Konnichiwhoa

Tokyo Narita: Best Restaurants and Shopping

Have a flight out of Narita Airport? It's a huge building, and there's a lot to do. I've been through the airport bunches of times, so I've rounded it down to just a few places visitors should hit up in each terminal.

Are you Terminal 1 or Terminal 2?
A ton of airlines serve Tokyo Narita. Before you plan out your shopping trip, check the official list to see which terminal you'll be in. It's not easy to switch terminals, so you should stick to the one you arrive in (unless you have a rare airline switch for a Tokyo transfer).  

Eat/shop before passport control!
After passport control, it's just rice balls and soft drinks - and prices go up quite a bit. Once you leave this area,  you're pretty much just hanging out at your gate until departure.

Duty free is great for alcohol!
Duty free shops are very commonly not a bargain around the world for booze, cigarettes, or perfume. The exception to the rule is Japanese liquor. Personally, I don't leave Japan without a bottle of Suntory Hibiki 17, which at 6,000 yen is a solid deal for the whiskey that it is. 

The Best of Terminal 1

Roppongi Hills: 5 Things to Do

Roppongi Hills is almost a city in itself. There are places to shop, eat, live, and play. It's also a hub for high-end culture in Japan with a number of luxury restaurants, international fashion brands, and apartment towers known for housing Japanese celebrities.

So, with all that awesomeness in mind, here are 5 highlights from the complex:

1. Mori Art Museum
Asia has some great modern art museums as it is, but the Mori suddenly showed up and made a splash. Situated near the top of the Mori Tower (the big tower of the complex, lit up in blue in the photo there), it's a beautifully-designed museum with a great rotation of exhibits. 

2. Tokyo City View
The soon-to-open Tokyo Sky Tree may quickly take away the title of "best city lookout point" from the top of the Mori Tower, 52 stories up, but for the time being this is the one you want. It's basically part of the art museum, so you can get a combined ticket and do exhibits and the awesome view. If it's light outside and the weather's OK, you can go outside on the roof and view the endless buildings of Tokyo al fresco. 

Things to Do: Cat Cafe

If you're a serious cat lover, you may want to visit one of Japan's cat cafes for the novelty.

Basically, you can pay to go play with a cat. Some of them will also serve you coffee or such, but you're really paying for the cat.

Lots of Tokyoites would like pets but don't have the space to put them up and are never home. So, to them it kind of makes sense to be able to rent time with a pet. 

The Guardian recently went to a cat cafe and brought back about 7 minutes of video from the place. Get your tour below:

Looking for more things to do in Japan?

Oden: a healthy Japanese food that's an acquired taste

Oden isn't the famous kind of Japanese food that tourists come to the country for, but locals and expats know it all too well.

It's a sort of cuisine - it's a collection of things that are boiled in a fishy broth. Everything that comes out is hot, and most of it is pretty heavy on the protein. So, it's really known as a winter food.

Oden is found everywhere. During the coldest winter months, you can find it in every convenience store, and the stores will even smell of the stuff during that time.

Here's a more detailed explanation from the Japan Visitor Blog:

Dashi [the broth oden is made in] is made with konbu seaweed and shaved tuna flakes (kezurikatsuo), so oden is not really vegetarian, though many of the other ingredients are staples for non-meat eaters: daikon radish, potatoes, konnyaku, kinchaku (mochi in a deep-fried tofu pouch) and tofu. Other things found in oden include boiled eggs, chikuwa fish cakes, folded seaweed, meatballs on sticks, sausages, octopus and sometimes skewered beef.

Personally, it's not for me. But at least I was brave enough to try it.

via Japan Visitor Blog

More Japanese Food Not Found in America

The Japanese don't really do teriyaki chicken. Here are 6 Japanese foods not found in America.

Japanese Girls in Kimonos Shooting Things (in Archery)

An expat in Japan has done a quick write-up on a festival in Japan where young women, dressed in kimonos, participate in an archery competition.

The Toshiya Archery Event is part of the coming-of-age ceremonies for 20-year-olds, held nationwide in January, but the archery is special to the Sanjusangendo Temple in Kyoto. Writes the attending expat:

Toshiya is an event that goes back some four hundred years though today it is significantly different. In the past, Toshiya was predominately for men to show off their prowess and skill with a bow. Today, archers shoot at targets 60 meters distant but in the past archers would shoot the entire length of the long Sanjusangendo Temple which measures about 120 meters. 

Men participate too, as this is part of a festival coming from the samurai tradition, but they don't look quite so lovely.

There are a few gems among the many photos posted from the event, so be sure to check those out as well.

via Roving Ronin Report

Read more about Kyoto

The Japan Books section of the Konnichiwhoa Mini-shop has fantastic books on Kyoto! There are highlighted books featuring Kyoto's gardens and ancient Japanese architectural details for your home.

Things to Do: Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe

Good Luck Trip, a magazine publisher, has put out a new issue of its free guide to Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe, and it's accessible online for free too. The guide is pretty long (over 50 pages) and full of stuff to do if you decide to leave Tokyo.

Osaka
Osaka has historically been known as a town of commerce, and even today one of its major draws is shopping. The neighborhood of Tennoji is recommended as a shopping area, but the guide leaves out America-mura, a rather un-American area that's the center of the city's fashion. The guide also dedicates a page to basically advertise Yodobashi Camera, which is actually a national chain and not unique to Osaka at all.

Kyoto
Naturally, Kyoto is known for its cultural tourism. Options include the tea ceremony, Zen meditation, a Maiko dress-up session, and of course tons of temples. Don't miss the old-school Gion district.

Kobe
Kobe is a great town for a mix of the above two environments. It's more relaxed than Osaka, but still has some big-city energy and lots of international cuisines. I can hardly recommend a better place to eat churrasco (aka Brazilian BBQ) than here.

Things to Do: MUJI and Japanese Design

If you're curious about product design, such as the work of Apple or Braun, you need to check out Muji, one of Japan's best-known shops. 

It's a company that carries itself with a very specific purpose, but it's hard to describe succinctly. Muji's mission is maybe best described as a philosophy that shuns lust and focuses on honesty and durability in products.

If you're in Tokyo, you can learn more about that philosophy at Found Muji, a new combination gallery/store that brings in things from around the world that inspire what Muji makes:

Housed in the Aoyama-area retail space where Muji’s first stand-alone store opened in 1983, Found Muji takes the company back to its roots.

Found Muji goes back to the source, showcasing traditional, vernacular and often handmade housewares and decorative objects that have inspired a multitude of Muji products, like metal bowls used for curry in India, Celadon pottery from Thailand, enamelware from France or feather dusters from Germany. Part gallery and part retail space, Found Muji reveals the origins of new Muji products, and highlights simple, useful wares from different cultures around the world. 

Where to Eat in Japan: Restaurant Week!

Tokyo is a great city for eating with the most Michelin stars in the world. Right now, you can take advantage of the opportunity during Japan Restaurant Week, a promotion for dozens of the best restaurants in Tokyo, Osaka and Kobe. 

The cuisines covered are extensive and include Japanese teppanyaki, sushi, kaiseki, Kobe beef, fugu, Italian, French, Chinese, and even a few more past that.

Even though it's called Restaurant Week, it's actually weeks - three, to be exact. 

Another important number is eight. 7 restaurants featured in the Tokyo Michelin Guide are included in the bunch, and one from Osaka.

Participating restaurants offer lunch and dinners at set prices. Lunch is by far the cheapest, when you can eat at some of Japan's finest places for just 2,100 yen.Dinners are more expensive but still a relative bargain compared to what you'd usually pay at these places.

Prices are:
Lunch: 2,100 yen
Dinner: 5,250 yen or 7,350 (depending on the place)

Japan Restaurant Week runs from now through February 19, 2012.

via Japan Restaurant Week

Find cheap restaurants!

Get $3 beers and $7 dinners for a fulfilling evening under $10. Read the Konnichiwhoa Guide to where to eat in Japan.

Things to Do: Hokkaido - Day Trips to Ski Areas Under $100

The Hokkaido branch of JR is offering cheap one-day trips for skiing, snowboarding and hot springs in Japan's northern winter wonderland. For about $75 you can get an inclusive trip of train pass, one-day lift pass, and ski/board rental for some of the world's best snow.

Or for as little as $85 you can get a day at an outdoor hot springs, in the snow, with a buffet lunch.

Some trips also involve a bus trip to the particular destination, but that's also included in the price.

Your options include:

Skiing
Niseko Hirafu with view of Mt. Yotei: 6,200 yen
(special note: we just covered Niseko!)
Sahoro with view of Tokachi plain: 10,300 yen
Tomamu with 16 courses: 9,100 yen
Furano with courses for all levels: 5,750 yen
Teine, just 40 minutes from Sapporo: 5,850 yen

Things to Do: Shinjuku - Sushi Making Class in Tokyo

The Tokyo Sushi Academy, whose eight-week, $5,000 sushi master class we covered last week, also offers a one-day class. That class is also heavily discounted this spring, so read on if you want to take a $130 class for just $40.

For 3,000 yen, you'll spend the day learning nigiri sushi, gunkan, and temaki (hand rolls). That means you'll be a decent sushi chef at the end of the day!

There's a good reason to pay attention in class: you'll be making your own dinner! Once you sit down to eat, though, the Sushi Academy will throw in some green tea for free.

The 70% discount only applies for classes on February 18 and March 17, so hit the link below to sign up for those dates.

via Tokyo Sushi Academy

Not in the mood to cook your own food?

It's much easier to eat cheaply in Japan than you think. How does dinner for $7 and a $3 beer sound? Read the Konnichiwhoa Guide for how to find the best restaurants in Tokyo!