Tokyo - what should i do there?

my boss is taking me for eel tonight...excited

unagi? if so you're in for such a treat

Bump? Any food / live music recs would be welcomed. Going to be there end of December / early January. Saw the PSF record store on another thread, planning to pay a visit.

bumping this thread in hopes that ilxors have been recently- a friend is hanging out there and wants to do something new- I haven't been in a few years so I just instinctively recommend Tokyo Hands and Mandarake but there's got to be newer places and things to do- holler if you have any recs . . .

fish market in the morning is cool

can anybody vouch for the Robot Restaurant? I've heard the food is terrible but that the show is kind of undeniably extreme

I'm so happy this thread was bumped because I GO TO JAPAN in November or December for I dunno a couple of months? Three months?

Should I look for a place in Tokyo or in Kyoto (or another city?) and if so, what neighborhoods? On a budget and really looking for a great neighborhood where we can walk all over the place and experience cool stuff and eat good foods for not too much moneys.

Go shopping. OKURA and GDC both are cool Japanese fashion labels with shops in fancy Daikanyama. Good cafés and atmosphere, there. Seconding Tokyu Hands for shopping, too. Parco is also pretty cool.

The music scene is ginormous so for live music you gotta dig around, b/c it depends what you want to see.

Oh, and I wasn't able to go because advance booking was req'd, but I hear the Studio Ghibli tour is awesome.

And Quincie, renting in Japan is a pain in the ass for foreigners, due to language/cultural barriers and lack of anti-discrimination laws. Google around for the gaijin-friendly apartment rental services to help you find a place. They'll speak English and do this all the time. I would rather live in Osaka than Kyoto, just because it's livelier. It's generally more amicable and laid back than Tokyo and would put you in closer range to visit Nara, Kyoto, and Kyuushuu. Staying in Kyoto would be better if you want a slower pace/smaller city.

Going in April, looking for record shopping tips.

I intend to devote an afternoon to it, not rare Western music but 90's/2000's Shibuya Kei, older Technopop, stuff like that.

Is Shinjuku still the place to go?

Question: this is not actually for travel but for work research -- I noticed Tokyo addresses come up on google maps with japanese characters in them. Is there any way to find english "translations" of these addresses?

think if you just paste into google translate it gives you transliteration

http://romaji.me

i am currently in tokyo

I am currently envious.

Although I am currently in Portugal so can't really complain.

how long are you going to be here

I’m visiting Tokyo for 10 days in early March with my wife and two kids (ages 7 and 10).

I’d *love* any and all recommendations anyone might have. Absolutely anything goes. Food, shopping, history, nightlife, arts, nature, etc.

Here are some things on the list already ... nothing terribly surprising:
We'll do two days at Disneyland/DisneySea
TeamLab Borderless and Museum Ghibli
walk around Shinjuku, hope to eat good stuff in the little alleys and whatnot
go to the Meiji shrine
maybe attend a sumo match and the Robot Restaurant
go up somewhere very high for the views (360-degree museum?)
eat as much good ramen and sushi as possible

What else? What's amazing that we're missing?

go up somewhere very high for the views (360-degree museum?)

tokyo tower

The Mori Art Museum/Roppongi Hills tower (very high up observatory)

Ameyoko Shopping Street (and the big food halls in the basement about one-third of the way in before the road splits on the right)

If you're going to Ghibli walk there from the train station instead of the bus and get a feel for what a W.Tokyo suburb is like.

Shiodome and Shimbashi are high tech areas, not a whole lot there but great for a wander and restaurants at the Carreta Shiodome complex, lotsa skyscrapers, looks great at night, take the Yurikamomi Metro Train that goes out across the river to Odiaba, unmanned, like a little rollercoaster.

Shimo-Kitazawa for boutique shops and retro things, nice food and coffee places.

Yanaka, beautiful old district, lots of amazing cemeteries, little temples/shrines, backstreets.

Record shopping in Shinjuku.

The basement of Isetan Dept Store in Shinjuku has a massive food hall, if that's your thing.

Remember to get your tickets for the Ghibli Museum in advance! :)

Harajuku and Akihabara for full-blown cosplay/J-teen craziness, the kids might enjoy it there.
Shibuya, for the predictable but impressive crossing.
Asakusa for the big lantern shrine.
A cat or owl cafe, depending on your ethical standpoint (the cats just seemed bored at the one I went to).

tokyo tower

The trouble with going up Tokyo Tower is that you can't see Tokyo Tower from it, although you can see the Sky Tree. This problem, is, of course, reversed if you go up the Sky Tree.

get a hot canned ginger beer from a vending machine

leave your family behind and visit a sketchy looking bar with a wide range of whiskies that has ashtrays everywhere

visit the Japanese equivalent of a CVS and spend a brief moment marveling at the hair dye section

walk past a cemetery without realizing it at first

Maresn3st OTM re: Yanaka

don't forget udon (muragame is a great chain) in addition to ramen. Is anyone vegetarian? There are, oddly enough, only a couple of ramen places that do vegetarian.

Shinjuku Gyoen is also a really nice park ( I think there is a tiny entrance fee).

Where are you staying?

there are also the rockabilly groups (not going to say gangs) dancing in yoyogi park on sundays that I think has become a thing.

Mori Art Museum in Roppongi has the very best observation deck to see the whole city (incl Tokyo Tower). Or the municipal govt building in Shinjuku
Edo-Tokyo museum is really great for history
Ueno Park is lovely and there are lots of great museums around it
Asakusa has a lot of great restaurant supply stores including the fake food you see in the windows
Nakamise shopping street leading to Sensō-ji temple
Any one of the multi floor toy stores - there is an amazing one over the road from Ueno station, and Omotesando Kiddy Land near Harajuku
I’ll think of more I’m sure!

oo - go to the baseball if it’s on, the Japanese fans have fantastic chants and rituals which make it an absolute blast

bookmarked, im over in april meself

I am posting the peter bjorn and john video of japanese rockabilly in yoyogi because...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rIguM71LQI

holy shit, y'all have got the goods! i haven't looked in since i posted ... thank you SO much.

i will check all this stuff out (had heard about the rockabilly dancers, but none of the rest of this)

keep it coming, of course... not just for me but also for darraghmac :)

ILX rules

A trip to the Ghibili museum is a chance to go to my favourite Ramen Shop Hashi to Renge in Asagaya. They specialise in Sansho flavours and their Sansho omiyage are great to pick up as well. A lot of th shops under the Chou line are pretty nice. JR has been doing a massive project making these nice little malls under the train line and three are some great restaurant along there.e

https://goo.gl/maps/bVRPjLnF7CuPQW1w9

Another thing to make sure you tickets in advance for is the Teamlab exhibit. I haven't been to the new museum but when they were in the Mori art museum they were pretty cool (and I second going to the Mori art museum as a great place to get a high view.

Also child friendly is the JR East Railway museum in Omiya, trains to drive, models to play with. It's a fun day out.
Try a boat trip to Disney or up the river.

If you are there very early in march (As in it finishes on the 2nd) D & Department have a cafe and shop going on the 8th floor of the Hikare Building in Shibuya. They are featuring meals and produce from all over Japan and the food is both cheap and excellent (kid's menu too IIRC). It's got a great view of the Shibuya crossing.

Following one From Tom's suggestions I have a ton of great spots to hang out and drink sake. None of them child friendly but worth abandoning your kids for. My two favourite cheap but amazing dinners are at つらつら (tsuratsura) in Shibuya and at まごわやさしい　（Magowayasashi) in Mita. The later one is a recent find a ¥3000ish course based on the Japanese food pyramid (beans, sesame, seaweed, vegetables, fish,　mushrooms and potatoes). They might be able to accomodate children but call and ask (or find someone who speaks japnanese too all and ask because they speak no English)

Do forget to eat soba as well , soba a nd seaweed are where you get your fibre in Japan.

Another tip is that right now the banks and Japanese government are on a big push to move businesses to cashless transitions and a lot of shops and restaurants have discounts for paying by some methods. The one that is Ost accessible for foreigners is the Suica transit card which you can either load at stations or set up on your mobile phone. Discounts are 5% in a lot of places which is worth having.

https://atadistance.net/2019/08/16/ios-13-set-up-a-suica-card-in-apple-pay/

Animal cafes - not a fan all the animals look sad and stressed and the owls I find particularly distressed.

Also teach your kids hiragana (and learn it yourself) they’ll have a blast reading signs and other stuff.

Dr Moku seems well regarded for that sort of age. I watched some of their YouTube and it seems solid.

Some basic Japanese, hello/goodbye/please/thank-you always goes down well. You’ll run into a lot of people who don’t speak any English. Worth learning your food allergies if you have any. People can be very accommodating if you do.

random: I have gone to Sendagaya International Clinic (how I ended up walking through Shinjuku Gyoen) because I knew I was too sick to just get over it. And they were super nice, spoke english, saw me same day, and had meds in the office so I didn't have to go somewhere else to pick up. I think the bill was less than my monthly pay for my blue cross blue shield global health insurance.

ed, i was told that sake should only be home stored for 6 months? would you agree? or would you be happy holding it longer under certain conditions?

6 months is about the limit unless you are aging it or it is already aged. I'd keep it in the fridge as well, at the very least is a cool dark place. Upright, not on its side. At cellar temp you might start to see some aging characteristics after 6 months. Home aging can be interesting but it is hit and miss and a bit of a minority sport. One of the importers here ages some stuff for 6months to a few years which is interesting and sometimes a shop might keep something back for longer than 6 months if it has declined a bit since release, it might pick up again - this seems to be particularly true of sakes brewed to be warmed.

Once open, drink quickly or argon, especially if unpasteurised.

Speaking of refrigeration one of my favourite sake/wine shops and standing bars (Kimijimaya in Ebisu Sation). They were advertising a special -5˚C sake fridge for ¥99,800. You could probably go a bit longer at -5˚C.

here are, oddly enough, only a couple of ramen places that do vegetarian.

yeah, it was the dashi/broth. I have found even if they eat fish (and not tonkotsu o course), it's still a little too in depth for some vegetarians. The ones that do totally vegetarian, I recall only a small handful, are online though.

Take the kids to a Daiso. And a Donki.

I’ve been to Tokyo with kids and without and it’s more fun with, as are most things ime. Going without kids in April again.

sounds like bars might not be top of your list, but a friend of mine writes this blog about Tokyo beer bars, some of which are bound to be child-friendly: http://tokyobeerdrinker.blogspot.com/

Definitely learn -

Hello
Good Morning/Evening
Where is the toilet?
Do you have an English Menu?
Thank you
Can we have the check please?

They are all fairly easy to learn, there's probably a ton of YouTube videos around.

Also: How do I turn the bidet function off?

What's the word on the Tsikuji Fish Market, it's gone right?

What's the new one like and do they do the tuna auctions at 5am too?

XP - Haha yeah, your butthole will never be cleaner, so prepare for that :)

Having spent 3 months in japan last year I was in a bathroom store finding how much it would cost to get a toto seat installed at home.

When departing from
narita be sure to check out the public bathroom/toto showroom, to try a wide range of the latest toilet tech.

Oh - also Shimokitazawa for pokey little shops and great tiny bar-eateries/izakaya under the railway lines

Just sayin' - https://diskunion.net/st/shop/e_shop/e_shop_routemap.pdf

i like the yanaka recommendation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBgHhEskLMU

You could check out the Ghibli Clock and the Nakagin Capsule Tower.

You can do monthly rentals in the Nakagin capsule tower which I might do next time I long stay in Tokyo.