National Route 246 is one of Japan’s main byways, stretching for over 76 miles and snaking through the center of Tokyo. The small part of Route 246 that runs between Shibuya and the Meijii Jingu Shrine was recently recreated for one of the best-selling video games of all time, Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec. It also happens to be the location for the food court heaven known as Commune 246.

The West has gone gaga for noodles, Japan’s most cherished comfort food. Hungry diners pack secret soba dens in Los Angeles for bites of hand-cut anything; they line up to plunk themselves down at sparkling counters offering $100 ramen tastings in New York and pick through ramen au beurre in Paris looking for the next new taste. In Tokyo, ramen masters are now competing for cult status within a ramen culture imported from the United States. Soba chefs are newly coveted for their skill in grinding, rolling, cutting and plating and are praised as master craftsmen.

Roppongi’s Café Sakura serves as a restaurant and seating area for a bundle of businesses under the same ownership. There’s the Café with table service, the Wine Shop Sommelier (retail wines straight from the vineyard at considerable discount), L’Atelier du Pain (a Japanese-style bakery and cheese shop) and the French patisserie Coco Ange. Put them together and they enjoyably represent a Japanese take on the Western idea of “happy hour.”

Before Roppongi Hills rose from the warren of rambling streets, aging wooden homes and traditional Japanese ways nestled amongst embassies and Korean barbeque joints, Azabu Juban was a sleepy section of Tokyo, moored more in custom than the flashy markets and designer boutiques to come. The main shoten gai, or shopping street, was a classic example of Japanese daily life. Small mom-and-pop stores catered to neighbors, and after the third or fourth visit anyone could be a regular. The vegetable man would disappear into the back of his stand and produce a perfectly ripe melon before you had to ask; the flower vendor waved at her customers even if they weren’t in the market for flowers; and the shoe repair man admonished everyone for not shining their shoes regularly enough.

It’s a common fantasy: Accidentally locked in a bakery, forgotten overnight, we quickly eat everything in sight and fall into a sugary, carb-filled dream of sweet-spun bliss. Sequestered away where nobody will find us until morning, we wake from time to time and continue to eat cakes until we sleep again. Short of that happening in this lifetime, we frequently daydream of walking the aisles of bakeries, latte in hand as we pull pain au chocolat and sticky buns from racks, consuming everything in a hurried rush before we’re asked to leave.

Almost 40 years ago Daruma opened its doors near Aoyama University, feeding the hungry students who flocked there, along with many neighbors and workers from the nearby office buildings. The prices were reasonable and the ramen was top class. Everyone came for the original recipe: Japanese-style ramen, with fresh house-made noodles and a pungently addictive broth of pork, chicken legs and vegetables, spiked with shoyu (soy sauce). Daruma opened as just a great place to fill your stomach with good food.

Den is either a really cool sake bar that serves amazing oden, or an oden-ya that has a fabulous sake list. Either way, it’s a great place to taste the best sake from around Japan and devour perfect oden that’s made to order in the little kitchen behind the noren curtain.

The thought of eating eel can be off-putting, yet the super-fragrant, umami-tasting, velvety-textured delicacy is one of Japan’s prized foods. A best bet for dining like a true Tokyoite is to include an unagi (freshwater eel) meal at one of Tokyo’s top unagi restaurants serving only the one delicacy. The first Japanese character in the Japanese word for unagi (う) resembles the meter-long fish, and most unagi places enthusiastically employ imaginative ways to display their specialty on signs outside the restaurant. The fish can be expensive, depending on quality, and is highly prized for its preparation, taste and nutrition, being high in Vitamin A, B-complex, protein and calcium.

The phrase “Japanese noodles” brings to mind so many things: soba, udon, ramen, shirataki, somen – all with their variety of width, length and material. Some are eaten dipped in various sauces, while others are served swimming in broth. Japanese noodles are included in stews and with combinations of ingredients as well. They are eaten hot or cold, at any time of day, usually slurped out of the bowl with chopsticks. They are sometimes a meal, other times a snack. What rarely comes to mind when Japanese noodles are mentioned is Japanese spaghetti.