Pretty Good Number One: An American Family Eats Tokyo [Kindle Edition]

Matthew Amster-Burton

Matthew Amster-Burton (Author)

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Book Description

Everyone knows how to live the good life in Paris, Provence, or Tuscany. Now, Matthew Amster-Burton makes you fall in love with Tokyo. Experience this exciting and misunderstood city through the eyes of three Americans vacationing in a tiny Tokyo apartment. Follow 8-year-old Iris on a solo errand to the world’s greatest supermarket, picnic on the bullet train, and eat a staggering array of great, inexpensive foods, from eel to udon. A humorous travel memoir in the tradition of Peter Mayle and Bill Bryson, Pretty Good Number One is the next best thing to a ticket to Tokyo.

Now with a new afterword by the author, covering robotic sushi and spending the holidays in Tokyo.

“The layers of the city, its extraordinary food pleasures, its quirkinesses, emerge as the author and his family spend an intense month living in Tokyo and exploring widely…Warning: this book will make you hungry. You’ll yearn, as I do, to catch the next plane to Tokyo, so you can get eating.”

—Naomi Duguid, writer and traveler; her most recent book is BURMA: Rivers of Flavor (Artisan 2012)

“This is the book I've been hoping Matthew would write: smart, opinionated, and wickedly funny, crammed with in-the-know tips and observations about visiting Tokyo. From the intricacies of garbage sorting to the chirpy jingle for the local supermarket, the pleasures of pan-fried soup dumplings to the pain of junsai, I laughed, cringed, and got so hungry that I had to eat three bowls of cereal to make it to the end. I love this book.”

—Molly Wizenberg, author of A Homemade Life and blogger, Orangette

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A fast-paced, rollicking work that's chock full of delicious humor and insights." --Andrea Nguyen, VietWorldKitchen.com

"Matthew Amster-Burton is one of the funniest writers I know. He comes up with the kind of one liners and clever descriptions that makes me stop and say to myself damn, I wish I'd thought of that." --Kenji Alt, SeriousEats.com

"A consistently riveting book that might make you want to slap the bed as you laugh." --Shauna James Ahern, author of Gluten-Free Girl Every Day

From the Back Cover

"Pretty Good Number One will put a smile on your face quicker than you can say 'Arigato!'... Perfectly sums up all of the reasons why I myself fell in love with the country, and why, once you have been, you will want to return again and again."

--Rachael Hutchings, LaFujiMama.com

"A must-read for anyone traveling to Tokyo or dreaming of that future trip."

--Yukari Sakamoto, author of Food Sake Tokyo

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• File Size: 1690 KB
• Print Length: 266 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Mamster Books; 2 edition (February 16, 2014)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00C9T9X2Q
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray:
  Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #81,064 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #14 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Travel > Asia > Japan
  • #37 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Gastronomy > Essays
  • #41 in Books > Travel > Asia > Japan > General

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Almost better than the real thing. April 10, 2013

By M. J. Musante

Format:Kindle Edition

(Disclaimer: I was a Kickstarter backer for this book)

This book is the next best thing to visiting Tokyo than actually going there. As the subtitle implies, it's about the food. But it's also about the culture, it's about the people, and it's about the country. It tells the story of a family staying in an apartment in Tokyo and having an incredibly wide range of foods to sample. It's not just the breadth of the cuisine: what Amster-Burton has written here is a celebration of Tokyo and its food, and the chapters go in-depth for a given kind. Yes, sushi (what most Americans think of as Japanese food) is in here, but so is udon and soba, and sukiyaki, and dumplings, and yakitori, and the list goes on.

The terms in the book are written in one of Japanese writing systems, called "romaji", which allows us westerners to read and pronounce the words close to the way they're said in Japan. I was getting the hang of the pronunciation when he mentioned a friend of his, Wade. My brain automatically pronounced it Wah-deh before realizing its mistake. Amster-Burton's writing pulled me in so completely, I had temporarily been unable to recognize the English name in context.

While food provides the structure for the book, there's much more here than a run-down of Japanese cuisine. We get to explore hot springs, and public baths, as well as an early morning fish market. We ride along on the high-speed bullet train, called the Shinkansen, and explore the subway system. All the while the book is written in a light, engaging tone that keeps you wanting to read one chapter more, and then one more, and then one more... Reaching the end of it doesn't make that feeling go away, either, so now I must encourage friends (and strangers, through this review) to read it so they will also partake in the joy of that feeling.

If you're looking for a simple list of places to go in Tokyo, this is not the book for you. But if you're looking to find out what experiences you should have and make you hunger for a trip abroad, all while being delightfully entertained, then this is the only book you'll need. Read more ›

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Reminescent of Feynman's delight with Japan April 9, 2013

By Justin

Format:Kindle Edition

A whimsical, delighted, enchanted visit to Japan through the eyes of a writer and foodie. The whole book reminded me of the chapter in Feynman's autobiography where he visits Japan ("Shall we bring our shovel?"). Writers often want to communicate the overwhelming wonder of a place they hold dear; this book actually does.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars You'll want to go, too... April 9, 2013

By Gunther Schmidl

Format:Kindle Edition

...I know I do. Amster-Burton delightfully describes his and his family's culinary adventures in Tokyo in the same style as his earlier book, Hungry Monkey. You learn about daily life in Japan better than you could from any guide book, there's a ton of information on (of course) food and drink, and the style it's written in made me not want to put it down throughout.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Konnichiwa, this is a book for all lovers of Tokyo life November 13, 2013

By Daniel Halevi Bloom

Format:Kindle Edition

I lived in Tokyo for five wonderful years, 1991-1996, working for an English language newspaper, and not having a kitchen in my small apt, i ate out 3 times a day for 5 years, about 6000 times. Oishii, too. Cost an arm and a leg but i made an arm and a leg in salary, so in one pocket out the other. All in all, Tokyo of all the 26 cities I have lived in worldwide, is by far the best paradise on Earth bar none, and this book shows why. There is a tempura place in Shibuya where i went 4 times a week in evenings and never left unhappy or unloved by the gods of foodville. Konnichiwa, this is a book for all lovers of Tokyo life.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Giddy Love Affair With Toyko April 27, 2013

By Melody Murray

Format:Kindle Edition

One thing I've read over and over is that this is the book that will make you want to go to Tokyo. I don't want to go to Tokyo, however I really enjoyed reading about Amster-Burton's adventures there with his family. He's a funny guy and he has a delightfully unrepentant stance when it comes to food. He's in it for what he likes, what his daughter likes, and to hell with your idea of what's fashionable or acceptable or healthy.

I loved hearing about all the interesting foods they had, but even more, I loved reading about Iris' adventures and how easily she made friends. My absolute favorite thing about the book (and by extension Tokyo) is cat cafes. I want to go to a cat cafe.

I loved the way Amster-Burton evoked the sense of place. His giddy love for Toyko warms my heart. Highly recommended.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful and hilarious memoir about a month of food in Tokyo July 5, 2013

By Sitting in Seattle TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback|Verified Purchase

If you enjoy humorous but sympathetic accounts of gaijin (foreigner) life in Tokyo -- and especially if you are fascinated by the food there -- this is a must-read. It's not a guidebook at all, but an amusing diary/blog style account of a Seattleite's time in Japan.

The author recounts the various adventures spent by his family in Tokyo when they rented a small apartment in Nakano for a month. He dearly loves Tokyo and Japan yet is also keenly aware of some of the absurdities. The adventures include restaurants, grocery stores, pachinko, and just generally being out and about Tokyo. I annoy my wife and keep her awake by laughing out loud repeatedly when reading it in bed!

As with any such book, I could complain about a few minor annoyances. Early on, he challenges the reader to name any tourist attractions in Tokyo ... and claims you can't (although I certainly can). He claims that a particular supermarket is "the best in the world" which turns out to mean something different (I'll let him explain). But those are minor issues, and the book is suitable for both Japan newbies and the experienced expat set.

In fact, if you've visited Tokyo a few times and tried to get out and explore, I think you'll enjoy the book even more. I got the printed version (just fine) and it would also be perfectly suitable for Kindle. Yonde kudasai! ("Read it please!") And even better, pick out a few of the adventures and go explore them yourself Tokyo!