Suggested places to visit in Tokyo/Kyoto...

Cafe Society
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My girlfriend and I have decided to go visit a Japanese friend of ours in February, and, as usual, I’ve got to come here to get some suggestions before I start planning.

Granted, I’m sure our friend will have plenty to suggest for us, but I want some more input. We’ll be there for about six days, and we’re going to go to both ToKyoto.

I’m not just looking for sites. We’re into artsy, musical, cultural stuff. I’m not much for looking at old building where nothing happens anymore. I like to read about those in books. I like things that are happening now.

By that, I don’t mean clubbing and dancing. I mean more along the lines of contemporary culture/art/music sites. Good restaurants.

I’d also like to take her out to dinner one night in one of the two places. I’m not looking to spend a huge amount of money (which means more than US$50, for me). Any suggestions for a place that the usual tourist might not know about?

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Gitfiddle, I have no specific ideas on what to do, but it’d help to know what ward, city, or town you’ll be staying in. You’ll probably want to find entertainment nearby. Travel within the city can be slow, whether by taxi (low speed limits, unpredictable traffic) or train (can take even longer if you’re on a local). I couldn’t believe how long it took to get around.

I can answer a bit about the food. You can probably afford to eat out in both cities. At ordinary restaurants, you can easily get tasty, filling evening meals for less than ¥1200, or about US $10.50. Some meals even include a beer! Most sushi places I saw topped out at about ¥2100 for the biggest plate. You two should be able to share that plate. Save an extra couple hundred yen to get a dessert from a bakery.

I randomly chose places on the street and wasn’t disappointed. My selection criterion was: Is there something tasty-looking in the restaurant’s front window? My rejection criterion was: Can I read the signs or menus? I, typical American, speak only English so, yup, I never knew exactly what I was getting but I’d not been disappointed. Oh, and it’s not rude to walk the waiter to the front window and point at what you want.

This may sound strange, but if you’re in a train station, stop by a Kiosk or other stand to get a meal-in-a-box out of the fridge. ¥1000 is a big one. You’ll get a variety of food, probably enough for you two for lunch. Just don’t stand up to eat it. That’s rude. I ate one by myself on the bullet train, but I’m sumo-sized.

I know you didn’t ask about money, but here are some things I’ve learned about money in Japan:

[ul]To convert a yen price to dollars, divide the price by the yen per dollar. For instance, I converted the meal price above as: 1200/114 yen per dollar. Or, without breaking out a calculator, just drop the last 2 zeroes and you’ll be close.
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[ul]Taxes are included in prices at restaurants and stores. If the price is ¥1200 on the menu, that’s what you’ll pay. No tipping anywhere.
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[ul]A fair number of restaurants don’t accept credit cards. Get cash from the ATM. Most ATM’s in Tokyo are dual-language.
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[ul]You’ll be using 100 and 10 yen coins a lot and occasionally 50 and 500 yen coins; just accept that you’ll get stuck with the 5 and 1 yen coins. The 5 yen coin is small, yellow-colored, has a hole, but no marking as to what value it is. People string them on lanyards for good luck. The 1 yen coin is small and aluminum.
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Something else. Get a haircut while you’re here. Very relaxing.

Just so you know, I spent last Thanksgiving holiday in Tokyo. It was my first time there. I’ve been living in Japan since Halloween, so I’m giving you my newby’s perspective on being a tourist here. Hopefully our resident long-term Tokyo residents will be along to correct my assumptions and give you specific places to go.

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Be sure to leave some flowers at the Godzilla memorial. :smiley:

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Moderator comment: Generally, such travel advice belongs in the MPSIMS forum. However, since you’re specifically asking about arts, music, and cultural activities, I’m going to leave it in Cafe Society (at least for the moment.)

When I was last in Tokyo (about six years ago), a visit to the TV station HQ was fun – they had Iron Chef mementos.

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Sure it does. Just not in Arabic numerals.

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Unless you insist on eating at fine dining places, it is a complete myth that dining in Tokyo or Kyoto is expensive. Especially after having lived in Seattle and LA.

For myself and my friends we found an easier conversion table at least while we were there in October. Think of 100 yen as 1.00 dollar. “I’d pay 7.00 bucks for that delcious bowl of ramen.” then you feel like you got a deal when you later figure out it only cost 5.50 in american.

Definitely get cash. I was told that you could use credit just about any where and discovered that to be a flat out lie. ATMs are often found in Post Offices and are usually quite easy to use.

Go to Maid Cafes. By far my favorite part of Japan were the maid cafes. We stayed in Akiba which seemed to be the hub of since it is the nerd distrcit of Tokyo. Oddly enough the places that I felt the most singled out as a foreigner and welcomed were at different Maid Cafes (we didn’t go to the sketchier ones mind you just the middle of the road ones).

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In Tokyo, the Hibiya subway line (the gray one) stops at a number places that may be fun.

Ueno: the old-style Ameyoko market streets are fun to walk through, and there are great restaurants scattered all around. This is also where all the national museums and Tokyo’s main zoo are located.

Akihabara: The electronics district (actually not too far a walk from Ueno). Geek heaven here, and probably the most internationalized part of Tokyo.

Tsukiji: Fish. Lots and lots of fish. The Tokyo fish market is located here, where all the wholesalers bring the fresh caught fish to auction every morning. Lots and lots of sushi restaurants at prices ranging from cheap to outrageous, but all with very good quality food (look for the cheap hole-in-the-wall type places). Also some interesting blue-collar shopping areas that don’t look like they’ve changed since the pre-war days.

Ginza: Just down the street from Tsukiji, it’s the famous upscale shopping area. Lots of places to spend lots of money, plus the Sony museum is located here. Also lots of good restaurants, but more expensive.

Roppongi: Should you get homesick for the States, come here, but avoid it otherwise. This is where all the foreigners who’ve been in Tokyo less than a few years come to get blind screaming wasted. A few American-style restaurants (Tony Roma’s, Hard Rock Cafe, etc.) lots of US military, especially when the Kitty Hawk is in town.

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Learn the [url=http://www.kanjisite.com/html/start/jlpt/4/steps/lhs4kstep1.html]kanji numbers* before you go! They’re really simple to learn and recognize, and the numerical counting system is very logical.

Enjoy anyway. I’ve always wanted to go to Kyoto but have never made it. Apparently there’s a wooden temple building nearby that is around a thousand years old. Wood. A thousand years old. Amazing.

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Sublight,

Thanks for the rundown on Tokyo. I did the Akihabara very quickly. There was just too much potential for credit record damage. Thanks to you, my next visit’ll include Tsukiji.

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I found Ginza really boring. It reminded me too much of a downtown shopping distrcit of any large American city. And Roppongi during the day was quite pleasant. We didn’t go at night.

I also want to recommend Okachimachi which is right next to Ueno. There’s a several block street market under the trainline and the best Sushi we had in Japan we oddly enough had at a place there…unfortunately we couldn’t find the place again when we tried two days later.

The Sugamo neighborhood (a bit northwest of Ueno) was really interesting. Its just a regular neighborhood nothing touristy. We walked around a residential neighborhood for awhile and found a small park. The locals looked at us oddly. They were clearly not used to seeing tourists around there.

Avoid Harujuku unless you really want to go. Gwen Stefani ruined it.

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Luckily, the numbers are just like Chinese. I’m living in Taiwan, so I’ve gotten used to those.