Firstly, I want to thank Tokyo Joe for his excellent datasheet and taking out the time to meet me in my trip to Tokyo a few weeks back. I followed many recommendations in his datasheet and it made the trip go extremely smoothly.
I spent a little under a week in Tokyo, and was traveling with family members, so my trip was less game-oriented.
Tokyo is a special city to visit, unlike any other I’ve been to, and the food is truly memorable.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS
- Japan is expensive. Hotels, restaurants, and alcohol seem on par with (or slightly more expensive than) expensive US cities such as San Francisco / New York. Since Tokyo Joe wrote his guide about a year ago, the exchange rate has dropped from 1 USD = ~Y120 to 1 USD = ~Y103.
- Tokyo is an extremely clean and organized city. This is extremely evident everywhere you go, but especially in the orderly lines that are formed in escalators, waiting for the metro, etc. It is amazing to see.
- The Japanese people are extremely respectful and honest. I mistakingly gave a taxi driver a bill that was too large and he immediately pointed it out. Another taxi driver accidentally took us to the wrong hotel (which was far out of the way). After he realized his mistake and eventually took us to the correct hotel, he did not want to accept any money. This is in stark contrast to China / SE Asia, where you feel they are constantly trying to rip you off.
- Contrary to characterizations of the Japanese as stiff and hard to relate with, I had many fun, pleasant interactions with the staff at hotels / restaurants / convenience stores and guys drinking on the side of the street.
- I personally did not find the average Japanese woman walking around the street to be attractive. Many faces were quite round and many of them had bad teeth. When I did see attractive women, they tended to be 6-7s; I saw very few girls that truly caught my attention. A big caveat to this is that I did not check out any of the high-end nightlife. But based on the women I saw on the streets, I found Koreans to be prettier (granted, they are aided by plastic surgery / makeup.) I have heard some people find Japanese girls more attractive than Koreans, so your mileage may vary.
- As goes for most Asian women, Japanese women strongly prefer a clean-shaven look (I was sporting a longer beard).
GETTING CONNECTED
I highly recommend getting a SIM card, as it will make your life a lot easier.
Process:
- Make sure your phone is unlocked.
- I followed Tokyo Joe’s advice and obtained the B-mobile SIM card. After my own research, I determined it was the best card. It gives you unlimited* data for two weeks for ~$25. Although it is “unlimited”, make sure not to use more than 1GB every 3 days or your data speed will get severely reduced, almost to the point of being unusable.
- I ordering my SIM card online prior to arriving. After arrival, I went to the airport post office to pick it up, used a paper clip to open up the SIM card tray, popped in the SIM card, and was connected to the internet minutes later.
Note: Make sure to download LINE as it is the primary messaging app used in Japan.
GETTING AROUND
Taxis are extremely expensive. if you are going to spend a lot of time moving around, take advantage of the extensive subway network. Be aware that the last train for most stations runs around midnight.
- Download the Hyperdia app onto your phone (also available as a website)
- At first, I relied on google maps. It did a good job getting me where I needed to go, but it did not always give me the most time-efficient route. Hyperdia does a much better job at this.
- The only downside of Hyperdia is that you need to manually input the departure and arrival station, whereas with Google maps, it will use your current location and the location of your destination to find the correct departure and arrival stations
- The best method might be to use Google Maps to find the stations closest to you and your destination, and input it into Hyperdia to find the most efficent route between them.
CUISINE
Tokyo has a wide range of cuisine to fit most people’s tastes.
Note that
* = Recommended in Tokyo Joe’s guide. If in TJ’s guide, refer back to it for additional information and the address / phone number.
Sushi
* Sushi Daiwa: Located in the fish market. I arrived at around 7-8am, and began to wait in the back of the line. 45 mins to an hour later, I was in the door. In a room that barely fits ~10 seats at the counter, I had the best sushi in my life. The chefs already prepare the sushi with soy sauce and wasabi. The sashimi melts in your mouth and is a sushi-lover’s dream. Next door is another restaurant, Sushi Dai, that is of similar or slightly superior quality, but had a four hour wait.
As Tokyo Joe recommended, check the Market schedule
here as it closes two or three days every month on a staggered schedule – in addition to Sundays and National Holidays, when it is also closed.
The indoor fish market opens at 10am. I recommend taking a quick look inside, as it is very impressive to see the size and variety of the fish.
Given that the Tsukiji Fishmarket is set to close by the end of the year, I imagine there is a chance that Sushi Daiwa will relocate (possibly to Toyosu, the site of the new fish market).
Tempura
* Abe: I made a reservation here for lunch. With a reservation, they required you to get the lunch fixed-course menu, which was either Y3000 or Y3500. As I had never eaten tempura in this manner before, it caused an interesting situation when I sat down and was faced with a setup that included a bowl of water, daikon (a winter radish, although I didn't know it at the time), two empty trays and some pickled vegetables. The chef started putting the tempura on the counter, but we weren't quite sure how to eat it. The waitress didn’t speak english and was a bit busy, so she wasn't much help. Thankfully, the Japanese man next to us saw that we were struggling and happily helped us out. We put the daikon into the water and mixed it together to form the tempura sauce. We added the two different kinds of salt into the empty trays. The first couple items (crab / shrimp) used the salt, and the majority of the rest used the tempura sauce. In the end, both the dining experience and the food itself proved to be excellent.
Note: I had a bit of trouble finding the restaurant, make sure to take the elevator to the basement floor.
Yakiniku
Horumon Dedesuke: Nice restaurant in Ginza. We made a reservation here for dinner. We got the four kinds A5 Wagyu assorted menu (Y7500, feeds 2-3). It brought flank steak, flap meat, rib steak, and top round (with a side of wasabi of course). The presentation of the tray was beautiful and we enjoyed cooking the meat ourselves on the grill. Over the course of my Japan trip, I ate better meat elsewhere but the meat was still very tasty and an extremely good value.
Yakitori
* Matsuso: What an incredible dining experience. I spent 3 hours eating / drinking here; the drinks and the food kept flowing and flowing. From beef tongue, to chicken hearts, to wagyu beef, to a fully cooked fish, to much much more. Everything was excellent. Thankfully I had a fluent Japanese speaker with me to help me decipher the menu and the specials on the chalkboard.
Burger
* Burger Mania: I have always been a fan of tasty burgers and Tokyo in no way let me down. I arrived around noon and took a quick look through the menu. I was temporarily disappointed when the waitress told me they had run out of their special wagyu burger. That disappointment turned into delight once she brought me their “regular” burger. Each bite full with flavor, I devoured the burger very quickly. It was so good, that four days later, completely out of the blue, my father remarked: “Wow, that burger we had the other day was so delicious.”
Ramen
Ippudo Ramen: Popular ramen spot in Roppongi. Their NYC counterpart competes as one of the best ramen places in NYC, and the original Tokyo version did not fail to impress. I had a slightly spicy pork ramen, along with an appetizer, and found it to be a great value dinner.
Udon Noodles
Tokyo Mentsudan: I dropped by this place for dinner one weeknight. First, you pick a hot or cold udon dish from a picture menu. Then you move down, and are able to load your dish with over 15 types of a la carte tempura (including squid legs, boiled eggs, chicken, bacon, etc.) I found their tempura chicken to be particularly delicious. Add some free toppings (spring onion, crispy bits and ginger) at the payment counter. Finally, add the hot soup past the counter and you are already to consume your delicious soba noodles.
Address: Tokyo Shinjuku-ku Nishishinjuku 7-9-15 1F
ADDITIONAL ADVICE
- I found the website tabelog.com to be incredibly useful in finding options to eat. It is like the Yelp / Tripadvisor of Japan, and used by many Japanese to rate restaurants. It allows you to filter by cuisine and sub-cuisine and provides both the lunch-time and dinner-time prices (which can vary widely). They also provide pictures and addresses. Anything rated above a 3.5 I found to be excellent. The only downside is the reviews are primarily in Japanese, so it is difficult to get any more detail.
- When trying to find a restaurant, in can be difficult if they do not have the english name written on the sign. If you type the name of the restaurant in google, it will often provide images that show the sign for the restaurant or the storefront.
- If you plan to eat at higher-end restaurants (e.g., sushi, yakinuku, tempura), go for lunch. The lunch menus at these restaurants tend to be significantly cheaper, sometimes even 30-50% of the dinner-time prices.
- Note that ramen, soba, and udon noodles make for inexpensive meals. Therefore, I would tend to go to these places for dinner.
- Especially if on a budget, I wouldnt hesitate to try some cheap, corner restaurants that often times are advertising plates for Y300-800. Although nowhere near the same quality as the above restaurants, I found meals at these places to be quite delicious and extremely good-value for the budget traveler.
SIGHTSEEING
SHIBUYA
You can do the following four things in one afternoon, as they are very close to each other. It involves quite a bit of walking, but I enjoyed it for the diversity of experiences.
Omotesando
Take a nice stroll through one of Tokyo’s most famous fancy shopping streets.
Harajuku Takeshita street
This “street” is not much wider than an alleyway. Packed with tourists and young Japanese alike, it is filled with lots of small, cheaper new-age trendy stores.
Meiji-Jingu shrine
I really enjoyed the walk through the peaceful forest to reach the shrine. The shrine was beautiful, but I felt a bit underwhelmed by it. I found Sensoji temple to be much more impressive.
Yoyogi Park
Famous to visit on Sundays, and where many of the “alternative” people are known to gather. Large, beautiful park. On the weekends it is full of performers and people doing activities or playing sports. When I walked into the park, there was a large group of adults and kids dressed up in a cross between Elvis-style and Grease-style costumes, dancing along to 60s / 70s music. Although Meiji-Jingu shrine and Yoyogi Park are right next to each other on the map, please note that they cannot be accessed using the same path.
SHINJUKU
Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building observatory
Free. Go around sunset time for some beautiful views of Tokyo. Went on a weekday and there was virtually no line.
ASAKUSA
Sensoji Temple
Enjoy the long walk from the metro to the temple. The architecture is reminiscent of an older Japan and you will find plenty of stores selling upscale souvenirs. The temple itself is massive and impressive; the surrounding gardens and structures are also nice to explore.
AKIHABARA
Walk around this area if you want to see the stereotypical nerdy / geeky side of Tokyo. Full with anime / manga stores, video game stores, arcades, cosplay, maid cafes, etc. Lots of nerdy guys / girls dressed up walking around. It’s quite an experience.
ADDITIONAL ADVICE
How I plan for a sightseeing day
Note: You will need a SIM card in order to do this.
- Use WikiTravel, TripAdvisor, google, blogs, RVF, etc. to find the tourist attractions / restaurants I would like to visit.
- Search for all of these tourist attractions and restaurants using Google Maps. With each attraction you find, click into it and hit the “Save” button (represented by a star). This will create a star on the map.
- Now you will have the map of the city with all of the places you want to visit visualized. Create an itinerary that maps together the items closest to one another. Use a combination of Google Maps / Hyperdia to get you to / from each attraction as quickly as possible.
Enjoy Tokyo; and best of luck capturing your Japanese flag!
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