Uogashi Nihon-Ichi

You Have to Visit This Tokyo Restaurant

There is a restaurant in the Nakano neighborhood of Tokyo that you need to visit if you go to Tokyo. We didn’t see it in any guide book or site; we just happened into it one day. And then we came back twice more, despite the fact that Nakano wasn’t near much that we wanted to…

Tokyo Election Posters

Surprising Things About Tokyo

Here are 14 things that surprised us about Tokyo specifically. There were a lot more about Japan overall and about Osaka and Kyoto. There are a lot of brightly-colored flowers planted all over town, along sidewalks or on road medians. These are not flowers planted by individual households, but by public workers using city funds. This…

Tokyo's Nihonbashi Ward

Where We Stayed in Tokyo

Neighborhood: (Nishi)Waseda and Takadanobaba Also Called: N/A Pros: Because these are both university neighborhoods, there is plenty of affordable dining – from restaurants to grocery stores. At the 7/11 in this neighborhood, they’ll even heat your food for you, in case your place doesn’t have a microwave. Because these are both university neighborhoods, places like cafes or…

Tokyo Sushi

The Price of Tokyo

Tokyo is not currently the most expensive city in the world, but it’s still in the top six. Certainly, housing plays a part, and I have found apartments and hotels to be more expensive than many (but not all) other places we’ve been. However, I also expected food to be expensive. After all, sushi at even…

Otaku Costume

Mediterranean Looks

A few days ago, we visited the Akihabara neighborhood of Tokyo, which specializes in exactly two things: electronics and comics-related costumes. We were there for the former, trekking from store to store in search of a new phone for B. We hit up several superstores, like the old Best Buy or Circuit City, but times…