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Tokyo.

Hotsauce84Hotsauce84 8,450 Posts
edited September 2013 in Strut Central
Should've posted this sooner, but didn't think about it. Anyways, I'll be there next week. Any must-sees/dos? Record spots are cool but I hear they're ridiculously expensive and I'm not sure I even want to stress myself out like that. Restaurants? Sneaker/clothing spots? Shoot, I'm even up for touristy spots. (First timer.)

Thanks in advance!

  Comments

  • Big_ChanBig_Chan 5,088 Posts
    Go to Kamakura homie

    http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2166.html
  • Big_ChanBig_Chan 5,088 Posts
    Go to Tsukiji market early in the morning. Lots of good sushi restaurants in and around the market.

    http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3021.html
  • Big_ChanBig_Chan 5,088 Posts
    Eat ramen at Jiro. Go to the original Mita location (Mita 2-16-4, Minato-ku, no tel., 9:30am-3pm), located right next to Keio University.

    http://www.ramentokyo.com/2007/06/ramen-jiro.html
  • Hotsauce84Hotsauce84 8,450 Posts
    Thanks Chan! I wonder if they have glow-in-the-dark sushi these days??
  • yuichiyuichi Urban sprawl 11,332 Posts
    Tokyo eh....hmm. I've kinda lost my love of that city...too many damn people!

    Maybe go eat some yakitori or hormon yaki or something, and drink something nice.

    Asakusa is a city with traditional temples and shit like that. There's also Tokyo Sky Tree, which is that space needle structure close to Asakusa.

    The Yamanote-sen (the train line that makes a loop around much of Tokyo), and you can probably walk around and get back on, and
    check out random cities. Tsukiji is a big ass fish market, where you can also eat fresh seafood. Akihabara is where the geeks get there gaming and "maid cafe" (anime/maid outfit wearing girls serving food/drinks). Shibuya is where you see that mess of people at the intersection; they call it "scramble" intersection; in a way like the Times Square of the U.S. Most of the cities, I just mentioned can be accessed by the Yamanote-sen line.

    Let us know how it went! Take some pictures too. Haven't been in 2years.
  • skelskel You can't cheat karma 5,033 Posts
    Goddamn there's a yakitori restaurant behind the Nomura hq at Otemachi that served up the tastiest meal ever.

    Cosign the Sky Tree, thing is huge. Amazing place.

    And mostly all the best things are off the main streets, hives of activity inside big ass buildings that are like mini cities.
  • Big_ChanBig_Chan 5,088 Posts
    Go to Birdland in Ginza for fantastic yakitori

    http://travel.suejchiu.com/2011/04/tokyo-yakitori-at-birdland-ginza/

    http://ginza-birdland.sakura.ne.jp/
  • Big_ChanBig_Chan 5,088 Posts
    Hit some of the Disk Union shops in Tokyo.

    http://diskunion.net/st/shop/e_index.html
  • motown67motown67 4,513 Posts
    Remember that you need to have maps and ask people for directions all the time because places are numbered by when they were built not in numerical order.
  • NabozoNabozo 48 Posts
    God this is a city I would so like to see but each time I think about it an image of a 5 grands cost begins to form in my mind
  • Hotsauce84Hotsauce84 8,450 Posts
    My ticket was $940 from Phoenix. A friend of mine just got stationed there with the Japanese Air Force so I'll be staying with them. Definitely hitting up Tokyo Disney. It'd be nice if I could pick up a DJ gig out there but I have no connections there.
  • OkemOkem 4,617 Posts
    If you want to go shopping go to Shibuya then take the short train ride to Harajuku, although it's close enough to walk if you want. Shibuya is the main area for Tokyo youth culture, Harajuku is more about cutting edge stuff, centre of the Kawaii world and all that. Athough I hear it's main street has been taken over somewhat by global brands trying to buy in to the cool, the small sprawling side streets have plenty of one of a kind boutiques. http://www.timeout.jp/en/tokyo/feature/6454/50-things-to-do-in-Harajuku There's also the Omote-sand?? area which is more upmarket, designer outlets and the like.

    http://www.timeout.jp/en/tokyo/feature/6181/101-things-to-do-in-Shibuya

    http://wikitravel.org/en/Tokyo/Harajuku
    http://wikitravel.org/en/Tokyo/Shibuya
  • bennyboybennyboy 538 Posts
    motown67 said:
    Remember that you need to have maps and ask people for directions all the time because places are numbered by when they were built not in numerical order.



    Constantly lost when I was there. Going into the suburbs was a nightmare.
  • discos_almadiscos_alma discos_alma 2,164 Posts
    Big_Chan said:
    Hit some of the Disk Union shops in Tokyo.

    http://diskunion.net/st/shop/e_index.html

    Cosign. I've been wanting to check their Latin / Brazil shop out for years and years.

    http://blog-shinjuku-latin.diskunion.net/Category/9/
  • maxveritechmaxveritech 87 Posts
    One of my favourite cities in the world. Amazing food, bars and the bottleshops carry serious booze at outstanding prices (at least compared to Australia). If fine dining's your thing, here's an online link to the English Michelin guide for Tokyo.

    http://gm.gnavi.co.jp/home.html
  • willisreadwillisread 34 Posts
    Hey Herm,

    Here's some stuff that is kind of off the tourist track but relatively easy to find (and reasonable price-wise):

    Harajuku/Omote Sando area:

    Check out Harajuku Gyoza Rou one of the best gyoza shops in Tokyo. Prices are amazing and the atmosphere is also live. They have English menus as well. http://www.timeout.jp/en/tokyo/venue/12853/Harajuku-Gyoza-Lou

    Back in the January/February of this year a friend of mine helped to open up an open air market near Omote Sando. As other people mentioned most things in this area are big brand related (gucci, prada, etc...) but "246 Common" is really interesting. Basically a bunch of small shop and food truck owners got together and created an affordable oasis in the brand infested desert. Definitely check it out for reasonable lunches and drinks and also good coffee (which is really hard to find in Tokyo if you're a coffee head). http://www.timeout.jp/en/tokyo/venue/14782/246-Common

    You can definitely walk from Shibuya to Harajuku/Omote Sando. Cat street is the most scenic in my opinion. http://www.timeout.jp/en/tokyo/venue/460/Cat-Street

    There are lots of small boutiques and some familiar brands as well that you will see. It basically runs from near Shibuya station all the way to near the aforementioned gyoza shop (near Omote Sando). I also suggest crossing Omote Sando and walking around. There are a lot of small shops that sell everything from kicks to jewelry to hats and skateboards. It's a good area just to walk around and drink a beer and people-watch or whatever.

    If you like sneakers/kicks check out KIKS TYO http://kikstyo.com/ . They have a nice selection of t-shirts as well. To be honest depending on how big your feet are you might have trouble buying shoes here (in Tokyo). Keep that in mind as well. It's just off of Cat Street which I mentioned above.

    Also while you're in this area you can also see Meiji Jingu (Shrine). It's basically behind Harajuku station as well as Yoyogi Park. These are nice touristy places you can hang out and get lots of pics or just feel like your on vacation in Tokyo or whatever.

    Anyway, digest some of this. I will try to post some more links up to other areas as well over the weekend.

    Peace,
    Will
  • skelskel You can't cheat karma 5,033 Posts
    Congrats Tokyo on the Olympic vote

    Hope to be still around to be down on some corporate hospitality tip come 2020
  • Hotsauce84Hotsauce84 8,450 Posts
    Thanks for all the info, holmeses! Really appreciate it. I'll be checking this thread constantly while I'm there.
  • Hotsauce84Hotsauce84 8,450 Posts
    Man, Shibuya is awesome but a clusterfuck! I spent hours trying to find KIKS TYO and the F.I.L./Visvim shops with no luck whatsoever. Google Maps took us on a wild goose chase. Gonna try again in a couple days.
  • MondeyanoMondeyano Reykjavik 863 Posts
    Herm said:
    Man, Shibuya is awesome but a clusterfuck! I spent hours trying to find KIKS TYO and the F.I.L./Visvim shops with no luck whatsoever. Google Maps took us on a wild goose chase. Gonna try again in a couple days.
    I'm off the next few days, can take you around if you want. Holler via PM.
  • OkemOkem 4,617 Posts
    sojealousrightnow.
  • toby.dtoby.d 254 Posts
    I'm heading to Japan for the first time in a week and I'm looking for some advice on short term storage in Tokyo.

    Basically I'm meeting friends over there who are coming from HK and they'll arrive a couple of days after I do. I thought those first two days, when I'm on my own, would be a good time to go and hit the record (and other) shops as they won't want to be standing around waiting for me to shop when they get there. The problem is that once they arrive the plan is to do some travelling around the country, so I won't have a permanent hotel to keep stuff in; I want to avoid having to lug anything I bought around with me for two weeks before I fly home.

    My first thought was putting stuff in train station lockers and collecting it on my last day but I've read that they clear out train station lockers after 3 days in Japan. There may be some longer term storage available at the airport, does anybody have experience with that? I thought of asking a hotel which I would return to stay in for my last night to hold stuff for me until I return, but I don't know how feasible that is. It might be possible to ask a record shop to hold records for me until I came to collect them before I leave or finally I could arrange to have things posted home (not sure how simple that would be).

    I know I can google this stuff and I will continue to do so but thought I'd put it out there in case anybody has done something similar.

    Thanks!


    tl;dr: How can I store records for two weeks in Tokyo?
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