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Fast food the traditional way. Counter-only places like this often offer great tasting food at reasonable prices for a quick lunch or dinner. Looking at the signs, this one does a super cheap 500 yen lunch box of grilled eel on rice.
A teppanyaki restaurant. As with many sushi and tempura restaurants, one of the great things with teppanyaki (besides the hotplate-fried meat, seafood and vegetables) is being able to watch the chefs prepare your food up close.
Some areas even specialize. The Okubo area, next to Shinjuku, has Tokyo’s best selection and biggest concentration of Korean restaurants. Nearby Hyakunincho is best for “ethnic” (meaning Southeast Asian) cuisine. Yokohama has Chinatown. More cosmopolitan locales, such as Roppongi, Aoyama and Omotesando, are the places to look for both traditional high-end dining and innovative modern takes on Japanese cuisine, not to mention international fare of all kinds.
In less fashionable areas, Shimbashi is great for boisterous after work izakaya, although such traditional watering holes are found everywhere. Ryogoku, home to Japan’s main sumo stadium, is known for restaurants serving chanko nabe, the hearty hotpot of meat, vegetables and seafood eaten by sumo wrestlers. The Tsukishima area is known for a Tokyo oddity called monjayaki, a runny batter containing a mix of chopped vegetables, meat or seafood that is then grilled into a sticky mess on hotplates built into each table. The variety is such you could spend a month in Tokyo trying a different lunch and dinner every day and still barely have scratched the surface.
Skewers of yakitori on the grill.
Fish cooking on an open hearth. Dishes like these are a perfect match for beer and saké.
At a sushi restaurant.
Fresh produce on display at the outer market area of Tsukiji Market, which provides restaurants in Tokyo, from high-end sushi bars in Ginza to back-street izakaya, with much of their seafood.
An assortment of sashimi (slices of raw fish) served with freshly grated wasabi (for mixing with soy sauce as a dip) on decorative bamboo leaves.
A sushi chef puts the final touches to a serving of mushi ebi (steamed shrimp sushi).
CENTRAL TOKYO
TOKYO’S CENTRAL DISTRICTS
From the Edo era on, the land that was the site of Edo Castle and is now the location of the current Imperial Palace has effectively functioned as Tokyo’s central point. The areas that surround the palace merge traditional wealth and refinement with modern expressions of luxury. Ginza, home to high-end department stores, boutiques and restaurants, is the most obvious expression of central Tokyo’s modern luxurious side, while beyond the Imperial Palace itself historic elements are on show in places like Hamarikyu Garden and the Kabuki-za Theater. Connecting the capital with the rest of the country, Tokyo Station manages to combine both old and new, the station’s historic façade surrounded by the gleaming skyscrapers of a now rejuvenated business district.
TOKYO STATION AND MARUNOUCHI
Tokyo Station was not the city’s first station, nor is it now the busiest or biggest, but at the grand old age of 100, revamped after an extensive five-year ¥50-billion renovation that has both modernized the station and reclaimed some of its historic features, there is no doubt that the station bearing the capital’s name is the most iconic eki in Japan.
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