Toutouan lies inside Tokyo -- but only just. You will find it far from the throbbing heart of the city, on the western fringes of the greater metropolis, not so far from where the Tama River flows.
It's a long way to travel, but a meal at Toutouan (the name means "the hermitage of the lamps") repays any amount of time and effort. You know that as soon as you see its imposing, thatched wooden gateway. You make your way down a path of polished stones below a canopy of tall zelkovas. Lanterns glow dimly, guiding you through smaller gate and down to an ancient farm building.
Until the early 1990s, this massive, 400-year-old rice warehouse was being left to rot away. Thankfully, it was saved from demolition and, after extensive refurbishment, it reopened some five years ago in its new incarnation as a repository for the culinary arts.
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