CAFE AIM”.
If you are related to stock business, you might think of something when you hear the name (at least, I do).

There is a stock market, “Alternative Investment Market (AIM)”, which was established by LSE, London Stock Exchange, for emerging companies.
A new stock market for emerging companies in Japan and other Asian countries was started under joint management with LSE in 2009.

I knew the start of AIM because my work was related to it, but when I was researching things to write this blog, the market resolved the partnership with LSE in 2012, and now they changed their name to “TOKYO PRO Market”.

Japan often starts thing learning from foreign systems, but I feel that many of the programs don’t go well and gradually disappear because they are not original.
For the case of “TOKYO PRO Market” as well, there are not many listed stocks and it doesn’t seem a success.

The true purpose of a stock market should be creating new service, goods, and employment by emerging companies’ fundraising.
However, in real, only the stock of big companies which don’t need fundraising are dealt in the market, and it’s rather like a money game.

I personally make fun of such an economic system calling them “capitalistic economy of stock market” in my mind. (By the way, the words “market” and “supremacist” have same sound in Japanese language. I also mean “stock price-supremacist economic” by this word.)

As I saw many unkind things through my job at a stock company, I always think that stock markets should be the real place for fundraising every time I see or hear something about stock markets. … I know that it’s difficult to change, though^^;

Relaxed room of the restaurant

I got interested in the restaurant’s name which reminds something to the people who are related to the securities industry, so I decided to have lunch there. (By the way, their “AIM” is the name of the managing company, and they started business under the name in Kayaba-cho before “AIM Market” was built. The name had nothing related to the stock market.)
　

In the building, there were a decorated Christmas tree, which makes me sad, and a piano.
As the piano shows, the background music was a piano classics, and it was more like a bar than a cafe with less lights.

I took a seat and checked the menu.
The lunch of the day was,

(Excuse me for using a board outside instead of the menu book, because the letters on the book were too small to show here.)
“‘Legendary’ pork curry” was very interesting, but “‘special’ Kara-age” was also attractive. I have a policy with no evidence, “Kara-age (Japanese style-deep fried chicken) shows the quality of the restaurant’s food”. (Most restaurants have Kara-age, so it is useful to compare. Maybe that’s the reason.) Therefore, I ordered “‘special’ Kara-age”.

Nihonshu menu

Well, this blog’s main theme is “Nihonshu”, not “the security world”. I checked if they had sake.
When I was seeing the menu while waiting for Kara-age.
　

I found them!
They had some good ones such as “Oroku” and “Ryujin Junmai Daiginjo”.
I found something at the left of me.

There were sake bottles in a fridge.
I could tell that they were trying to keep sake in a good temperature.
I heard that Sake goes bad so easily without appropriate temperature control.

I checked the snacks in the menu, too.

The main was Italian, but there were also some Japanese and Asian.
I always wish to have some drink, but I couldn’t take any alcohol because it was in a lunch break TT

“Special” Kara-age

After a while, Kara-age lunch arrived.

It was colorful and looked delicious.
It was not like a dish which a restaurant in the middle of stock companies serves (is it a prejudice^^;).
I had the salad with a slightly sour seasoning first, and then had the chicken.

It was nice!
The outside was crispy, and inside was nicely chewy even though the fat was not so much.
The flavor was based on soy sauce with ginger, and bitterness of the scorched part was a good accent.
I classify Kara-age into 2 groups; one is with thick coating like Tempura, and the other is chicken which are well flavored with much less coating.

Most of the restaurants which I try have the former type, but this restaurant was the latter one. It was like Kara-age of my home (my family’s Kara-age was made by soaking the chicken in soy sauce-based seasoning, and fried with Kara-age coating powder).

Their Kara-age was so good with rice.

There was topping of flakes of pickled Japanese plum and small fish.

What surprised me more was, miso soup.

It was “Tonjiru (pork miso soup)” with many ingredients such as daikon radish, carrot, satoimo potato, and gobo (burdock). This one was so nice!
It tasted like something different from “Tonjiru” when I had the first sip.
Ummmm…, what is it……, oh yes, it was like a cream stew!

I don’t know if it was because of the flavor of pork, or miso, or both.
It was my first time to try such a creamy miso soup.
I thought that only the miso soup is enough to attract people.

I finished the meal with satisfaction.

Conclusion

It was really “special” Kara-age lunch of good foods and colors in a relaxed room.
They had various menus both in drinks and foods, and the staffs were so kind, so I had a fantastic time there.
I still have some friends to drink with in Kayaba-cho, so I’d like to try this restaurant at dinner time when I see them next time.
I remember that there was not a restaurant like this around there before, but the development in Nihonbashi should be expanding to Kayaba-cho as well.
Like the new buildings or restaurants of the town, stock companies also need to change more and more, to be better places for people.
I finished my lunch time thinking about such things.