Tokyo’s Greatest Hits – Part I

This post is a two part series outlining a four-day (ish) itinerary for visiting Tokyo. A summary of the places we visited will be available at the end of Part II!

Our friends, Andrew and Justine, came to visit us for our last week/weekend in Tokyo and we took them all around the city to some of our favorite places. I think what we did with them is a great itinerary if you are only visiting the city for three or four days but want to get a feel for a number of different neighborhoods and cuisines.

They arrived on Monday afternoon from Narita and got settled in before we took them to our go-to sushi restaurant for dinner, Sushi Ginzo. It’s not fancy but is an affordable and tasty way to satisfy the immediate need for sushi right upon arrival. Similar to Sushi Ginzo is Sushi Zanmai, which is also a chain offering affordable sushi throughout the city.

They took the shinkansen to Kyoto from Tuesday to Thursday, which is a great idea for visitors to do because it allows them to miss a lot of the crowds that flock to visit during the weekends.

Thursday night our tour continued with a visit to Shimokitazwa. While not exactly convenient to where we live, it’s worth the trip as it’s a unique neighborhood with an absolutely fantastic izakaya (Shirube Shimokitazawa). Reservations are recommended but you only need to call a few days in advance. They offer an English menu in a Japanese environment with delicious plates – our particular favorites include: mackerel (cooked at your table), cheesy tofu, sashimi, tuna avocado, beef & potatoes, the shrimp, and chicken karaage. You can’t go wrong with anything on their menu – it’s all incredibly delicious.

We left Shirube with full bellies and headed toward Shibuya Crossing for a visit to Bar Piano, located in Nonbei Yokocho bar area. Andrew’s coworkers had taken him there a number of times and he had wanted to take me there for months so I’m glad we were all able to visit together. You enter to see a bar with seats for three and a very steep staircase to your right that leads you into an ornately decorated red room that comfortably seats about 6 people and uncomfortably seats about 15 people. It pays to get there when they open around 9/9:30 because it fills up quickly and you won’t be admitted otherwise.

On Friday we started our day with brunch at Bills in Omotesando before wandering through Takeshita Dori:

and then  into Yoyogi Park to visit the Meiji Shrine – we took selfies throughout the day as we had just invested in our first selfie stick (!)

We spent the rest of the day wandering around Harajuku and Omotesando, taking a brief break at Omotesando Koffee:

And the beautiful Aoyama Flower Market:

That evening we enjoyed BBQ/Teppanyaki at Shinsen Horumon Rambo in Azabujuban, which is one of our regular spots for some tasty grill-your-own food and then made our way across the street for cocktails at rooftop bar 1967:

Our night kicked up a notch at that point as we headed to the Rooftop Bar at the Andaz for some tasty cocktails with some Tokyo friends and a beautiful view of the city:

Since we had not visited a club in Tokyo yet, we decided to visit Ele, which was a lot of fun – great music and robot dancers (!) all made even better by having our great friends there:

A busy first few days in Japan for our friends and a great intro to a few of our favorite places. Part II coming soon!