Yappari India, Otsuka

Yappari India is an Indian curry shop located near Otsuka station. I’ve been here a couple of times - the food is great, but also the owner has such a kind and warm aura as well, which is the other reason why I like this place so much.

What we always get is their thali plate (1500 - 1600 yen), which comes with two small pots of curries of your choice, some yogurt, a side of rice and some pickled vegetables. I think my favourite one so far has been the spinach curry, so I would recommend that one!

It also comes with naan, but you can spend a couple hundred yen to upgrade to the cheese kulcha which of course we do every time.

It tastes so good, although my stomach protests at the amount of cheese… maybe if you are coming with someone else, it might be more reasonable to get one naan and one cheese and then you can split both in half.

The store is a little hard to find if you’re coming from the train station but eventually you’ll see its sign - it’s tucked away on the second floor.

If you’re wondering, the “Yappari” in the store name is a Japanese word that might translate to something like “Of course, India”. Sort of with the vibe of “of course Indian food is really good” or “of course you are going to choose to eat here”.

I’ve been climbing the Hundred Famous Mountains of Japan and it tickled me to learn that there is also a 100 Famous Curry Shops of Tokyo. Yappari India has made the list a couple of times (through 2018 - 2020 consecutively) but I suppose competition’s fierce and since it’s up against any type of curry shop in Tokyo, including Japanese-style curry, it seems to have dropped off those rankings.

However not all hope is lost, as it’s still made the “Asia / Ethnic” best 100 list multiple times in the last couple of years, including for 2026.

And if you’ve never heard of Otsuka, it’s one of the 30 stations on the famous Yamanote loop line that runs around inner Tokyo. If I were to rank the 30 by some combination of popularity and things to do, I would say Otsuka sits somewhere in the middle-to-lower end. It’s right next to the much larger Ikebukuro station, so it can get lost in its shadow a bit. Nonetheless it’s a lively station, and has a lot of great food options tucked away on the small streets - but I wouldn’t say it’s a particularly fashionable part of Tokyo.

There was quite an interesting video by the NHK that goes over the history of the town. Notably it’s home to the Sakura Tram, the only tram line remaining on what was once Tokyo’s extensive street car network (which peaked at 40 lines). Otsuka has a pretty sizeable immigrant population as well, which probably helps with the great food options.