toyosu market - Travel With A Butterfly

Each time I go to Tokyo, I admire it more and more. There’s always something new to be discovered, the cleanliness of the city and the politeness of the locals are impeccable, the Christmas decorations suggest it to be more than just a capitalist city but a cultural landmark and one that embraces liveliness and atmosphere, the list goes on and on. Sometimes I dream about living here.

When I talk to my friends who have lived or are living in Japan though, they see things that we tourists don’t get to see. The rigid office hierarchy, the formality that you have to adopt when talking to others (and you are not exempt from it even if you are an expat as long as you are Asian looking), the difficulty of making new friends, and of course the challenge of learning Japanese. Then there is lack of public transportation during the night, and taxis are expensive not only during the day, but more so during the night. I’ve seen videos from Youtube talking about how it’s different living in Japan than going there to visit. Usually there’s a few months of honeymoon phase, then a few years of depression and detest towards the culture of actually living in Japan, then after the acceptance phase.

If you’re looking for my recommendations on places to eat, you can read my blog post Recommended Places to Eat in Tokyo.

Shibuya Continue reading teamLab Tokyo and Why Is Tokyo So Beautiful

Prior to my Tokyo / Hakone / Fujikawaguchiko trip, I did a lot of research finding a variety of different Japanese foods to eat – sushi, ramen, unagi, BBQ beef, soba, udon, Kaiseki, pancakes, seafood donburi, and tempura. And trust me, even after 9 days, we felt that we were not able to eat all the Japanese meals we wanted, because there just simply wasn’t enough time to do and eat everything! We ended up not eating one of the soba noodles I researched, missed a udon shop we wanted to try because they ran out of udon noodles, and sometimes just didn’t feel hungry enough.

For booking restaurants in Japan, you will probably need to use the websites https://tabelog.com/en/ and https://omakase.in/. With the huge influx of tourists going in to Japan these days, along with locals just dining outside in general, it is highly recommended that you book at least a month, preferably 3 months, prior to ensure you have a table booking, otherwise it can be difficult to book. Also it is recommended to have someone who knows Japanese to help you book because with the websites, you will have to rely on Google translate sometimes and sometimes the translation may not be understandable, so you might end up booking a set menu when you actually could have just booked a table with a la carte instead (what happened to us with Yoroniku Ebisu).

This post will focus on restaurants we ate only in Tokyo, as I will do separate posts for Hakone and Fujikawaguchiko and talk about the trip itinerary including the restaurants for those. It will talk about which ones were yummy and worth the price, and which ones that weren’t. Continue reading Recommended Places to Eat in Tokyo