My favorite general spots in Tokyo are around the Asakusa/Ueno/Taito areas. If you ever need to sit and do some work at a coffee shop, Cafe W.E is my favorite shop right a long the Sumida river. You got a great view of the Sky Tree from there. Cute cozy little shop. Also the Sensō-ji temple is near by! And the France-za theater, which I didn‘t realize I was passing by every time I went to the Don Quijote, that’s where Beat Takeshi got his start!
If you like reference books and magazines as much as I do, then another favorite spot is Jimbocho. I was recommended a really good curry place there called Bondy that has an amazing cheese curry. It's also connected to a used manga/art book store that I described to my friend as being in Hell. So many neat things in there, including original manga pages before they're processed. I felt trapped, I didn't want to leave. Some stores carry a handy map that splits up Jimbocho by book genre, and the station's walls are tiled to look like a big book shelf.
If you got 3 weeks you're fine. Personally I was fine after one day of looking at very old buildings in Kyoto. Every major city has plenty of drinking streets and amazing food around every corner.
Do the Ryokan for one night. But also get consistent hotels before hand. At 3 weeks you need your actual travel and lodgig locked down before hand. Try to do a straight line and space out your travelling between cities. Kyoto and Osaka are only like 90 minutes apart.
Who knows what's open or what traveling for foreigners look in two years. I like having no tourists here. I'm deathly afraid how many folks are gonna die once the tourists rush back in.
Resurrecting this old thread because I‘m going to Japan for two weeks in June.
I’m tentatively going with my friend, but he also just broke his elbow so we‘ll see, but if he can’t make it it‘s gonna be a solo trip for me.
I’m staying in Shibuya from 10th-14th, Namba from 14th-19th, then after that considering a ryokan for a night or two in Kyoto, Nara, or maybe Chiba on the night before I leave.
I don‘t really have many plans; probably going to see Wednesday Campanella in Osaka on the 14th, assuming buying tickets as foreigner isn’t really weird, but it looks pretty normal.
Been finding some more underground venues in Tokyo and Osaka that I may end up going to, but nothing‘s set in stone.
Considering a day trip to Tokimeki Beach while I’m in Osaka.
Looking for other possible suggestions!
Don't wanna stay too tied down to plans, besides lodging.
How hard is it being a vegetarian in Japan and eating healthy? Does being able to read and speak Japanese give you an advantage in terms of navigating meal options?
Just one caveat: I was last in Japan in 2018, so some of this info might be out of date, but I kinda doubt it, since the general trajectory for being able to eat vegetarian/vegan has been in the direction of it getting easier.
It’s not at all impossible, but I think it’s easier if you acknowledge that you might unknowingly consume a tiny amount of fish-derived ingredients despite your best efforts! And fish is likely to be the thing you encounter one way or the other– but if you do, it’s likely to be either dashi or bonito flakes, which are both incredibly common ingredients in Japan. Speaking and/or reading some Japanese can be helpful, especially at places like 7-11 where you can find vegetarian nigiri and things like that, but my experience is that it’s not perfect.
There are also tons of vegetarian and vegan restaurants now, especially in bigger cities! The only problem is that most (but not all) of them are massively expensive! One exception is T’s TanTan, which is a super cheap, incredibly delicious all-vegan ramen and curry restaurant located in Tokyo Station (and I think they also have a bigger fancier location in I think Ikebukuro that I’ve never been to). They were my go-to for quick and nourishing food when I was transiting Tokyo Station, and they open super early for breakfast curry!
tldr: if you aren’t super hard core vegetarian, you’ll be fine, but you might accidentally consume some dashi and never know.
There’s some other info about specific recommendations elsewhere on IC, as well as the vegan thread which has some detail.
There’s also this, but keep in mind that it’s community updated, so some of the entries are unclear or include some wishful thinking or are like ‘you can eat rice and nothing else at this restaurant’.
@HeavenlyHalberd a friend of mine does videos about traveling in Japan and she is vegetarian. A lot of her videos mention finding food and tis one is specifically about it
It is a few years old so some restaurants may or may not exist now.
I went back in December and I’m not vegetarian but noticed any chain restaurant I went into had vegetarian options.
@mtvcribs I would swap at least two Namba days for a two days one night trip to Hiroshima, which has the coolest people in Japan, the unforgettable peace museum, and the Setonaikai nearby (so you can go to Itsukushima, Miyajima or that Ponyo village for instance).
Remember June is typically the rainy season so pack accordingly.
I was wondering if anyone here had some interesting queer spaces/ bars in Tokyo they could recommend? I have a lesbian friend that‘s visiting in August, who really enjoys checkin out spaces like that while travelling. This seemed like maybe a good sort of place to ask for them, since they’re having trouble finding good ones just googling
@joyousfrog I don’t know any specifically but my suggestion would be to look into bars in Golden Gai. There are roughly 3 billion little bars in there and since it is in the heart of Shinjuku, I’d bet there is at least one queer bar in there.
Just wanted to stop in here and say thanks again everyone for your suggestions and thoughts! We finally went on our trip last month, which was actually a belated honeymoon that we had to put off multiple times because of COVID. We had such a great trip thanks in part to the many suggestions in this thread, I’ll be dipping back in here if/when we ever go back. I’ll say that looking back, the most memorable moments were probably just wandering around different areas on foot without much of a plan and seeing what popped up (which is something a lot of you suggested above). So many cool moments, it was really exciting being somewhere that both of us have wanted to visit for so long.
As far as video game related stuff, I did some game shopping but I’m not a big collector so mostly just looked around. Just seeing stuff like an entire glass case full of AES games in great condition was really cool. The most exciting thing for me was the arcades! I feel lucky I got to visit while there are still a good amount of candy cabinets with well maintained CRTs. I got to play the big Darius cab with three monitors, got to play outrun on the full motion cabinet, got incomprehensibly crushed by a dude who was barely paying attention in KOF 98 on a versus cab. Another highlight was clearing the last blade 2 for the first time in a hot and poorly ventilated corner upstairs at Zarigani arcade in Osaka which was really cool being a lifelong SNK fan. I’m sure that it’s not the same as it used to be but I feel like I got the real Japanese arcade experience which was really special for me. Favorite arcades I visited were probably Taito HEY, Mikado Takadanobaba and Royal Game Center in Umeda.
