ATHLLC8218780764

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.240 | - Hello, and welcome to another episode of All The Hacks,

00:00:04.560 | a show about upgrading your life, money, and travel.

00:00:07.520 | If you're new here, I'm your host, Chris Hutchins,

00:00:09.520 | and one of the areas I love optimizing the most is travel.

00:00:12.720 | I've been to 60 plus countries, and on every trip,

00:00:15.120 | I love meeting locals, trying to understand their culture,

00:00:17.720 | having authentic experiences, and most of all,

00:00:20.200 | I love finding a way to eat all the best foods

00:00:22.680 | a place has to offer.

00:00:24.000 | And hands down, one of my favorite travel destinations

00:00:26.720 | in the world is Japan.

00:00:28.140 | So I wanted to do another travel episode

00:00:29.880 | on just traveling there.

00:00:31.440 | And while I've been there four times,

00:00:33.120 | there is no one better to join me

00:00:34.700 | than my previous guest, Brandon Presser,

00:00:36.920 | who's been there every year for the past 20 years,

00:00:39.200 | except 2021, including spending a month there last November.

00:00:43.600 | He's also lived there twice,

00:00:44.960 | and he's written three books on the country.

00:00:46.640 | He is a true expert on Japan,

00:00:48.780 | but he's also been to over 100 countries

00:00:51.320 | and written well over 50 guidebooks,

00:00:53.480 | so he is actually an all-around travel pro as well.

00:00:56.560 | We're gonna talk about why we both love the country so much,

00:00:59.040 | what makes it worth a visit, where you should go,

00:01:01.140 | what you should see and do, and my favorite,

00:01:03.720 | all the incredible foods you should be trying

00:01:05.640 | and our favorite spots to eat them.

00:01:07.720 | I hope that by the time you finish this episode,

00:01:09.760 | whether you've never been to Japan,

00:01:11.220 | have a trip on the horizon, or have been before,

00:01:14.020 | you're gonna be inspired to go there soon

00:01:15.960 | and have a ton of amazing new things to check out

00:01:18.120 | when you get there.

00:01:19.120 | So let's get into it right after this.

00:01:21.500 | Brandon, thank you so much for being here a second time.

00:01:26.680 | - Thank you so much for having me.

00:01:28.880 | - You've traveled to so many countries.

00:01:31.200 | What is it about Japan that keeps bringing you back?

00:01:34.860 | - So the thing about Japan, for me,

00:01:36.600 | is that the more time you spend there,

00:01:40.200 | the more you realize you don't know

00:01:42.480 | the destination that well.

00:01:44.320 | And every time I go back,

00:01:45.880 | there's always a new thing to explore,

00:01:48.280 | there's always a theme that needs unpacking,

00:01:51.400 | and it's one of those places

00:01:52.720 | that it's not like in New York,

00:01:55.640 | where you get to live there for 10 years

00:01:57.600 | and then you get to say you're a New Yorker.

00:01:59.880 | The more time you spend, the more you're like,

00:02:02.520 | "Wow, I'm not from here."

00:02:05.800 | - This is coming from someone who's lived there twice

00:02:08.440 | and been there well over a dozen times, so that's wild.

00:02:12.440 | What is so different about Japan?

00:02:14.160 | - I've heard a lot of people call Japan

00:02:16.840 | a Galapagos economy.

00:02:19.780 | What that essentially means is that it's a country

00:02:23.100 | that has modernized and evolved

00:02:26.400 | away from the rest of the world.

00:02:28.880 | So a lot of the systems that are in place,

00:02:31.360 | a lot of the ways that we perceive the modern world

00:02:34.640 | are just slightly alternate universe.

00:02:38.600 | And I think that's what makes Japan

00:02:39.920 | so interesting and special.

00:02:41.080 | - Can you give some examples?

00:02:42.560 | - Absolutely.

00:02:43.520 | One of the most important things to note

00:02:46.160 | about Japan and Japanese culture

00:02:48.080 | is that they have this proclivity

00:02:50.320 | for taking something from another country

00:02:53.520 | and then improving upon it.

00:02:55.720 | And so ramen is the best example of that.

00:02:58.200 | So it's a Chinese dish,

00:03:00.200 | became really popular after World War II,

00:03:02.520 | was called Chinese noodles.

00:03:04.320 | And then the recipe started to change and started to evolve.

00:03:07.560 | And then it became ramen,

00:03:09.520 | which we all conceive of as distinctly Japanese.

00:03:12.680 | And the other example is toilets brought by the West.

00:03:16.440 | And as many of us know,

00:03:18.960 | they now can sing you happy birthday while you're using them

00:03:22.500 | and have all sorts of water features.

00:03:25.700 | - Yeah, have a Japanese toilet.

00:03:27.260 | We've talked about how to get a deal on a Japanese toilet

00:03:29.860 | on this show before.

00:03:30.940 | And I totally agree.

00:03:31.780 | It's funny, I've been to Japan a few times

00:03:34.260 | and people are like,

00:03:35.080 | "Oh, you gotta check out this place for pizza."

00:03:36.500 | And I'm like, "Why would I get pizza in Japan?

00:03:38.540 | That seems crazy."

00:03:39.380 | And it's like, "No, no, no."

00:03:40.220 | Because Japan takes everything

00:03:42.220 | and tries to make the best possible version you can of it.

00:03:45.220 | There was a pizzeria in Napoletana Dayuki in,

00:03:48.100 | I think, Kyoto.

00:03:49.340 | And the person who started it went to Italy,

00:03:52.820 | trained, brought back everything,

00:03:54.860 | and has tried to master the pizza in every way possible.

00:03:59.540 | And the same is true about coffee

00:04:00.860 | and the list goes on forever.

00:04:02.480 | Whenever my wife and I come back, we're like,

00:04:04.460 | "I feel like we just came back from the future."

00:04:07.180 | In this world where everything was improved and thought of

00:04:10.140 | in a rational and logical way.

00:04:11.600 | So I am so excited to dig in here.

00:04:14.500 | I'm so excited to go back to Japan.

00:04:16.220 | You are one of the people I know who's been

00:04:18.740 | since it reopened.

00:04:19.820 | What was it like in a kind of post-pandemic world?

00:04:22.540 | Well, much in the way that Japan always feels

00:04:25.980 | like this wonderful trip to the future.

00:04:27.820 | And I often, when I return from Japan,

00:04:29.740 | have sort of reverse culture shock.

00:04:32.240 | When I get back to the US, I'm like,

00:04:33.560 | "Oh, this country is so disappointing relative to Japan."

00:04:37.460 | What was interesting about my trip to Japan this time

00:04:43.500 | was it felt a little bit like a visit to the recent past.

00:04:47.300 | Their relationship with COVID has been very different

00:04:51.980 | than in the US.

00:04:53.300 | Everyone is still masking, even outdoors, even on a hike,

00:04:57.380 | I would pass people who are still wearing

00:04:59.020 | their masks outside.

00:05:00.780 | And we can kind of dig into why that is

00:05:03.500 | and how certain cultural things kind of inform that.

00:05:07.420 | But there is a lot of COVID fear.

00:05:09.260 | When I was there, a lot of people asked me,

00:05:11.240 | "Is this your first trip out of America?"

00:05:13.460 | since the pandemic.

00:05:14.820 | And I think Japan was maybe my 15th country

00:05:19.740 | since we've torn away the veil of the pandemic.

00:05:24.460 | So in that sense, it was this odd revisiting

00:05:28.380 | of the trauma of the pandemic and the fear.

00:05:33.140 | But what's also really interesting about Japan

00:05:36.140 | is we're now post-Olympics.

00:05:39.100 | And that is something to really consider as well,

00:05:42.660 | 'cause it was sort of the Olympics that never happened.

00:05:44.620 | There were high hopes for the Games.

00:05:46.820 | The last time that Japan had the Olympics was in 1964.

00:05:50.380 | And that was really fascinating

00:05:53.620 | 'cause it was the first Olympic Games

00:05:55.060 | that were televised around the world.

00:05:56.940 | And it was to signal that Japan was this fresh,

00:06:01.060 | newly modern country, post-World War II,

00:06:04.420 | a lot of really interesting modern architecture

00:06:06.860 | happening as the backdrop.

00:06:08.740 | So they were kind of hoping to replicate that magic.

00:06:11.260 | And of course, that never happened.

00:06:13.700 | But how the Olympics actually are informing Japan

00:06:17.540 | is we're seeing a lot of little Western tweaks.

00:06:21.900 | English is a lot better than it was a few years ago.

00:06:25.660 | And we're also seeing much more credit card use

00:06:28.900 | than we did before.

00:06:30.100 | Little things like that.

00:06:31.380 | - But things are open.

00:06:32.700 | You are able to go see stuff, do stuff,

00:06:34.780 | eat stuff, drink stuff.

00:06:35.780 | So just because there might be a feel

00:06:38.540 | like you're back in the past,

00:06:40.580 | I would say was still,

00:06:42.540 | you could go to Japan right now

00:06:43.660 | and have an amazing experience

00:06:44.900 | and do all the things you'd done before.

00:06:47.100 | - Absolutely, I highly recommend it.

00:06:48.780 | If you're okay still wearing a mask out of courtesy,

00:06:51.580 | I would get on the plane tomorrow

00:06:53.180 | and you're gonna have an absolutely incredible experience.

00:06:56.180 | Everyone's excited for people to be coming back.

00:07:00.180 | Restaurants are fully operational.

00:07:02.340 | You know, if you saw in the news,

00:07:03.420 | a lot of travel articles that were like,

00:07:05.060 | go before the crowds, get back to Japan before the crowds,

00:07:07.980 | that's fake news.

00:07:09.140 | The crowds are back in full force

00:07:11.180 | and Chinese tourists are gonna start heading back

00:07:13.940 | now as well.

00:07:14.980 | And even without the Chinese tourists

00:07:17.700 | who make up about 40 to 50% of the tourism in Japan,

00:07:21.340 | everything was rammed.

00:07:22.700 | All the favorite temples in Kyoto were packed with people.

00:07:26.900 | You absolutely needed reservations at popular restaurants.

00:07:30.700 | So everything's back in full swing.

00:07:32.420 | - Okay, well, let's talk about that trip.

00:07:34.340 | When I did my first episode to London,

00:07:35.820 | I just picked a city.

00:07:37.100 | And I was like, oh, that's pretty easy.

00:07:38.580 | I'm getting a little ambitious here.

00:07:39.820 | We're gonna talk about an entire country.

00:07:41.740 | So instead of trying to go through every destination

00:07:44.140 | in the country, that would be impossible.

00:07:45.340 | We would have to record for the next, I don't know, week

00:07:47.940 | or based on your experience, maybe for the next 20 years.

00:07:50.260 | But let's say someone's thinking

00:07:52.140 | about how to take that first trip for one, two weeks.

00:07:55.660 | What would you give them the advice of how to go,

00:07:58.180 | where to go, all of that?

00:07:59.540 | - Yeah, so I would think about trip planning to Japan

00:08:02.340 | the way that I think about trip planning

00:08:03.660 | to every destination.

00:08:04.740 | Think of your trip as a meal.

00:08:07.620 | Think about you have your appetizer,

00:08:09.660 | your main course, and your dessert.

00:08:11.540 | So the appetizer is like you're getting into the vibe

00:08:14.660 | of the destination.

00:08:16.060 | You're doing a little sampling, maybe tasting a few things.

00:08:19.060 | Really, you're getting over the jet lag.

00:08:20.820 | And so when you, by the time you transition

00:08:23.300 | to the main course, that's like the real showstopper.

00:08:27.300 | That's the meat.

00:08:28.660 | And then the dessert is gonna be the thing

00:08:30.740 | where you really treat yourself.

00:08:32.580 | Save that really fun, cool thing until the end.

00:08:37.380 | And I'm not someone who suffers from FOMO,

00:08:40.940 | but I am sort of crippled by the optimizer's dilemma.

00:08:45.940 | Like I wanna make sure that I've had

00:08:47.780 | the best trip possible for me.

00:08:50.420 | And Japan is one of those places where there's

00:08:52.580 | just so many different variations on the theme.

00:08:57.140 | I think the two places that you absolutely have to hit

00:09:00.340 | are Tokyo and Kyoto.

00:09:02.540 | And then you can kind of mix and match a variety

00:09:06.500 | of secondary destinations based on your personal interest.

00:09:09.860 | I wouldn't be a slave to, well, everyone else is going here

00:09:14.700 | or everyone else is going there.

00:09:16.140 | I think critically about what is interesting

00:09:19.460 | to you about Japan.

00:09:21.820 | And we're gonna go through some of those different

00:09:24.300 | destinations and themes and kind of pick a mix from there

00:09:27.700 | and then end with your splurge where you're kind of

00:09:32.100 | really soaking in maybe a traditional inn, a ryokan,

00:09:36.420 | having that quintessential Japanese hospitality experience

00:09:40.220 | where you're not leaving the hotel,

00:09:43.020 | but just basking in that incredible design, food,

00:09:48.020 | everything that we know from the country.

00:09:49.780 | - Hospitality.

00:09:50.820 | - That omotenashi, yeah.

00:09:52.820 | - Just high level, what are a few of those places

00:09:56.020 | outside of Tokyo and Kyoto that you'd put on the list?

00:09:58.380 | - I would think that you would wanna get four elements

00:10:00.460 | on your trip.

00:10:01.500 | You wanna do new, old, mountain, sea.

00:10:06.500 | Those are the four things that I think that you should

00:10:09.060 | check off your list for every trip to Japan,

00:10:11.220 | whether it's your first or whether it's your fourth.

00:10:13.860 | And old and new can be in different cities.

00:10:18.100 | They are always looking ahead into the future

00:10:21.380 | while also cherishing their cultural and historical relics.

00:10:26.380 | And then you need to remember that Japan

00:10:29.300 | is on the Pacific Ring of Fire.

00:10:31.620 | There are still active volcanoes.

00:10:34.460 | The country's incredibly hilly, mountainous,

00:10:38.900 | and then you have these beautiful sea moments,

00:10:43.100 | bays, lakes, and putting that all together is just perfect.

00:10:48.100 | - Are there specific places you're like, get to them,

00:10:51.020 | but here's a cool place, there's a cool place

00:10:53.460 | to get people excited?

00:10:55.460 | - Yeah, so think of Japan as having four major islands.

00:11:00.020 | And Tokyo and Kyoto are on the main island, Honshu,

00:11:04.100 | and I would absolutely add one of the other islands

00:11:08.100 | to your itinerary.

00:11:08.940 | So Kyushu in the south, you're getting active volcanoes,

00:11:12.420 | you're getting onsen culture, this hot spring culture.

00:11:15.980 | This is a really hot emerging destination

00:11:18.580 | that I absolutely recommend.

00:11:20.460 | I can give you some specifics a little later on.

00:11:22.780 | Shikoku is the quietest of the four.

00:11:25.460 | These are small villages, a lot of farming,

00:11:29.700 | and that is where you're gonna really have

00:11:32.460 | that rural experience where you can go stay with a family

00:11:35.620 | and really embed in the culture

00:11:36.980 | in a very different, humble way.

00:11:39.780 | And then you have Hokkaido in the north.

00:11:41.740 | Think of Japan as a lowercase J.

00:11:44.220 | Hokkaido is the dot at the top.

00:11:46.940 | And that is really famous internationally

00:11:50.140 | as a skiing destination.

00:11:52.040 | But I would challenge you to consider it

00:11:53.580 | as just a beautiful, natural destination

00:11:56.260 | and a place that's really worth going even in the summer

00:11:58.860 | for those mountains on steroids,

00:12:01.220 | these huge expanses of wilderness,

00:12:04.340 | but still with that Japanese sensibility.

00:12:07.380 | - I love it.

00:12:08.220 | Okay, we're gonna get to a lot of this.

00:12:09.720 | I'm very sad that I don't have a Japan trip on the horizon.

00:12:13.040 | Best times, is there a time you think people

00:12:14.940 | should be planning their trip to Japan?

00:12:17.260 | - Yeah, that's a great question.

00:12:18.500 | I like to avoid the summer.

00:12:20.960 | And that is not necessarily

00:12:22.940 | because that's when you have the most crowds,

00:12:25.640 | but surely a lot of people in their summer holidays

00:12:27.620 | are gonna end up in Japan.

00:12:29.080 | But it is desperately humid.

00:12:32.060 | When I used to live in Japan and I worked,

00:12:34.020 | my boss used to make me keep clothes at work

00:12:37.420 | so that after I would take the metro to the office,

00:12:41.580 | I would have fresh clothes to change into

00:12:43.180 | 'cause I would inevitably be sweaty.

00:12:46.100 | July and August are upsettingly hot and humid.

00:12:49.900 | And so much of Japan,

00:12:51.860 | even though you're thinking about taking trains

00:12:54.340 | and all of this, so much is exploring by walking.

00:12:57.160 | So you wanna be comfortable.

00:12:58.480 | Obviously, there's cherry blossom season that's world famous

00:13:01.580 | and you're gonna get all of the crowds.

00:13:03.760 | Is it worth the hype?

00:13:04.740 | Absolutely, it is totally stunning.

00:13:07.960 | There are cherry blossoms all over the country.

00:13:09.900 | You don't necessarily need to be in Tokyo or Kyoto

00:13:12.060 | to see them.

00:13:12.880 | My favorite time to go is in the fall

00:13:15.900 | because in the way that cherry blossom season is revered,

00:13:18.700 | so is the fall in Koyo, as it's called, leaf peeping.

00:13:22.900 | So you get these beautiful red Japanese maples.

00:13:26.260 | I think November for me is my favorite time to visit.

00:13:29.420 | - We went in December 2019 with my family

00:13:32.420 | right before COVID came.

00:13:33.460 | And it was awesome because it wasn't that crowded,

00:13:35.860 | but it's not that cold.

00:13:37.140 | We didn't go to Hokkaido, it would have been cold,

00:13:39.120 | but in most of the rest of the country,

00:13:40.820 | it's not unbearably cold.

00:13:43.020 | It was a little cheaper

00:13:43.860 | because people aren't traveling in cold cities as much,

00:13:46.940 | but I had a great time.

00:13:48.200 | It was a little easier to get into things.

00:13:49.840 | It wasn't that crowded.

00:13:51.420 | Any other kind of high level logistics?

00:13:53.460 | Do you think people need a guide?

00:13:55.120 | Someone wrote to me and I'll ask you and share my opinion,

00:13:57.760 | but they're like,

00:13:58.600 | should they be nervous if they only speak English?

00:14:01.560 | Anything like that?

00:14:03.340 | - I think that the English has massively improved

00:14:07.720 | over the last 10 years,

00:14:09.040 | especially with the anticipated nudge of the Olympics.

00:14:11.900 | There were a lot of people that were taking English classes

00:14:14.660 | and that has really changed.

00:14:17.720 | Does it compare to other countries?

00:14:19.320 | No, I think that there's still a lack of English

00:14:22.660 | compared to a place like Thailand, say.

00:14:25.960 | But I think you are gonna be fine going around on your own.

00:14:29.240 | And I think experiencing at least parts of your trip

00:14:33.760 | on your own is hugely rewarding,

00:14:37.040 | much more rewarding than in a lot of other destinations,

00:14:40.040 | simply because the quality of everything is so high

00:14:43.600 | that it's a destination that really lends itself

00:14:46.440 | to discovery.

00:14:48.060 | Walking into a random restaurant

00:14:50.300 | will probably be pretty darn good.

00:14:53.220 | - We've done Japan four times.

00:14:54.960 | I speak like three words of Japanese

00:14:57.120 | and we had no guides ever any of those times.

00:14:59.440 | So I typically tell people,

00:15:01.400 | look, you might need to speak a little slower.

00:15:03.420 | You might need to point.

00:15:04.400 | You might need to just accept that you'd just be surprised.

00:15:07.360 | But I don't think there's a country in the world

00:15:09.480 | that I've found that you can't go to

00:15:12.040 | because you don't speak the language.

00:15:13.280 | So I don't think that should be a barrier for anyone,

00:15:15.460 | but I've gotten a bunch of emails asking if it is,

00:15:17.920 | so I wanted to make sure we cover it.

00:15:19.800 | And last, any tips you have

00:15:21.560 | since you've been there so many times

00:15:22.920 | to save money on setting everything up in advance?

00:15:25.760 | - Well, there's two things that I always think about

00:15:28.200 | when I'm planning a trip to Japan.

00:15:30.040 | I think we all wanna do a bit of pre-arrival research

00:15:35.040 | for some of our specifics.

00:15:36.680 | It's a country that is very crowded.

00:15:38.980 | It's a country that's getting a lot of tourists.

00:15:40.720 | So you do want to plan a little bit in advance

00:15:43.280 | as far as what you're gonna eat, where you're gonna stay.

00:15:46.280 | And one of the things that's very culturally different

00:15:49.760 | than Japan and the West is rating things.

00:15:54.320 | So giving stars on Google or on Yelp or things like that.

00:15:58.800 | In our culture, we're very hyperbolic.

00:16:02.240 | We have a nice experience, we give it a five.

00:16:04.760 | We have a bad experience, we give it a one.

00:16:07.600 | Everything kind of always ends up netting out

00:16:09.880 | to be like a 4.2 or something like that at a place.

00:16:14.000 | In Japan, you have a nice experience, you give it a three.

00:16:17.600 | So what can be really confusing at the onset

00:16:19.800 | is someone could tell you,

00:16:20.880 | "Oh my God, I love this restaurant.

00:16:22.440 | "It's so great and cool."

00:16:24.280 | And you go onto Google to see the review

00:16:26.700 | that has been given and it's average is like a 3.6.

00:16:30.080 | And you're like, "What?

00:16:31.040 | "I would never eat at a place that's a 3.6."

00:16:33.220 | Well, in Japan, 3.6 is excellent.

00:16:38.220 | And in the food category,

00:16:41.880 | I wanna send you right away to Tabalog.

00:16:46.160 | It's a website that is their Yelp,

00:16:48.920 | but it's taken very seriously.

00:16:52.000 | People use it prolifically.

00:16:53.760 | And with your translator button on,

00:16:55.780 | you can navigate it without any problems.

00:16:58.240 | And you can search by type of food

00:17:00.880 | and you can search by destination

00:17:03.240 | and really make some informed decisions bearing in mind

00:17:07.040 | that really stellar restaurants

00:17:10.080 | are gonna have like a 3.8 or a 3.7.

00:17:12.960 | And then you can also use the rating

00:17:14.680 | to gauge where Japanese people are going

00:17:18.720 | and where tourists are going.

00:17:20.120 | And this goes for other things

00:17:21.680 | like hotels and sites and bars.

00:17:24.320 | If it has kind of a low score,

00:17:25.900 | Japanese people are going there.

00:17:27.500 | If it has an inflated score,

00:17:29.500 | you know that it's more frequented by foreigners.

00:17:32.380 | - Funny, it's like you find a place on Google Maps,

00:17:33.980 | it's like 4.9.

00:17:34.980 | You're like, "Steer clear, there's no way you got here."

00:17:38.100 | - Exactly, "Don't go here, only Americans are going there."

00:17:42.540 | - Oh, that's so funny.

00:17:43.620 | What about other things about the culture

00:17:45.860 | that people might wanna know about going there?

00:17:47.740 | How would you describe Japanese people and the culture

00:17:50.500 | and things people should be aware of?

00:17:52.380 | - Yeah, I wanna take a beat to talk about

00:17:54.000 | how we would relate to Japanese culture.

00:17:57.180 | So a lot of people talk about

00:17:58.740 | how the Japanese hospitality is like no other,

00:18:02.540 | and there's this notion of a motonashi,

00:18:04.420 | which is service from the heart.

00:18:07.020 | And I hear that buzzword a lot in luxury travel

00:18:10.420 | when I work with different hotels all over the world.

00:18:13.380 | They wanna telegraph that they have

00:18:14.840 | this elevated sense of hospitality.

00:18:17.380 | But what you need to understand about Japanese culture

00:18:20.100 | is when you engage with a hospitality product,

00:18:24.560 | there's an unspoken social contract

00:18:28.520 | where you are also the deferential guest.

00:18:31.800 | So the idea of the customer is always right

00:18:35.840 | doesn't really exist in Japanese culture.

00:18:39.660 | You are expected to be as well-behaved and as nice

00:18:46.680 | as the restaurant staff will be to you.

00:18:50.820 | And that is kind of a product of Japan

00:18:54.580 | being a culture of shame rather than a culture of guilt.

00:18:59.580 | In the West, we think about Catholic guilt or Jewish guilt.

00:19:04.420 | I think we all have a pretty good sense of what that means

00:19:07.100 | if we have all experienced it.

00:19:08.720 | In Japan, it's more how everyone else is perceiving you.

00:19:12.640 | So you are kind of internalizing your own actions

00:19:15.820 | and making choices about your behavior

00:19:18.020 | based on how everyone else perceives you

00:19:20.060 | rather than that moral compass inside

00:19:22.900 | telling you what's right or wrong.

00:19:25.580 | I know it's like a bit lofty,

00:19:27.700 | but you are working as a guest

00:19:30.440 | in the way that staff are working to serve you.

00:19:34.860 | - We were at a nice steakhouse in Tokyo once.

00:19:37.380 | And I remember one of us spilled

00:19:39.660 | our glass of wine on the table.

00:19:41.380 | We'd been in Japan for a week

00:19:42.500 | and we had internalized this feeling you're describing.

00:19:45.020 | And it was like, oh my gosh,

00:19:45.860 | should we just leave the restaurant?

00:19:47.060 | Like, can we even stay here after that?

00:19:49.060 | We felt so horrible.

00:19:50.740 | Everyone was kind of like looking at us like,

00:19:52.380 | how could you do that?

00:19:53.900 | I feel like I know what you mean.

00:19:54.780 | Fortunately, we recovered.

00:19:56.580 | We apologized profusely and it was okay.

00:19:59.060 | But I have experienced that feeling and it's very different.

00:20:02.700 | - You don't want to be late.

00:20:03.780 | You don't want to be late to your reservation.

00:20:05.720 | You don't want to be late to meet your guide.

00:20:07.900 | And that's part of the social contract as well.

00:20:11.340 | Also, you might find funny quirks

00:20:13.860 | where if you're staying at a luxury hotel

00:20:16.700 | and the staff wants to know

00:20:18.220 | what time you're gonna have breakfast in the morning,

00:20:20.060 | you could say, oh, I don't know, 9 a.m.

00:20:22.580 | But they might come back to you and say, 8.30 is better.

00:20:26.660 | Don't be surprised if they are going to really hold you

00:20:30.960 | to that social contract and kind of tweak your experience.

00:20:35.100 | But it's all so that they can serve you better.

00:20:38.300 | - They're suggesting 8.30 'cause at nine it's crowded

00:20:40.900 | and you might not get the best table

00:20:42.340 | or your food might be slow or something like that.

00:20:44.900 | And on the sense of punctuality,

00:20:46.940 | definitely don't be late to trains either.

00:20:49.340 | I can't remember the story,

00:20:50.380 | but it was like there was one train that left seconds late

00:20:54.260 | and they issued like a national apology.

00:20:56.660 | I'm sure you know this story better than me,

00:20:58.380 | but like things are not late.

00:21:01.060 | - Yeah, so when I lived in Japan,

00:21:02.940 | I was working there and going to the office

00:21:06.020 | on days when a train would be late,

00:21:08.900 | by more than 10 seconds they would issue you

00:21:12.420 | a little white slip of paper, if you needed it,

00:21:16.220 | that you could bring to your boss saying,

00:21:18.220 | this is the reason that I'm late.

00:21:19.460 | It is not my fault that I am late to work.

00:21:21.940 | Everything is extremely on time to the point

00:21:25.820 | where I have had tourists reach out to me,

00:21:28.920 | friends reach out to me at Tokyo Station

00:21:31.120 | wanting to get on the bullet train.

00:21:32.780 | They had bought tickets for their 9.30 bullet train

00:21:35.700 | to go to Kyoto, let's say.

00:21:38.300 | And they're like,

00:21:39.140 | "Well, I'll get to the train station 20 minutes before."

00:21:41.260 | But of course, Tokyo Station's

00:21:42.500 | one of the biggest stations in the world.

00:21:44.860 | Takes about 20 minutes to get to your train

00:21:47.060 | and they missed it.

00:21:48.220 | - So last thing on culture, is it easy to meet people?

00:21:51.180 | I think one of my favorite things traveling

00:21:53.140 | is meeting locals and I find in Japan,

00:21:55.500 | either I'm doing it wrong or it's harder to do.

00:21:58.900 | - It's extremely difficult

00:22:00.420 | and I don't wanna oversimplify the nuance

00:22:02.980 | of cultures of shame versus cultures of guilt.

00:22:05.700 | This is certainly nothing that we need to unpack

00:22:07.940 | more than that when we're trying to cram

00:22:09.780 | in a whole travel guide in about an hour.

00:22:11.980 | But the idea is that because this social contract

00:22:15.380 | that you have with the people around you,

00:22:16.980 | it extends beyond hospitality.

00:22:18.620 | It's why everyone is so polite on the trains.

00:22:21.160 | It's why everyone walks on certain sides of the roads.

00:22:24.620 | It's why Tokyo is the biggest city in the world

00:22:26.520 | but it feels more organized

00:22:28.060 | than any other city half its size.

00:22:31.440 | The social contract sort of exists

00:22:34.100 | that you create this facade, this emote,

00:22:36.620 | where you have a side of yourself

00:22:39.280 | that you present to other people

00:22:41.380 | and then you have a more personal side

00:22:43.740 | and a more personal aspect to your personality.

00:22:46.900 | So because there is this facade element,

00:22:49.580 | you are engaging with people in that manner.

00:22:52.600 | Is it a fake facade?

00:22:55.100 | No.

00:22:55.940 | Are they two-faced?

00:22:56.760 | No.

00:22:57.600 | This is a true aspect of your personality

00:22:59.840 | but it's the presented aspect of your personality.

00:23:02.740 | So it's hard to have that very American,

00:23:06.100 | this is how I really feel about something.

00:23:08.380 | These are my real emotions.

00:23:10.340 | Americans like to tell you when they're mad

00:23:13.860 | but they're screaming at you.

00:23:15.420 | And it's like, I get it that you're mad

00:23:17.200 | because you're yelling,

00:23:18.540 | whereas the Japanese generally are much more nuanced

00:23:22.540 | in that nature.

00:23:23.420 | So it's an interesting moment

00:23:25.580 | where two cultures are touching

00:23:27.460 | that may feel limited or inauthentic

00:23:30.340 | but it's just a different version

00:23:33.260 | of how we present ourselves.

00:23:35.860 | - If you had a guide

00:23:36.700 | or you met someone that worked at your hotel

00:23:37.900 | and you're like,

00:23:38.740 | "Hey, do you wanna grab a drink tonight after work?"

00:23:40.140 | Would that be like very surprising or shocking

00:23:42.060 | and met with a no?

00:23:42.980 | Or how might you go about introducing yourself to a local

00:23:46.140 | so you could get to know them

00:23:47.360 | and spend time in a casual setting?

00:23:50.500 | - Yeah, one of the things that I've discovered

00:23:52.380 | is there's actually a lot of opportunities

00:23:54.940 | to engage with people in structured ways

00:23:57.780 | that could end up leading to a friendship.

00:23:59.660 | So a lot of towns all over Japan, including Tokyo,

00:24:04.300 | have free tours that you can sign up for.

00:24:08.060 | And those tours are with young Japanese individuals

00:24:12.800 | who are motivated to take you around their neighborhood

00:24:15.780 | as an opportunity to practice their English

00:24:18.100 | or an opportunity to meet foreigners.

00:24:20.900 | There are a lot of different websites that offer this

00:24:23.740 | and it's a great way to strike up a conversation

00:24:27.500 | with someone and use that tour opportunity

00:24:31.660 | to ask big questions

00:24:33.200 | because they are people that wanna engage with you.

00:24:35.620 | And you can use it less as,

00:24:37.660 | "Oh, I wanna discover Shibuya in Tokyo and see cool things,"

00:24:42.220 | but more as an opportunity

00:24:43.300 | to have that budding friendship opportunity.

00:24:47.540 | I would definitely try to do one of those.

00:24:49.620 | - I love free walking tours.

00:24:51.180 | I think they're a great way to get your bearings,

00:24:52.940 | but especially in a culture

00:24:53.960 | where it's harder to meet someone just at a bar

00:24:56.060 | and strike up a conversation.

00:24:57.300 | I think it's a great recommendation.

00:24:58.640 | But you mentioned a few things in Tokyo.

00:25:00.900 | I wanna make sure we get to what to do.

00:25:03.100 | I think let's start here

00:25:04.100 | because I assume almost anyone going to Japan

00:25:06.540 | will probably, especially on their first trip, end up here.

00:25:09.820 | It's one of the most amazing cities in the world.

00:25:12.140 | How do you think about even trying to bring it all together

00:25:15.780 | and suggest people experience it?

00:25:18.140 | - One of the funny things that I've noticed about Tokyo

00:25:20.980 | is when you ask people where they're going on holiday,

00:25:24.340 | when they're referring to a European destination,

00:25:26.420 | they usually refer to it by city.

00:25:29.020 | So, "Oh, I'm going to Paris on holiday.

00:25:31.180 | "I'm going to London."

00:25:32.300 | When people talk about going to this country,

00:25:35.340 | they say Japan.

00:25:36.460 | They don't say Tokyo for some strange reason.

00:25:39.580 | I'm always trying to figure out why.

00:25:41.500 | And I think it's because it's so far

00:25:44.060 | and it's a lot of people's first time

00:25:46.500 | they're gonna do things beyond Tokyo,

00:25:50.160 | which makes perfect sense.

00:25:51.940 | But I really want you to spend more time in Tokyo

00:25:55.940 | than you think you need.

00:25:57.500 | A trip that's three nights in Tokyo

00:25:59.060 | and three nights in Kyoto doesn't make sense to me.

00:26:02.220 | It is a city that has 40 more times

00:26:05.180 | the population than Kyoto.

00:26:06.840 | It's a city that's four times physically bigger than Kyoto.

00:26:11.120 | So even just on pure numbers,

00:26:13.780 | you shouldn't weight Tokyo equal

00:26:16.300 | to anything else in the country.

00:26:18.540 | It's a place that it has a Brooklyn.

00:26:21.180 | Sure, do I need to go check out the Brooklyn?

00:26:22.540 | Sure, but there's like 12 Brooklyns.

00:26:24.860 | And it's just this infinitely large destination

00:26:29.980 | in all the best ways.

00:26:31.980 | And it can be really tough to dig in.

00:26:35.420 | So my first thing that I always tell people

00:26:38.240 | when they're trying to figure out the city

00:26:40.820 | is to Google Yamanote Line Google Maps.

00:26:45.180 | Don't go into Google Maps and Google it

00:26:47.380 | 'cause it won't work,

00:26:48.460 | but just go to like your Google search bar

00:26:51.860 | and type Yamanote Line Google Maps.

00:26:54.380 | And there's a bunch of people that have drawn

00:26:56.980 | the Yamanote Line within Tokyo.

00:26:59.140 | That is a Japan rail line that makes a circle

00:27:04.140 | around the central part of Tokyo.

00:27:09.460 | Tokyo has 23 wards, which are kind of like boroughs.

00:27:14.700 | And this line is like a really good way

00:27:18.100 | to conceive of the city geographically.

00:27:21.380 | Now think of that as a clock.

00:27:23.620 | Everything that when you hear

00:27:26.260 | that's like cool new neighborhoods, street fashion,

00:27:30.540 | even going back to like the early 2000s,

00:27:32.560 | like Harajuku girls and all of that,

00:27:35.220 | that happens at around seven to nine o'clock on the clock.

00:27:40.220 | Then all of the older things like Shitamachi,

00:27:46.140 | all of the Sensoji Temple,

00:27:48.900 | a lot of sort of the older touch points

00:27:51.700 | happen around one and two o'clock on the clock.

00:27:56.700 | And then you have the big stations

00:28:00.000 | like Shinjuku is at nine o'clock.

00:28:03.020 | Ginza, which has Tokyo Station just north of it,

00:28:06.800 | also a major hub, that's at like three o'clock.

00:28:10.220 | That's a good place to start thinking geographically

00:28:13.760 | about the city.

00:28:15.180 | - Also, I will say, if you don't look at the Yamanote Line

00:28:18.260 | and you look at the entire subway map,

00:28:19.860 | it's just like sensory overload.

00:28:23.180 | It's very hard to understand.

00:28:24.860 | There are multiple companies

00:28:26.620 | operating different rail lines in the city.

00:28:29.180 | In some cities, I'm like, oh, look at the subway map.

00:28:31.180 | It's a good way to orient yourself.

00:28:33.360 | In Japan, I love the recommendation

00:28:35.020 | of just starting with the Yamanote Line

00:28:36.900 | because otherwise it could be pretty overwhelming.

00:28:39.300 | - Totally.

00:28:40.140 | It really looks like fallen confetti in a way.

00:28:42.100 | It's all different colors.

00:28:43.180 | And what's curious about it is that unlike other cities,

00:28:46.260 | it is built from a few different companies.

00:28:49.020 | So you have some municipal lines, the Tokyo Metro Line.

00:28:53.300 | Then you have a second Metro Line.

00:28:55.180 | Then you have suburban lines that were built

00:28:58.300 | from companies like a Sears or a Macy's.

00:29:02.300 | So strangely, they share names

00:29:04.140 | with a lot of the department stores in Tokyo.

00:29:07.340 | And you're gonna use one card

00:29:10.760 | to tap through many turnstiles

00:29:13.380 | if you're gonna go on a long trip

00:29:15.240 | all the way through the city.

00:29:17.840 | And 20 years ago, you used to have to get tickets

00:29:19.860 | for each one, which was an absolute nightmare.

00:29:22.900 | - So now, I believe it's still just the Suica card.

00:29:26.220 | You used to have to get a physical one.

00:29:28.020 | Since we won't go too much into travel logistics

00:29:30.300 | 'cause it's pretty straightforward

00:29:31.340 | and the internet is full of information,

00:29:33.420 | I will just add that you can now get your Suica card

00:29:35.580 | on your iPhone or your phone in a digital wallet

00:29:38.180 | and you don't even need the physical card.

00:29:39.740 | And you can reload it right there.

00:29:40.940 | It was super easy.

00:29:41.940 | I will say if you're on a budget,

00:29:43.820 | it is worth paying attention

00:29:45.220 | because I think it still is true.

00:29:47.380 | Correct me if I'm wrong,

00:29:48.220 | that if you transfer from the, is it Toyosu line

00:29:52.000 | to the JR line, you're gonna pay multiple fares.

00:29:54.840 | When you do a Google Maps search from A to B,

00:29:56.960 | it'll tell you how to get there and show you the prices.

00:29:59.840 | And there might be a fast route

00:30:01.400 | and there might be a cheap route

00:30:02.600 | and they might be different

00:30:03.500 | because changing different lines

00:30:06.040 | may be on different companies and have multiple fares.

00:30:09.520 | - That's a really good point.

00:30:10.640 | It's something that I think about when I'm there as well.

00:30:13.000 | If you're really focused on your budget

00:30:14.720 | and you're traveling, say, from the central part of the city

00:30:17.040 | to Shimokitazawa, which is a really trendy,

00:30:20.580 | perennially cool neighborhood.

00:30:23.460 | If you get off one station before Shimokitazawa

00:30:27.860 | at Yoyogi Uehara, you save about two thirds

00:30:31.580 | of the fare to get there.

00:30:33.620 | - And Google Maps is pretty good.

00:30:34.900 | I don't know if there's a better app

00:30:36.180 | to find train from point A to point B.

00:30:38.660 | I believe it also tells you the fares and everything.

00:30:40.700 | That's what we used.

00:30:41.700 | Getting the crew together isn't as easy as it used to be.

00:30:46.060 | I get it.

00:30:46.900 | Life comes at you fast, but trust me,

00:30:49.620 | your friends are probably desperate for a good hang.

00:30:52.500 | So, kick 2024 off right by finally hosting that event.

00:30:56.560 | Just make sure you do it the easy way

00:30:58.500 | and let our sponsor, Drizzly,

00:31:00.460 | the go-to app for drink delivery, take care of the supplies.

00:31:04.180 | All you need to come up with is the excuse to get together.

00:31:06.980 | It doesn't even have to be a good one.

00:31:08.820 | It could be your dog's birthday,

00:31:10.260 | that the sun finally came out,

00:31:12.220 | or maybe you just want to celebrate

00:31:13.700 | that you got through another week.

00:31:15.780 | With Drizzly, you can make hosting easy

00:31:17.900 | by taking the drink run off your to-do list,

00:31:20.420 | which means you can entice your friends

00:31:22.180 | to leave their houses without ever leaving yours.

00:31:25.300 | And since I know you like a good deal,

00:31:26.940 | Drizzly compares prices on their massive selection

00:31:29.500 | of beer, wine, and spirits across multiple stores.

00:31:32.500 | So, when I really wanted to make a few cocktails

00:31:34.540 | while we were hosting family last week,

00:31:36.360 | not only could I get an Italian Amaro

00:31:38.420 | delivered in less than an hour,

00:31:40.060 | but I found it for $15 less than my local liquor store.

00:31:43.540 | So, whatever the occasion, download the Drizzly app

00:31:46.620 | or go to drizzly.com.

00:31:48.460 | That's D-R-I-Z-L-Y.com today.

00:31:52.480 | Must be 21 plus, not available in all locations.

00:31:55.720 | I love helping you answer all the toughest questions

00:32:00.860 | about life, money, and so much more,

00:32:03.340 | but sometimes it's helpful to talk to other people

00:32:05.940 | in your situation, which actually gets harder

00:32:08.580 | as you build your wealth.

00:32:09.980 | So, I want to introduce you to today's sponsor, Long Angle.

00:32:13.240 | Long Angle is a community of high net worth individuals

00:32:16.100 | with backgrounds in everything from technology,

00:32:18.260 | finance, medicine, to real estate,

00:32:20.340 | law, manufacturing, and more.

00:32:22.780 | I'm a member of Long Angle.

00:32:24.180 | I've loved being a part of the community,

00:32:26.140 | and I've even had one of the founders, Tad Fallows,

00:32:28.460 | join me on all the hacks in episode 87

00:32:30.580 | to talk about alternative investments.

00:32:32.940 | Now, the majority of Long Angle members

00:32:34.660 | are first generation wealth,

00:32:36.460 | young, highly successful individuals

00:32:38.540 | who join the community to share knowledge

00:32:40.700 | and learn from each other in a confidential, unbiased setting.

00:32:44.640 | On top of that, members also get access

00:32:46.920 | to some unique private market investment opportunities.

00:32:50.240 | Like I said, I'm a member,

00:32:51.680 | and I've gotten so much value from the community

00:32:53.840 | because you're getting advice and feedback

00:32:55.800 | from people in a similar situation to you

00:32:58.280 | on everything from your investment portfolio,

00:33:00.720 | to your children's education,

00:33:02.080 | to finding a concierge doctor.

00:33:04.360 | So many of these conversations

00:33:05.840 | aren't happening anywhere else online,

00:33:08.040 | so if you have more than 2.2 million in investable assets,

00:33:11.720 | which is their minimum for membership,

00:33:13.580 | I encourage you to check out Long Angle,

00:33:15.700 | and it's totally free to join.

00:33:17.820 | Just go to longangle.com to learn more,

00:33:20.940 | and if you choose to apply,

00:33:22.460 | be sure to let them know you heard about it here.

00:33:25.420 | Again, that's longangle, A-N-G-L-E, .com.

00:33:30.020 | So, we're still in Tokyo.

00:33:32.120 | I don't even know how we'd possibly get through all this,

00:33:35.060 | but I would love to leave people with some suggestions

00:33:37.740 | in the buckets of things to see and do,

00:33:40.080 | things to eat, maybe some nightlife.

00:33:42.840 | Any thoughts on how we even start to make a dent here?

00:33:45.760 | - Yeah, so when you look at the subway map,

00:33:49.220 | it's just an, "Oh my God, I don't know how to deal with this.

00:33:51.380 | "This city must be so massive."

00:33:52.940 | You can walk through a lot of the city,

00:33:56.060 | and don't be allergic to walking.

00:33:58.860 | What I love to do on my first day back in Japan

00:34:02.340 | is a triangle from Omotesando to Harajuku,

00:34:07.900 | and then down to Shibuya, and back again.

00:34:10.980 | You can do that triangle, and that's a really fun day.

00:34:14.620 | You can take it super slow,

00:34:16.800 | and what you're getting in that area

00:34:19.940 | is a lot of the key touchpoints of the city.

00:34:23.540 | You're getting a lot of the rodeo drive shopping.

00:34:28.540 | Shopping in Japan, especially in Tokyo,

00:34:31.940 | is a social activity

00:34:34.000 | because there's such limited public space,

00:34:36.780 | and people have such small apartments.

00:34:39.740 | Shopping is a hanging out endeavor,

00:34:42.860 | and this is a really major thoroughfare,

00:34:46.220 | Omotesando Dori, to do that.

00:34:48.660 | Off of that are little boutiques, and barber shops,

00:34:52.960 | and really cool things,

00:34:55.220 | those stores that we wish we all had in our hometowns.

00:34:57.940 | And then you go all the way to Harajuku,

00:35:00.060 | the kind of bombastic hip hop meets little boat peep

00:35:05.300 | that still exists.

00:35:07.340 | And right beyond that is the Meiji Shrine,

00:35:11.300 | which is absolutely worth a visit.

00:35:13.020 | And then you turn down and go to Shibuya,

00:35:15.860 | and we've all seen on "Lost in Translation"

00:35:18.220 | or in other movies, the Shibuya Crossing,

00:35:20.740 | the busiest pedestrian crossing in the world.

00:35:24.460 | And then you can triangle your way back to Omotesando again.

00:35:28.060 | I love going to one specific restaurant.

00:35:31.100 | It is hugely popular with everyone.

00:35:35.300 | It is very well known.

00:35:37.020 | It is worth the hype.

00:35:38.100 | It's called Maisen.

00:35:39.460 | It's tonkotsu, so a breaded pork cutlet.

00:35:43.540 | It's 1,100 yen, which currently is about $7.

00:35:48.100 | For a full meal, you're gonna have to wait in line.

00:35:50.860 | It's in an old onsen, so in an old bathhouse

00:35:54.980 | that's been refurbished.

00:35:56.540 | You could start with that.

00:35:57.860 | It's very close to Omotesando Station,

00:35:59.620 | and then spend the afternoon walking around

00:36:02.060 | or do the morning and end with lunch there,

00:36:05.220 | bearing in mind that if you wanna go into shops,

00:36:07.460 | they tend to open a little later than you would expect.

00:36:09.980 | So 11 o'clock, you'll have all the stores open.

00:36:13.700 | - Yeah, I asked my wife, I was like,

00:36:14.660 | "What are some of your favorite tips?"

00:36:15.900 | And she's like, "Walk everywhere

00:36:17.620 | "so that you burn enough calories

00:36:19.140 | "that you can have four meals a day."

00:36:21.020 | - Absolutely, and I think what's really fun

00:36:24.580 | is Tokyo is not an expensive city.

00:36:27.500 | Everyone talks about how it's so incredibly expensive.

00:36:30.700 | It's like New York or Paris.

00:36:32.500 | It is not expensive at all.

00:36:34.100 | The food is bizarrely inexpensive.

00:36:37.020 | Where you're gonna get dinged is on accommodation.

00:36:40.060 | So if you wanna kind of avoid lines

00:36:44.900 | and you're really into the food,

00:36:47.020 | do a 10.45 first lunch and then like a 2.45 second lunch.

00:36:52.020 | That way, you'll kind of keep things pretty efficient.

00:36:54.460 | I do that all the time.

00:36:56.100 | And I will say there are a lot of places,

00:36:57.860 | especially if you're going for ramen

00:36:59.500 | or something that's not a make a reservation kind of place,

00:37:02.700 | where you just wait in line.

00:37:03.780 | Like that's just the way it works.

00:37:05.460 | And if you're going with a big group,

00:37:07.300 | you're not gonna sit down with six people

00:37:09.180 | at a lot of these small restaurants.

00:37:10.700 | And so you just line up.

00:37:12.340 | I remember it's like two people went in and ate together

00:37:15.060 | and then one person ate.

00:37:15.980 | It might not be the most social meal

00:37:18.020 | when you're going to some of these small restaurants,

00:37:19.980 | but it will probably be one of the most delicious meals.

00:37:22.180 | - And one of the other things to keep in mind,

00:37:23.780 | especially in Tokyo is don't be allergic

00:37:26.940 | to a chain restaurant.

00:37:28.540 | You know, if you Google a restaurant

00:37:29.900 | that had been recommended to you,

00:37:31.700 | like a ramen place or a gyoza place,

00:37:34.620 | and oh my God, they have six locations.

00:37:36.540 | I feel like I don't wanna really do that.

00:37:38.420 | Don't be dissuaded by a chain.

00:37:40.060 | The chain is usually because hospitality spaces

00:37:42.840 | are so small.

00:37:44.220 | They can only serve eight people at a time

00:37:47.500 | and having a second location

00:37:49.140 | just enables them to serve more people.

00:37:51.220 | Also, the city is so big that if people are traveling

00:37:54.780 | an hour to go to their favorite ramen,

00:37:56.700 | while suddenly they have a location for it closer to them,

00:37:59.280 | it's usually a sign that something's very good

00:38:02.280 | rather than it being very corporate.

00:38:04.540 | - Okay, and while we're on food,

00:38:06.220 | what are a few things, dining etiquette, tipping,

00:38:09.340 | anything there that you wanna give people some overview?

00:38:12.060 | - Yeah, you absolutely don't wanna be late

00:38:14.260 | to your reservation, as we kind of unpacked before.

00:38:16.580 | I would really scout Tabalog

00:38:19.620 | if you want some good food recommendations

00:38:23.460 | from Japanese people.

00:38:25.380 | There is absolutely no tipping.

00:38:27.800 | This isn't even a question of

00:38:29.580 | if someone's doing something nice

00:38:31.260 | and they're particularly good to leave them a few yen.

00:38:34.660 | No, it is a non-tipping culture

00:38:37.980 | to the point where oftentimes, at least in the past,

00:38:41.860 | it could be perceived as rude

00:38:43.980 | because you're sort of insinuating

00:38:45.220 | that this person needs more money.

00:38:46.980 | I think we may conceive of server jobs

00:38:49.660 | as being interstitial, like,

00:38:51.900 | "Well, I wanna be a singer, but I'm a server right now."

00:38:54.860 | People bring a certain devotion to their jobs in Japan,

00:38:58.780 | whatever they are, and so people are lifelong servers

00:39:02.700 | or restaurateurs, so you absolutely don't want to tip.

00:39:07.500 | - And what about mealtimes?

00:39:09.140 | Like, I know that in French culture, it's normal.

00:39:12.020 | Sit down for lunch, sit there for a few hours,

00:39:14.260 | relax, watch the people go by.

00:39:16.460 | I feel like in Japan, and you're the expert,

00:39:18.620 | but you said it's not expensive.

00:39:20.260 | Just to be clear, there are also very expensive restaurants.

00:39:22.900 | Like, you can go to Japan and have a very delicious meal

00:39:26.260 | every day for every meal for a month

00:39:28.540 | and not spend that much.

00:39:29.820 | You could also go to Japan

00:39:31.420 | and spend a ridiculous amount of money,

00:39:34.620 | but I've had the fortunate pleasure

00:39:36.980 | of going to, like, a Michelin-starred sushi place

00:39:39.460 | and had dinner in less than an hour.

00:39:41.260 | I would say Japan's not a place to linger

00:39:43.500 | after you've eaten a meal, in my experience,

00:39:45.700 | but I assume you would second that, or?

00:39:48.620 | - Yeah, and I would say also, it's again,

00:39:51.780 | not to harp on this idea of the social contract,

00:39:54.980 | but if you're eating at an inexpensive restaurant,

00:39:57.500 | if you're going for ramen,

00:39:59.140 | or if you're going for gyoza or one of those beef bowls,

00:40:03.780 | it's sort of like, when you're done, you go.

00:40:06.860 | If you have an empty bowl in front of you,

00:40:08.580 | you're sort of no longer welcome.

00:40:10.500 | Some places will actually give you a time.

00:40:13.740 | I have definitely been to restaurants where they say,

00:40:16.220 | you have one hour starting now to eat,

00:40:19.300 | and it's not meant to be rude.

00:40:21.940 | It is part of that,

00:40:23.180 | well, we want to provide you the best service,

00:40:25.300 | and the person before you took only their hour.

00:40:28.380 | So now you are also only going to take your hour.

00:40:31.540 | There are venues that are where you go and socialize,

00:40:34.940 | izakaya, so bars that have bar food.

00:40:38.620 | It's a lot less structured.

00:40:40.460 | You go, a lot of times you don't need to make a reservation.

00:40:43.780 | They have an empty table.

00:40:44.700 | You sit down, you drink, you eat a little,

00:40:46.740 | you drink, you eat a little,

00:40:48.180 | but everything is very segmented.

00:40:49.740 | And I would think of dining in Tokyo

00:40:52.140 | and in Japan in that manner.

00:40:54.260 | Think in the United States,

00:40:55.300 | we have a lot of restaurants that are pan-Japanese.

00:40:58.660 | You can order sushi, you can order udon,

00:41:00.860 | you can order all these,

00:41:01.900 | maybe even Thai food at the same restaurant.

00:41:04.020 | This is the opposite.

00:41:05.860 | Every restaurant in Japan usually has one thing

00:41:09.140 | that they do exceptionally well,

00:41:11.100 | and they do it maybe 10 ways.

00:41:13.180 | So you're going to a soba restaurant.

00:41:15.820 | You're going to a udon restaurant, a tofu restaurant.

00:41:20.740 | And so everything is much more specialized and specific.

00:41:25.740 | - Yep, I found that.

00:41:27.260 | If we went through,

00:41:28.100 | we could probably go through a long list,

00:41:29.500 | but are there some maybe off the beaten path

00:41:31.700 | types of food specialties or culinary experiences

00:41:34.340 | where it's like, go seek out a place

00:41:35.900 | that has great X, Y, or Z?

00:41:38.060 | - Yeah, I think a lot of people, like you mentioned,

00:41:40.060 | are prone to doing a really expensive sushi experience.

00:41:44.780 | Usually that will be omakase.

00:41:47.420 | And I think a lot of us have heard the word omakase.

00:41:49.660 | Really what that means is whatever you want.

00:41:52.220 | It's actually what you say to the chef at your pleasure.

00:41:57.060 | And what I would recommend doing before indulging in that

00:42:02.060 | is going to a kaiten sushi,

00:42:04.700 | going to a really inexpensive rotating sushi restaurant

00:42:08.780 | where they'll have like a little conveyor belt

00:42:11.700 | and different things are going to come in front of you

00:42:13.860 | and it's going to be very inexpensive.

00:42:15.900 | And take the opportunity to try a few things

00:42:18.940 | before you go to the higher end restaurant

00:42:22.580 | because as things go higher end,

00:42:25.100 | it verges into delicacy territory

00:42:27.540 | where you are going to get a lot of fish sperm

00:42:31.540 | or raw octopus, things that have textures

00:42:36.340 | that aren't familiar to the Western palate.

00:42:39.260 | So I would exercise your palate before you go

00:42:42.300 | because you don't want to not eat something

00:42:45.180 | in front of the chef that is cooking right in front of you

00:42:48.340 | at his pleasure, quote unquote.

00:42:50.700 | - That's a great recommendation.

00:42:52.100 | Okay, so maybe in the interest of time,

00:42:54.540 | are there a few favorite restaurants

00:42:56.580 | that you'd recommend people put on a list?

00:42:58.700 | I'm sure there's plenty.

00:43:00.140 | - Gosh, yeah.

00:43:01.420 | So ramen's a big question.

00:43:02.860 | I get a lot of people wondering,

00:43:05.220 | I want to do a ramen meal while I'm there.

00:43:07.300 | Well, ramen is everywhere now

00:43:09.260 | and we have really good ramen in the United States.

00:43:11.820 | So rather than going to the Ippudo Mothership,

00:43:14.940 | even though we have Ippudo here or the Afuri Mothership,

00:43:18.260 | I would recommend trying something a little more offbeat.

00:43:21.420 | So I love kagari ramen.

00:43:23.980 | It's in Ginza.

00:43:24.940 | They have two locations.

00:43:26.340 | It is a chicken ramen.

00:43:28.220 | It's a very creamy chicken broth.

00:43:31.420 | Describing it does not do it.

00:43:33.460 | - It's so good.

00:43:34.620 | I've been there, it's so good.

00:43:37.180 | - It's unreal how good it is.

00:43:39.060 | And why I like that is because

00:43:40.860 | you cannot get that anywhere else.

00:43:43.020 | It is a ramen experience in a ramen place,

00:43:46.260 | but it is something truly elevated

00:43:49.540 | that you will have a hard time finding when you return home.

00:43:53.620 | - Yeah, the other place I'll throw out is Kikanbo,

00:43:56.540 | which is known for spice.

00:43:58.580 | It's a spicy ramen place.

00:44:00.020 | You actually pick your ramen on two tiers of spice,

00:44:03.660 | both like chili hot spice

00:44:06.100 | and the kind of Sancho pepper spice,

00:44:09.060 | which is kind of like a Sichuan peppercorn

00:44:11.220 | with that like numbing spice.

00:44:13.140 | It's my favorite restaurant in all of Japan.

00:44:16.380 | And I'm sure if you don't like spicy food,

00:44:17.700 | it would not be your favorite.

00:44:19.020 | And this is maybe overhyped,

00:44:20.820 | but Sukumen, like dipping ramen,

00:44:23.020 | which it's popping up at a few places in the States,

00:44:26.580 | but it's kind of a different style of eating ramen.

00:44:28.580 | And Rokuri Nisha in Tokyo Station always has a line,

00:44:32.860 | but is, I think, fantastic for trying that out,

00:44:35.540 | especially if you find yourself at Tokyo Station

00:44:37.700 | with some hours to kill.

00:44:39.220 | - In the idea where I said

00:44:40.580 | that picking a chain is counterintuitive,

00:44:43.100 | eating at a train station seems counterintuitive as well,

00:44:45.780 | but you have to remember

00:44:46.660 | that there's a massive commuter culture in Tokyo

00:44:50.740 | and a lot of these small businesses under Tokyo Station

00:44:55.580 | or in and around it are catering to commuter crowds

00:44:59.420 | or businessmen at lunch.

00:45:02.220 | So some of the best quick eats,

00:45:05.180 | you could build it into your itinerary.

00:45:06.820 | If you're like, I'm gonna catch the bullet train

00:45:08.500 | to Kyoto at one o'clock,

00:45:10.700 | go to Tokyo Station at 11.30,

00:45:12.940 | go get gyoza at Min Min in the basement,

00:45:16.420 | or try one of the ramen places.

00:45:17.860 | They even have incredible French pastries.

00:45:20.780 | Pick one of those and then get on your train.

00:45:23.340 | - Great tip.

00:45:24.220 | The same, I think, is true about department stores.

00:45:27.020 | I feel like the food court

00:45:28.300 | in a big department store or shopping center,

00:45:30.420 | in the U.S., it's filled with the Panda Express

00:45:32.660 | and the McDonald's.

00:45:33.780 | I've had some amazing meals at department store food courts.

00:45:37.020 | - Department stores is one of those things

00:45:38.860 | that, like a toilet, that was brought from the West

00:45:41.780 | and then vastly improved

00:45:43.660 | when it touched down on Japanese soil.

00:45:46.300 | And so you're gonna see in the basement

00:45:48.260 | of a lot of the department stores,

00:45:49.660 | they have these huge, huge food courts.

00:45:52.460 | It's not what you think of like a mall food court.

00:45:55.100 | It is all of these artisanal stalls

00:45:57.980 | peppered throughout with incredible fare.

00:46:01.820 | And a lot of that food that you're gonna find down there

00:46:05.100 | is both for an elevated lunchtime snack,

00:46:08.060 | but it also speaks to a culture of omiyage.

00:46:11.980 | And omiyage is gift giving,

00:46:13.980 | something that you're gonna buy for your family

00:46:17.420 | when you get home, if you're on a holiday,

00:46:19.460 | or if you're going to meet someone at their house for dinner.

00:46:23.420 | We all bring a bottle of wine or something like that,

00:46:25.580 | but it is in the way that tipping is necessary in America.

00:46:30.580 | Omiyage is necessary in Japan.

00:46:34.300 | So you're gonna go down there

00:46:35.260 | and find these beautifully wrapped cookies.

00:46:37.940 | It's omiyage to go.

00:46:39.660 | And if you are gonna engage with local individuals,

00:46:43.540 | let's say you're gonna take one of these free tours

00:46:45.460 | we've been talking about, bring them omiyage.

00:46:47.740 | Bring people you meet, omiyage.

00:46:50.260 | Buy key chains from your hometown

00:46:53.820 | or maple syrup if you're Canadian,

00:46:56.620 | or something that you can travel with,

00:46:58.740 | or go to a department store and buy these omiyage,

00:47:01.580 | and you'll go much further than other tourists

00:47:04.860 | as far as accessing local culture.

00:47:06.900 | - I love that.

00:47:07.740 | Any other food tips before we move on?

00:47:09.700 | - This is like the optimizer's dilemma

00:47:12.740 | is I love Japanese food,

00:47:14.420 | and it's such a broad category

00:47:16.860 | that all I wanna do is eat Japanese food while I'm there.

00:47:19.500 | But man oh man, the best pizza in the world is in Tokyo,

00:47:23.540 | and I know that sounds blasphemous,

00:47:25.180 | but Savoy in Azabu Juban is my favorite pizza place

00:47:30.180 | on the planet.

00:47:32.500 | It's Neapolitan pies.

00:47:34.340 | It is incredible.

00:47:36.060 | I highly recommend it.

00:47:37.620 | And I would think about trying other types of food

00:47:41.420 | while you're there after you've had your Japanese fix

00:47:45.260 | because they just do it so dang well.

00:47:48.660 | And one of my favorite restaurants totally under the radar,

00:47:51.940 | please let's all keep this between ourselves, is Tama.

00:47:55.900 | It's Okinawan food.

00:47:57.660 | You're still getting aspects of Japanese culture,

00:48:00.300 | but you're seeing how it blends with Taiwanese influence.

00:48:03.660 | If you look at a map,

00:48:04.580 | Okinawa is much, much closer to Taiwan than it is Japan.

00:48:10.060 | So you're gonna see how both cultures inform the cuisine.

00:48:12.980 | Tama is very close to Shibuya, very small restaurant,

00:48:16.300 | super friendly staff, big smiles.

00:48:18.860 | Just tell them, "Omakase."

00:48:20.540 | Just tell them, "Just bring me some stuff."

00:48:23.020 | - The two other ones I'll leave.

00:48:24.380 | There's a punk rock Itsukaya,

00:48:26.820 | I'm gonna butcher this name, Tatamichiya.

00:48:29.940 | I'll put it in the show notes.

00:48:31.020 | It's just such a cool spot.

00:48:32.740 | It's good food, good vibes.

00:48:35.460 | For me, just playing cool music.

00:48:37.580 | My wife and I almost go every time.

00:48:40.340 | And the other is gonna be a crazy one,

00:48:42.180 | but you'll probably hear lots of people tell you,

00:48:43.980 | "Go to 7-Eleven and just try

00:48:45.540 | all these different crazy snacks."

00:48:47.300 | They have in these little plastic bags, pancakes.

00:48:51.220 | They have all kinds of flavors,

00:48:52.540 | filled with red bean, filled with this,

00:48:53.500 | but they actually have a pancake that's very Americanized,

00:48:56.420 | which is like filled with maple syrup

00:48:57.940 | and a little bit of butter.

00:48:58.980 | And you can put it in the microwave at 7-Eleven

00:49:00.980 | and heat it up.

00:49:02.260 | And I don't know how,

00:49:04.820 | but these plastic bag pancakes

00:49:06.860 | might be the most delicious pancakes on the planet

00:49:09.740 | at a 7-Eleven.

00:49:10.580 | So one, just go to 7-Eleven.

00:49:12.260 | There's so many crazy things.

00:49:13.340 | I've heard the egg salad sandwiches are delicious,

00:49:15.620 | but not my thing.

00:49:16.660 | - I could write of love poetry

00:49:19.100 | to those egg salad sandwich or tamago sando.

00:49:22.540 | I was gonna say the convenience store,

00:49:24.740 | the konbini culture is really fascinating.

00:49:27.020 | And to save time,

00:49:28.100 | we'll link to an article that I wrote

00:49:29.660 | about the 10 things you need to buy at a convenience store.

00:49:32.420 | I fully recommend digging in.

00:49:34.380 | - Awesome, that's so great.

00:49:35.660 | Okay, so everyone can go look at one of the many guidebooks

00:49:39.980 | you've probably written and see,

00:49:42.140 | oh, go to the Imperial Palace,

00:49:43.500 | go to the Meiji Shrine, that kind of stuff.

00:49:45.660 | What are some of your favorites

00:49:47.100 | that maybe aren't on the top 10 list?

00:49:49.460 | - Well, there are a lot of opportunities to climb a tower

00:49:52.860 | and see the cityscape from high above.

00:49:56.980 | Absolutely worth doing.

00:49:58.740 | Do not pay to do this.

00:50:00.380 | If there's an opportunity where you need to pay

00:50:02.100 | to get in an elevator, don't pay.

00:50:04.100 | The Tokyo Metropolitan offices in Shinjuku,

00:50:06.540 | you can go to the top for free.

00:50:08.180 | It is rammed with tourists.

00:50:09.940 | My recommendation would be to go to a high-end hotel.

00:50:13.580 | All of their lobbies are lofted over office buildings,

00:50:16.940 | and you can get a cocktail in a much more relaxed atmosphere

00:50:20.660 | and have that city view.

00:50:22.060 | The New Four Seasons in Otemachi, I think,

00:50:24.060 | has the best view of the Imperial Gardens.

00:50:27.660 | And right behind it, on a very clear day,

00:50:29.780 | usually in winter, you can see Mount Fuji.

00:50:32.100 | There is no better view amongst the luxury hotels right now.

00:50:36.300 | Now, as far as more off-the-beaten-path things,

00:50:39.580 | you're gonna exit the Yamanote line.

00:50:43.540 | You're gonna take one of the spokes off of the wheel

00:50:46.900 | that are on the suburban rail lines,

00:50:49.580 | and you're gonna wanna go to neighborhoods

00:50:51.100 | like Shimokitazawa.

00:50:53.660 | You're gonna wanna go to Kichijoji or Daikanyama.

00:50:59.860 | Another popular one is Nakameguro.

00:51:02.380 | And I even like Geogakka, which is even further.

00:51:06.260 | These are more neighborhood-y,

00:51:08.340 | so a mix of small, traditional houses,

00:51:12.740 | and then some newer builds,

00:51:14.340 | everything really crammed together.

00:51:16.540 | Little stores, boutiques, mom-and-pop shops

00:51:21.100 | next to more corporate things.

00:51:23.100 | I know that I just rambled off five different neighborhoods.

00:51:26.340 | Write 'em down, give 'em a Google.

00:51:28.780 | You're gonna find everything that you want in those.

00:51:31.660 | There's a really good donut shop

00:51:34.420 | just beyond Shimokitazawa called Haritsu

00:51:39.420 | that is in what seems like a little tea house,

00:51:41.940 | but they serve very modern donuts.

00:51:44.140 | Give that a whirl.

00:51:45.860 | Promise you won't be disappointed.

00:51:48.020 | - I'll throw one out.

00:51:49.220 | They're always changing,

00:51:50.180 | but there's a company called TeamLab

00:51:52.500 | that does these really interesting, immersive experiences.

00:51:56.300 | The ones we did, Borderless,

00:51:57.820 | and one other one I can't remember, maybe Planets.

00:52:00.460 | I don't know which ones are running now.

00:52:02.060 | It seems that there's always one in Tokyo.

00:52:04.180 | Highly recommended.

00:52:05.780 | Kind of wild, interesting, immersive art

00:52:08.620 | with lights and maybe sounds, maybe textures.

00:52:11.660 | They're always changing,

00:52:12.500 | but those were so awesome that we went to one,

00:52:15.020 | and the next day we were like, "We have to go to the other."

00:52:17.580 | - I'm a huge fan.

00:52:19.460 | I went to one right before the pandemic

00:52:22.380 | and did it twice in that day.

00:52:24.220 | I was like, "I need to have

00:52:25.060 | the whole adventure all over again."

00:52:26.940 | It's very sensory, a lot of textures playing with light.

00:52:31.620 | There's water.

00:52:32.780 | You do want to dress appropriately

00:52:33.980 | for the one that you have to walk through water,

00:52:35.980 | and with pants that you can easily pull up.

00:52:38.420 | Highly recommend that as well.

00:52:40.020 | That's out in Odaiba.

00:52:41.060 | Odaiba was created in Tokyo Bay

00:52:43.980 | using garbage to build man-made islands.

00:52:47.620 | Even though it's an indoor thing,

00:52:48.860 | you actually should plan that on a very nice day,

00:52:51.180 | because once you're out there,

00:52:52.260 | it's really nice to walk around

00:52:53.660 | and take in the city from out there.

00:52:56.780 | It's sort of this pleasure island,

00:52:59.020 | sort of Vegas-esque destination

00:53:01.180 | with a lot of really cool outdoor stuff.

00:53:03.020 | - And while we're that direction,

00:53:04.380 | do you have a strong opinion

00:53:05.500 | on whether people should be going to,

00:53:08.060 | I'm gonna butcher it again, the fish market.

00:53:10.580 | Let's just leave it at-

00:53:11.620 | - Tsukiji. - Tsukiji.

00:53:12.740 | - Well, so it's no longer in Tsukiji.

00:53:14.780 | - If I remember right, it's still that direction, right?

00:53:17.300 | - Yes, it is. - Okay, okay.

00:53:18.140 | - So it's further out.

00:53:19.620 | So Tsukiji was, is the biggest fish market in the world,

00:53:24.540 | and then it moved to a bigger location in Toyosu,

00:53:27.140 | and in the remains of Tsukiji

00:53:31.180 | are still a lot of little fresh fish,

00:53:35.900 | sashimi, sushi restaurants and bars.

00:53:39.660 | As far as wanting to do the fish auction

00:53:43.100 | and different things like that,

00:53:44.020 | that's something that you need

00:53:45.060 | to talk to a private guide about.

00:53:48.300 | They all have different kinds of access,

00:53:51.020 | and they all have different opinions on it,

00:53:52.780 | how you wanna leverage your jet lag

00:53:54.660 | to get up in the middle of the night to go see it.

00:53:56.940 | But I think Tsukiji is really close to Ginza.

00:54:00.660 | It's walkable to Ginza if you wanna go check it out

00:54:03.260 | and try that intro sushi that we were talking about before.

00:54:07.220 | There's a chain of sushi called Sushi Zanmai,

00:54:09.740 | and they're really famous in Japan

00:54:11.300 | because the owner is this Colonel Sanders character,

00:54:15.280 | come to life, who always famously makes the biggest bid

00:54:19.780 | at the fish auction.

00:54:20.780 | He always buys the most expensive fish of the year.

00:54:23.580 | And there's a lot of locations all over Tokyo,

00:54:27.020 | and that's a really good place to do your sort of intro

00:54:30.420 | to more adventurous sushi and sashimi.

00:54:33.500 | - A couple others for me,

00:54:35.060 | the Design Sites 2121 Museum I thought was really cool.

00:54:38.420 | Obviously, it's a museum, so exhibits change.

00:54:41.980 | And I'm dying to get your take

00:54:43.500 | on recommending Robot Restaurant.

00:54:46.300 | - Well, there's a lot of different themed restaurants

00:54:48.740 | all over Japan and Tokyo.

00:54:50.620 | Once, as a kind of wink, I went to the Ninja restaurant

00:54:54.380 | for my birthday one year.

00:54:56.220 | It was super fun and cheesy.

00:54:57.740 | And of course, you know what you're signing up for.

00:55:00.020 | I shy away from the "Japan is weird" trip.

00:55:05.020 | I don't think that you're getting a lot of true insight.

00:55:11.180 | I think it would be sort of akin to going

00:55:14.620 | to like a baseball-themed restaurant in America

00:55:19.540 | or something that is taking a piece of Americana

00:55:23.580 | and hyperbolizing it.

00:55:24.980 | And it's all just for show and for giggles.

00:55:28.500 | That's not really my vibe.

00:55:31.860 | You could design an entire itinerary of "Japan is weird."

00:55:35.540 | In the Akihabara neighborhood,

00:55:37.540 | there are these things called maid cafes

00:55:40.220 | where all the cafes have a different theme,

00:55:42.220 | and you go and your server takes on a role.

00:55:45.860 | So there's one where you get to play the older brother

00:55:48.420 | and she plays the younger sister.

00:55:50.540 | There's one where you get to be the prince

00:55:52.340 | and she's the princess.

00:55:54.020 | That is sort of culturally curious.

00:55:56.820 | Might be a little bit hard to access

00:55:58.500 | if you don't have Japanese.

00:56:00.020 | But I don't love doing something

00:56:03.820 | for the sake of zoo-ifying culture.

00:56:07.100 | - Almost every memorable experience I have

00:56:10.100 | skews on the authentic side of eating at a small place

00:56:14.020 | with amazing food or going to see something interesting.

00:56:17.180 | So I don't disagree.

00:56:19.100 | - That's my soapbox moment for the episode.

00:56:22.220 | - Maybe one more is if your stay in Tokyo

00:56:25.500 | aligns with one of the sumo times of year

00:56:29.540 | that sumo wrestling happens in Tokyo,

00:56:31.780 | I think that's an interesting experience,

00:56:33.260 | but it's a very specific time.

00:56:34.980 | It's not like baseball where there's a game every week.

00:56:38.020 | - Yeah, absolutely.

00:56:39.100 | That is sort of in the eastern part of the city,

00:56:41.460 | sort of beyond the two o'clock, three o'clock,

00:56:44.580 | if we're talking about the clock map.

00:56:46.700 | Ryogoku, that area.

00:56:48.300 | Again, this is something that you wanna enable

00:56:50.020 | with a private guide.

00:56:51.740 | I don't think you wanna do the zoo aspect.

00:56:54.460 | I think that there are ways to engage

00:56:56.700 | in a more culturally curious manner.

00:56:59.420 | I would honestly avoid the Skytree,

00:57:02.740 | which is also sort of out in that part of town.

00:57:05.700 | It was built to economically stimulate that area of town,

00:57:09.900 | which is a bit older and not as modernized.

00:57:13.220 | It's just a big tower in the sky

00:57:14.980 | with a bunch of shops around it.

00:57:16.500 | It's pretty far from where you're gonna be staying likely,

00:57:21.020 | because I would recommend trying to stay

00:57:22.820 | a little bit closer to the sort of six to nine o'clock

00:57:27.460 | part of the clock.

00:57:28.540 | It's just not worth the schlep.

00:57:30.100 | - Let's do some quick hits on drinks,

00:57:32.860 | whether it's nightlife or coffee.

00:57:34.820 | I'll do mine first to try to keep the speed going.

00:57:37.660 | There's a really cool coffee shop called Deus Ex Machina,

00:57:40.780 | which is like, can't remember the neighborhoods,

00:57:42.820 | but you can Google it.

00:57:43.660 | I'll put it in the show notes,

00:57:44.700 | which is one of our favorite coffee shops in Tokyo.

00:57:48.620 | And then for drinks and stuff, my favorite bars,

00:57:51.820 | I'm just gonna list them,

00:57:52.860 | are Bar Trench, Bar Tram, and Bar Benfidich.

00:57:56.580 | - Benfidich. - Yeah.

00:57:58.420 | Again, the coffee, tea, nightlife areas.

00:58:00.980 | - We'd go to Nakameguro,

00:58:02.740 | which is like a very cool neighborhood.

00:58:04.740 | That's where they have a massive multi-story

00:58:08.380 | Starbucks reserve that you walk by (laughs)

00:58:12.900 | and kind of ogle at the fact

00:58:15.460 | that there's a 90-minute wait to get in.

00:58:18.420 | And then you go up the street

00:58:20.660 | to a place called Breakfast Club,

00:58:22.740 | which is this Japanese version of an American diner

00:58:27.020 | run by these two cool kind of DJ guys

00:58:32.020 | who just have this really cool

00:58:36.460 | breakfast-all-day-everyday vibe with diner coffee.

00:58:41.060 | And it's just so much fun.

00:58:43.700 | I love going there.

00:58:45.020 | Great music.

00:58:46.580 | Kind of breakfast-meets-bar.

00:58:50.180 | As far as coffee goes,

00:58:53.020 | I made the mistake of putting it in The Lonely Planet

00:58:56.060 | about 12 years ago when I was working on the Japan Guide.

00:58:58.980 | But in Shimokitazawa, you want to go to Bear Pond.

00:59:03.020 | A little hole in the wall.

00:59:04.260 | Massively popular.

00:59:05.660 | Do not try to take a photo.

00:59:08.140 | They will be mad at you.

00:59:09.460 | But excellent espresso.

00:59:11.820 | Any thoughts on nightlife?

00:59:12.980 | I feel like I'm past my nightlife prime,

00:59:15.140 | other than getting some good cocktails.

00:59:16.820 | But anything you want to add to that category?

00:59:19.820 | Back in the day when I was a student,

00:59:21.460 | the metro stops at around one

00:59:23.620 | and then starts back up at five.

00:59:25.020 | At 12.50, you're like, "Okay, guys, are we going home

00:59:29.380 | "or are we going out all night

00:59:31.060 | "and getting on the five o'clock train?"

00:59:32.580 | And usually it meant going out all night

00:59:34.180 | and getting on the five o'clock train.

00:59:35.580 | Back then, like 20 years ago,

00:59:37.940 | it was Shibuya and Roppongi

00:59:40.060 | were like the big club places.

00:59:42.140 | And that's kind of changed and evolved.

00:59:44.180 | Shibuya has had, there's sort of like a love hotel

00:59:47.620 | kind of seedy side to the back of Shibuya

00:59:49.740 | that is evolving right now

00:59:51.940 | and it's becoming a much more commercial

00:59:54.260 | and wholesome destination.

00:59:55.340 | There are a lot of new high-end hotels that are going in.

00:59:59.140 | If you want to give something an interesting try,

01:00:01.300 | I would try like a multi-course cocktail.

01:00:06.900 | If you're really into cocktails,

01:00:09.340 | I'm very happy with highball or like a whiskey on the rocks.

01:00:13.660 | If you're a cocktail person,

01:00:15.780 | there are a handful of different cocktail restaurants

01:00:19.700 | where you're doing like four cocktails over a couple hours

01:00:23.420 | and each one is very different

01:00:24.620 | and they're paced as though you're having a meal.

01:00:26.900 | Just like we talked about pizza and coffee and everything,

01:00:30.380 | taking cocktails to the next level,

01:00:32.540 | there are some of the best cocktail bars

01:00:34.340 | and cocktails in the world in Japan.

01:00:36.340 | I feel like you could pick anything and just say that

01:00:38.420 | and it would probably be true,

01:00:39.540 | but I have a lot of personal experience

01:00:42.020 | on the cocktail front to say that it is true.

01:00:44.700 | There is this through theme also of intentionality.

01:00:47.420 | Every business owner brings this incredible intentionality

01:00:50.780 | to their products.

01:00:51.700 | Like Ben Fittich is incredible in that way

01:00:55.740 | where the bartender is making everything involved.

01:01:00.740 | I've been to restaurants

01:01:02.140 | where the chef is even making the silverware

01:01:06.380 | that you're using.

01:01:07.300 | So this incredible intentionality

01:01:09.340 | just permeates food and beverage.

01:01:12.700 | And if you are a cocktail nerd, a mixology nerd,

01:01:15.140 | you're really not gonna find

01:01:16.180 | any other better cocktails on the planet.

01:01:18.180 | - Yeah, I completely agree.

01:01:20.060 | I have two questions.

01:01:21.260 | One, I don't know the answer to.

01:01:22.340 | I didn't have kids when I went,

01:01:23.660 | so you've written guidebooks,

01:01:25.340 | so I'm sure you've had to think about this.

01:01:27.180 | What's the vibe like with bringing kids,

01:01:29.180 | bringing them to restaurants, that kind of stuff?

01:01:31.700 | - That's a really good question,

01:01:32.820 | especially because it's a country

01:01:34.220 | that we always see in the news

01:01:35.780 | that is shrinking in population.

01:01:38.140 | So there are not a lot of kids out and about.

01:01:42.020 | And also, how do you bring a kid who's very young

01:01:46.060 | and how do you control their behavior

01:01:47.860 | to abide by the social contract

01:01:50.580 | of being a good guest in different places?

01:01:53.540 | Well, I mean, not everyone is expecting

01:01:55.140 | your three-year-old child to be perfect.

01:01:56.860 | Do you take that person to a $300 omakase?

01:02:00.860 | No, because you're not bringing that person

01:02:02.740 | to that $300 omakase at home either.

01:02:05.740 | I have seen, because of the pandemic,

01:02:07.660 | maybe a lot more green spaces opening up.

01:02:10.380 | There's like a beautiful walk that you can do

01:02:12.340 | in Shimokitazawa now that they buried the track

01:02:15.380 | between three stations.

01:02:17.940 | And now that has been turned into really cool walking paths

01:02:21.940 | and gardens and shops.

01:02:23.780 | I would try to keep kids sort of more in those areas.

01:02:27.900 | And there's a lot of dining in that manner

01:02:31.980 | where you can eat out on a patio

01:02:34.260 | and then it's like a little bit less intense

01:02:36.780 | to have your kids.

01:02:38.060 | I will say from all of my experiences in Japan,

01:02:41.340 | it's like lots of walking, moving around,

01:02:44.140 | eating four meals a day.

01:02:45.260 | Like, it would have been hard to do the kind of experiences

01:02:47.980 | I've done with kids.

01:02:49.020 | I'm sure there's a different itinerary

01:02:50.780 | for a family-friendly trip,

01:02:52.540 | but I think for us, we're just like,

01:02:54.660 | maybe we're just gonna wait a few years

01:02:56.060 | till the kids are a little older.

01:02:57.460 | I'm not saying it's impossible.

01:02:59.340 | I know the kind of Japan trip we love having,

01:03:02.420 | and I feel like we might not get it

01:03:04.460 | if we go with infants and toddlers.

01:03:07.380 | - I agree, and I don't wanna discourage families

01:03:09.820 | from booking a family trip to Japan,

01:03:11.460 | but I would say that the trip that you think

01:03:13.860 | you want to have will be difficult to execute

01:03:16.660 | with a toddler.

01:03:17.820 | - Yeah, especially if that is cocktails

01:03:20.580 | and lots of street food.

01:03:22.100 | Is there any last thing in Tokyo that we didn't mention

01:03:25.260 | or you're like, I gotta share this?

01:03:26.580 | Even if it's such a secret

01:03:27.820 | that we keep it out of the show notes.

01:03:30.420 | - Well, I do have one ultra-favorite restaurant.

01:03:34.780 | I've probably celebrated about 10 birthdays in Japan,

01:03:38.140 | maybe 15, and many of them have happened at that restaurant,

01:03:41.780 | but you're gonna have to DM me on Instagram

01:03:43.540 | for the name of it.

01:03:44.380 | Sorry. - Ooh, I like it.

01:03:45.820 | I like it.

01:03:46.660 | Okay. - It's a yakitori restaurant,

01:03:48.380 | so it's chicken and vegetables, rather, on skewers.

01:03:51.220 | Small place, great vibe, incredible drinks.

01:03:54.820 | - I was gonna call this your best guest secret,

01:03:56.260 | and you're literally gonna keep it

01:03:57.380 | a little bit of a secret for the episode,

01:03:58.780 | but we'll link to your Instagram in the show notes.

01:04:01.380 | It's just brandpress.

01:04:02.460 | I appreciate that.

01:04:03.300 | I'm gonna send you a DM right after this.

01:04:04.820 | Okay, we gotta move on to Kyoto.

01:04:06.660 | There is an infinite amount of things

01:04:08.620 | that we could keep talking about in Tokyo.

01:04:10.740 | Our next partner has a product I literally use every day.

01:04:15.260 | I started taking AG1 from Athletic Greens

01:04:17.740 | because I wanted an easy way

01:04:19.260 | to get my daily nutritional insurance

01:04:21.180 | and optimize my immune system,

01:04:23.140 | and it's been in my routine for almost a year,

01:04:25.640 | because when you take one scoop of AG1,

01:04:27.940 | you're absorbing 75 high-quality vitamins,

01:04:30.460 | minerals, whole food source superfoods,

01:04:32.780 | probiotics, and adaptogens to help you start your day right.

01:04:36.100 | Every morning, I mix it up with some cold water,

01:04:38.620 | add a few ice cubes because it tastes so good cold,

01:04:41.780 | and head to my office feeling focused

01:04:43.820 | and energized for the day,

01:04:45.340 | which is a feeling I absolutely love.

01:04:47.860 | I also love that it has less than one gram of sugar

01:04:50.620 | and no GMOs, nasty chemicals, or artificial anything.

01:04:54.300 | To make giving it a try easy,

01:04:56.080 | Athletic Greens is gonna give you a free one-year supply

01:04:59.160 | of immune-supporting vitamin D

01:05:01.040 | and five free travel packs with your first purchase.

01:05:04.520 | All you have to do is visit allthehacks.com/athleticgreens.

01:05:09.400 | Again, that's allthehacks.com/athleticgreens

01:05:14.040 | to take ownership over your health

01:05:15.680 | and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance.

01:05:18.640 | I just wanna thank you quick for listening to

01:05:22.200 | and supporting the show.

01:05:23.680 | Your support is what keeps this show going.

01:05:26.500 | To get all of the URLs, codes, deals,

01:05:29.220 | and discounts from our partners,

01:05:30.980 | you can go to allthehacks.com/deals.

01:05:34.540 | So please consider supporting those who support us.

01:05:37.800 | To go back to what you said earlier,

01:05:39.120 | I feel like every time we go to Japan,

01:05:40.900 | there are some countries where you'd come for your next trip

01:05:43.380 | and you'd skip the main city

01:05:45.060 | 'cause you've been there before.

01:05:45.940 | Every time we're like, let's go back to Tokyo,

01:05:47.740 | there's so much more to uncover.

01:05:49.540 | But we've gotta move on.

01:05:51.560 | You said there's two places that everyone

01:05:53.140 | should consider going, it's Tokyo and Kyoto.

01:05:55.700 | How do you think about Kyoto being organized

01:05:59.020 | to the extent that's helpful?

01:06:00.820 | Okay, so the first mistake that people make

01:06:03.260 | when they're doing a trip to Japan

01:06:05.340 | and they do Tokyo and Kyoto is they think

01:06:07.340 | Tokyo, new, Kyoto, old.

01:06:10.220 | Big mistake.

01:06:11.060 | You're missing so many cool things in Tokyo

01:06:13.540 | by only focusing on the new.

01:06:15.100 | And you're missing so much of the essence of Kyoto

01:06:18.580 | by only focusing on the old.

01:06:20.180 | And that's places of worship and castles

01:06:23.280 | and stuff like that.

01:06:24.160 | The other mistake that people make with Kyoto

01:06:26.600 | is that because they have old in their brain,

01:06:30.160 | they wanna stay at a traditional inn.

01:06:33.080 | And part of staying at a ryokan

01:06:35.920 | is that you're gonna be served dinner

01:06:39.080 | and you're gonna be served breakfast

01:06:41.000 | and it's all about fostering relaxation.

01:06:43.680 | It really seems antithetical to the time

01:06:46.140 | that you're gonna spend in the city,

01:06:48.000 | which is gonna be just as excited

01:06:50.520 | about getting around and seeing all the temples

01:06:52.800 | and seeing all the cafes and experiencing the culture.

01:06:55.920 | So I would leave that traditional inn,

01:06:58.880 | that ryokan experience for the countryside

01:07:02.960 | and not marry it to your Kyoto experience.

01:07:06.940 | Now, happy to indulge in all the oldness that is Kyoto.

01:07:11.720 | It is the ancient capital.

01:07:13.560 | It is an incredible city

01:07:15.240 | with some of the oldest cultural relics

01:07:17.320 | that remain intact in the world.

01:07:19.400 | But at its core, it's also a place of learning.

01:07:22.600 | It's a college town.

01:07:24.560 | It's much smaller than Tokyo

01:07:27.680 | and there's a thriving student culture there

01:07:30.860 | that is well worth tapping into.

01:07:32.600 | And that's tea shops, cafes,

01:07:35.400 | really cool clothing stores and boutiques,

01:07:39.380 | getting into handicrafts and these old family businesses.

01:07:43.640 | You should absolutely pick a handful of temples

01:07:47.360 | that you wanna see and appreciate that culture.

01:07:50.160 | But a lot of people treat those temples

01:07:52.020 | the way that people in Europe treat a church.

01:07:53.920 | They go and they're just like,

01:07:54.760 | "Wow, opulence, the cathedral, super cool,"

01:07:57.980 | without delving too much into the history aspect of it all.

01:08:01.920 | And it's okay if you're allergic to,

01:08:04.000 | "Oh, this temple was made in 1636," or da-da-da-da.

01:08:07.520 | That's fine, I'm kind of allergic to that as well.

01:08:09.960 | But just make sure to bear in mind

01:08:11.200 | to have a broader experience in Kyoto than you might expect.

01:08:16.200 | You're gonna see a lot of people walking around

01:08:19.400 | in traditional attire.

01:08:20.940 | A lot of people come back from trips to Japan

01:08:23.640 | and they say, "Oh my God, I saw a geisha in Kyoto."

01:08:26.880 | You did not see a geisha.

01:08:28.160 | You saw a Taiwanese traveler

01:08:31.320 | who rented her kimono for the day and they dress you up.

01:08:34.380 | This is a really popular thing

01:08:36.040 | for Korean, Singaporean, Taiwanese travelers to do.

01:08:40.600 | The geisha culture that you hear about

01:08:42.400 | from members of a geisha in Gion,

01:08:44.580 | one of the geisha districts,

01:08:46.140 | is much more behind closed doors.

01:08:49.040 | - And is that something that there's a way

01:08:50.880 | to learn, appreciate, and experience and understand it?

01:08:53.720 | Or is it one of the few things

01:08:55.580 | that is hard for Westerners to be a part of?

01:08:57.960 | - This is something that you're gonna have to plan

01:08:59.600 | while in advance.

01:09:00.440 | This is something that a lot of people

01:09:01.800 | have gained access to over years of building relationships.

01:09:05.480 | And there are pricey, personalized,

01:09:09.520 | luxury experiences where you can go spend time

01:09:12.360 | with a maiko, like a geisha in training,

01:09:14.680 | or a geisha and have a really mind-expanding experience

01:09:19.200 | about what that culture looks like.

01:09:20.760 | I mean, it is on the decline.

01:09:22.160 | It's not what it was a long time ago.

01:09:24.760 | This is something, a bit of former glory,

01:09:27.720 | but it is still there for you to consume.

01:09:30.020 | But the best way to do it would be

01:09:31.340 | to pick a luxury travel planner

01:09:33.700 | and book that experience through them

01:09:36.120 | as a one-on-one experience.

01:09:38.280 | - And this is something that we didn't mention earlier

01:09:40.160 | when we talked about restaurants,

01:09:41.480 | but I find that unlike many places in the world

01:09:44.400 | where it's just pop up, open table,

01:09:45.840 | make your reservation, search online for, book a tour,

01:09:49.160 | there are still a ton of restaurants and experiences

01:09:52.120 | that if you don't have a travel planner

01:09:54.480 | or a higher-end hotel concierge, you just can't do.

01:09:57.760 | Is that the experience you've seen,

01:09:59.320 | or is there another way to access

01:10:00.720 | some of these restaurants or experiences?

01:10:03.600 | - That's pretty much right.

01:10:05.040 | And as someone who cut their teeth

01:10:06.880 | writing guidebooks for Lonely Planet,

01:10:08.760 | I am all about trying to enable as many opportunities

01:10:12.700 | for travelers and readers on their own that I can,

01:10:16.720 | but a lot of these things are guarded.

01:10:19.980 | So you will need a luxury travel planner

01:10:22.000 | who has made 20 or 30 years of inroads in the destination,

01:10:26.280 | who forged that relationship with the Geisha house

01:10:30.120 | to make that happen.

01:10:31.680 | So if that is something that's a priority to you

01:10:34.040 | and you wanna have the real experience,

01:10:35.960 | you are going to pay for it.

01:10:37.840 | - I'll caution people.

01:10:38.880 | One option is if you do wanna have one of those experiences,

01:10:43.160 | either book through a luxury travel provider

01:10:45.520 | or at a higher-end hotel,

01:10:47.520 | you don't have to do it the whole time.

01:10:49.120 | So I tell people, there are some restaurants

01:10:50.480 | that are very difficult to get a reservation at

01:10:52.200 | without a high-end travel organizer or concierge or hotel,

01:10:56.060 | but you could book one or two nights at that hotel.

01:10:59.580 | I was gonna say at the end,

01:11:00.420 | we may be talking a bonus episode

01:11:01.760 | about how to do that with points,

01:11:03.620 | and then line up some of those things

01:11:05.880 | that you need support from,

01:11:07.640 | and then you could move to another hotel

01:11:09.240 | that's not as expensive if you don't.

01:11:11.680 | Keep all that in mind.

01:11:12.600 | There are an unlimited number

01:11:14.040 | of great restaurants experiences you can have without that,

01:11:17.040 | but for anyone listening who's trying to have

01:11:19.080 | one of those kind of coveted

01:11:20.640 | or higher-end exclusive experiences

01:11:22.680 | or dining at three Michelin star restaurant,

01:11:25.200 | it's not as simple as just going online and booking.

01:11:28.080 | - Yeah, I should say on background too,

01:11:29.960 | I was in Japan right as everything was shutting down in 2020

01:11:33.720 | and the reason that I was there

01:11:35.080 | is I was doing a very intense audit

01:11:38.160 | of all of the hotels in Tokyo for Conde Nast Traveler,

01:11:42.260 | all the ones that were opening up

01:11:43.960 | in anticipation of the Olympics.

01:11:46.680 | Of course, that was completely curtailed

01:11:48.680 | and my editor was like, "Get home, get home.

01:11:51.220 | "They're closing the borders."

01:11:53.040 | So when it reopened, I went back to complete that audit.

01:11:56.760 | So I stayed at dozens of hotels in Tokyo

01:12:00.800 | and my editor, when I got home,

01:12:02.360 | she was like, "Okay, Brandon, what did you see

01:12:04.900 | "that was different than before the pandemic?"

01:12:06.840 | And I said, "Well, you know what?

01:12:08.140 | "It's that all of these hotels now wanna be

01:12:12.080 | "the purveyor of your experience."

01:12:16.040 | Because in all of this time,

01:12:18.080 | hotels, they were really hurt during the pandemic,

01:12:21.040 | so they're trying to find different ways

01:12:22.600 | to bring in more revenue.

01:12:24.400 | So a lot of hotels were doing really compelling F&B,

01:12:28.120 | food and beverage, bringing in locals to eat

01:12:30.540 | at the restaurants in case the tourism dwindles again

01:12:34.800 | for some unknown reason.

01:12:36.300 | The other thing that's happening

01:12:37.640 | is hotels are offering tours.

01:12:41.960 | And I'm not talking about the group tour thing

01:12:45.140 | where a bunch of you are going around with a flag.

01:12:47.480 | Hotels like Aman in Tokyo have a secret concierge service

01:12:52.240 | where they will take you to local artisans

01:12:55.360 | to have personalized experience

01:12:58.580 | where they will cut you kimono and yukata robes,

01:13:02.160 | or they will hand etch chopsticks for you,

01:13:05.520 | or you can do fan design.

01:13:07.600 | These are all exclusive opportunities that Aman offers.

01:13:11.720 | All of the hotels are getting into this.

01:13:13.800 | So even if you kind of cringe at the idea

01:13:15.800 | of having a travel planner, one of those travel services,

01:13:19.280 | squeeze out a little bit more from your concierge

01:13:22.500 | at these high-end hotels because they want to give you

01:13:25.280 | more than just a room.

01:13:27.440 | And I would say the Aman is probably at the top of the mark,

01:13:30.700 | but we've stayed at the Hilton,

01:13:32.780 | which is not near Aman prices,

01:13:35.080 | but at a lot of the very big established hotels

01:13:38.780 | at that level, there are still incredible concierges.

01:13:41.780 | The Hilton concierge was able to help

01:13:44.340 | with a number of reservations and activities

01:13:46.980 | that would have been much harder for me to do myself.

01:13:49.940 | Obviously, some of the more exclusive things

01:13:51.700 | might be catered or offered

01:13:53.500 | at the higher-end hotels like the Aman,

01:13:55.380 | but I had a ton of success at even just the Hilton Tokyo.

01:13:59.200 | - Totally.

01:14:00.040 | So back in Kyoto, one of the things,

01:14:01.560 | like sort of I mentioned in Tokyo,

01:14:03.280 | my first day I like to do a triangle

01:14:05.740 | to connect three little areas.

01:14:07.760 | For Kyoto, my thing that I always do when I go

01:14:10.240 | is I rent a bicycle.

01:14:12.080 | And I usually cheat and rent one of those electric ones

01:14:14.680 | that helps you along the way.

01:14:16.200 | Kyoto's very hilly.

01:14:18.460 | It's sort of hemmed between two mountains in a way.

01:14:22.160 | It's very different than Tokyo

01:14:25.600 | in that it's very low-lying.

01:14:27.800 | A lot of Japanese people say it's very European.

01:14:30.880 | There's a river that flows through it,

01:14:32.640 | but because traffic is much less

01:14:36.000 | and everything moves a little slower,

01:14:37.600 | it's really easy to get around on a bicycle.

01:14:41.680 | Just remember that you're on the left side of the road.

01:14:44.080 | And it's a great way to explore

01:14:46.800 | because it's such a small city relative to Tokyo.

01:14:51.200 | It's really hard to get lost.

01:14:56.040 | You can go up and down different streets.

01:14:58.480 | You can pop in and out of different neighborhoods.

01:15:00.960 | And you're never gonna be woefully far from your hotel.

01:15:05.400 | - When my wife and I went over 15 years ago

01:15:07.780 | to Japan for the first time,

01:15:09.440 | the first thing we did was we rented a bike

01:15:10.920 | from the train station.

01:15:11.920 | We just set our bags.

01:15:13.200 | I don't remember a lot of how the logistics of that happened,

01:15:16.120 | but I do remember we rented the bike

01:15:17.520 | right at the train station and went and explored.

01:15:20.080 | And I think we came back and got our luggage

01:15:21.680 | 'cause we had a late check-in.

01:15:22.840 | So I love that.

01:15:23.840 | I'm sure in the lonely planet for Kyoto,

01:15:25.960 | there's top 21 experiences that you should have.

01:15:28.440 | Let's skip those and maybe share some of your favorite things

01:15:31.320 | that people should do or see or eat or anything.

01:15:34.960 | - One of the things that I guarantee

01:15:36.280 | is not in any of the guidebooks yet

01:15:38.800 | is the Park Hyatt Kyoto just opened.

01:15:44.840 | And so Park Hyatt Tokyo is the super famous

01:15:46.920 | Lost in Translation Hotel in Shinjuku,

01:15:49.760 | has the New York bar, always rammed with people.

01:15:52.920 | Park Hyatt Kyoto is very close to Kiyomizu-dera,

01:15:57.120 | which is one of the most famous places of worship.

01:16:00.640 | Absolutely a must, kind of a worth the hype temple,

01:16:04.760 | but it's right in the heart of the action.

01:16:07.440 | And it's accessible to everyone

01:16:10.440 | because they have a bar totally different

01:16:13.360 | than the one in Tokyo,

01:16:14.400 | but this bar overlooks the city.

01:16:17.560 | The one very famous pagoda.

01:16:21.440 | And I couldn't hold a conversation when I was there

01:16:26.400 | because I was so mesmerized by the view.

01:16:29.000 | It is just one of those cost you the price of a cocktail.

01:16:33.960 | It costs $18 price of a cocktail

01:16:37.320 | to have this incredible view.

01:16:41.400 | And because it's so new, no one's talking about it yet.

01:16:44.840 | So it's a very small bar with a very few amount of seats,

01:16:48.680 | but if you're going really soon, absolutely go and do this.

01:16:52.840 | The hotel is extremely expensive

01:16:54.840 | and is only for a certain type of traveler,

01:16:58.160 | but this is something that I feel

01:16:59.360 | is pretty accessible to everyone

01:17:02.040 | and absolutely worth doing at sunset.

01:17:04.960 | In the wintertime, that sunset is oddly early.

01:17:07.720 | So if you're okay having a drink at 4.45 p.m.,

01:17:11.840 | absolutely go for it.

01:17:13.320 | This was like my one revelation of Kyoto

01:17:16.720 | on this particular trip a few weeks ago.

01:17:19.040 | Did my screen share just pop up?

01:17:21.080 | You did.

01:17:21.920 | Just shared a photo of having that cocktail at that bar

01:17:25.480 | with that pagoda in the background.

01:17:27.480 | We stayed at the Park Hyatt in Kyoto

01:17:30.040 | and you say very expensive,

01:17:31.480 | but I will say Chase transfers to Park Hyatt on points

01:17:35.040 | is maybe one of the best deals in the world.

01:17:36.600 | So it is actually accessible

01:17:38.080 | if you can find the availability.

01:17:40.080 | The hotel was amazing.

01:17:41.200 | I will say we stayed there like weeks after it opened

01:17:44.760 | and it was very rough around the edges.

01:17:47.240 | I have no doubt that the Park Hyatt

01:17:49.880 | has cleaned up those rough edges,

01:17:51.840 | but we had some frustrating experiences

01:17:54.080 | for a hotel of that level.

01:17:55.400 | But wow, the bar was amazing.

01:17:57.880 | We couldn't even get into the restaurant at the hotel,

01:18:00.400 | which is next to the bar and had an awesome view.

01:18:02.840 | So I can't speak to it

01:18:03.800 | because even though we stayed there four nights,

01:18:05.720 | they were like, "Oh, sorry, we don't have any tables."

01:18:08.040 | It was such a strange thing

01:18:09.440 | to not be able to eat at the hotel restaurant

01:18:11.320 | on a few days notice,

01:18:12.440 | but wholeheartedly recommend the hotel.

01:18:15.200 | It's so beautiful and very inaccessible with dollars,

01:18:19.440 | but accessible with points.

01:18:21.320 | Hyatt's great for that.

01:18:22.680 | A lot of people level up to the Grand Hyatt in Tokyo,

01:18:27.120 | which is cheaper than the Park Hyatt brand.

01:18:29.760 | It's sort of one level down.

01:18:31.320 | That hotel, decor wise, it's long in the tooth.

01:18:34.040 | The location is great.

01:18:35.200 | You're really right in the middle of town

01:18:38.400 | and it's a little splurge

01:18:39.800 | if you're more of a budget traveler

01:18:42.600 | and you have those points, go for the Grand.

01:18:44.920 | - So I'll share a couple things from Kyoto from our trip

01:18:48.480 | that are just kind of quick hits that I really enjoyed.

01:18:51.880 | So bar rocking chair.

01:18:54.520 | I went one night with my brother-in-law

01:18:56.760 | and we were like, "Do we even have to leave?"

01:18:58.600 | Like, "Should we just stay here, keep coming back?"

01:19:01.440 | - I love that place.

01:19:02.280 | - It's such a cool bar.

01:19:03.720 | It was also very funny

01:19:05.000 | because my brother-in-law is like six, five.

01:19:07.600 | He barely fit in part of that bar.

01:19:10.080 | There's a tea shop called Yugen,

01:19:13.120 | which serves matcha and it was just wonderful.

01:19:16.640 | I say this about so many parts of Japan,

01:19:18.560 | but a very beautifully designed matcha shop

01:19:21.440 | that I really loved.

01:19:22.800 | And then I already mentioned the pizza shop at the beginning

01:19:25.720 | and Coco Raya was just an itsukaya

01:19:27.560 | that we went to and had a great time.

01:19:28.720 | I'm not gonna say it's the best itsukaya in the world,

01:19:30.440 | but if you're looking for one, we had a great time there.

01:19:33.920 | I'm gonna add a tea destination as well, Ippodo.

01:19:38.000 | So not Ippudo, like the ramen, but Ippodo.

01:19:40.760 | They're really close to the Ritz-Carlton

01:19:43.160 | and they do tea tasting.

01:19:46.760 | So think of it exactly in like a wine tasting kind of way.

01:19:50.320 | You can sign up to do a tea tasting.

01:19:52.280 | The taste is incredible.

01:19:54.440 | The packaging is so beautiful.

01:19:56.440 | This is a good omiyage

01:19:58.640 | for someone that you really like back at home

01:20:00.920 | or someone that you're meeting in Japan.

01:20:03.280 | Has a very storied reputation in the country.

01:20:06.280 | One of the places that I wanna recommend is Monk.

01:20:09.760 | It's a restaurant that my editor at Bloomberg,

01:20:13.440 | she was in Japan with her husband a few years ago

01:20:16.840 | and she ate there and I was in Tokyo at the time

01:20:19.360 | and she called me and she was like,

01:20:21.240 | "Get your butt down to Kyoto.

01:20:23.080 | "You need to go to this restaurant

01:20:24.160 | "and you need to write about it."

01:20:25.560 | Basically what it is takes the sort of multi-course

01:20:29.720 | kaiseki idea in Japanese cuisine,

01:20:32.840 | but it flips it Italian style.

01:20:35.840 | And instead of having a hearty rice dish,

01:20:39.200 | which usually punctuates the end of a kaiseki meal,

01:20:41.880 | it's a pizza.

01:20:42.800 | And I really like, let's not obsess about pizza in Japan.

01:20:45.400 | People are gonna think we're weird.

01:20:47.240 | But it's run by Chef Imai

01:20:50.800 | and he brings this monastic discipline to his food.

01:20:55.800 | And I believe after our story ran,

01:20:58.640 | it found its way to a Netflix Chef's Table episode.

01:21:03.160 | It's well worth checking out

01:21:06.360 | and also give yourself a little bit of time

01:21:08.760 | to walk around that part of town.

01:21:10.240 | It's a little more residential.

01:21:11.640 | It's a little more out of the way.

01:21:12.680 | You're not gonna see other tourists over there.

01:21:14.920 | It's beautiful.

01:21:15.960 | There's a beautiful path that goes through the nature

01:21:19.520 | of that neighborhood too.

01:21:20.600 | So kind of bundle that experience together.

01:21:23.760 | - Any specific types of food that you're in Kyoto,

01:21:27.560 | Kyoto's the place to try X or Y?

01:21:30.160 | - Man, that's a good question.

01:21:31.200 | I did wanna give one suggestion

01:21:34.320 | that is along those lines, but a little unexpected.

01:21:36.880 | It's gin.

01:21:37.960 | There's a gin tasting room called Kinobi.

01:21:41.120 | Kinobi kind of came out the gate,

01:21:43.680 | I wanna say about five, six years ago now.

01:21:46.360 | And as someone who writes

01:21:48.360 | about a lot of different destinations all over the world,

01:21:50.240 | I am constantly being pitched a local gin, constantly.

01:21:53.800 | People are making gin out of sawdust at this point.

01:21:57.520 | And I was fascinated by Kinobi.

01:22:01.120 | They're using a lot of the local botanicals.

01:22:05.240 | There's like Kyoyasai, basically the local Kyoto harvest,

01:22:10.240 | which really informs this gin.

01:22:13.040 | And I'm admittedly not a big gin person.

01:22:15.880 | I'm more of a brown spirits person.

01:22:17.440 | This is absolutely my favorite.

01:22:19.600 | And in the quiet of the pandemic,

01:22:21.400 | they opened a tasting room

01:22:22.720 | and it is well worth going to try.

01:22:25.440 | And speaking of Kyoyasai and this local harvest,

01:22:28.520 | this is really what the area is all about.

01:22:31.440 | And one of the best restaurants

01:22:34.360 | that it's not gonna break the budget,

01:22:36.680 | it's called Yasai Hori, Hori is the name of the chef.

01:22:40.800 | There's a lot of indoor shopping arcades in Kyoto,

01:22:43.800 | and it's off of one of those, really inconspicuous.

01:22:46.880 | It has two tables and like eight bar tops.

01:22:51.400 | The only staff member is chef.

01:22:54.440 | And he's gonna do really honest food.

01:22:57.040 | I think a lot of American food is overly sauced.

01:23:01.080 | This is the antidote.

01:23:02.480 | This is mushrooms on an open fire.

01:23:06.440 | This is avocado and red onion.

01:23:10.320 | This is very simple cuisine

01:23:13.120 | that the ingredients are just screaming flavor at you.

01:23:17.640 | - This is not a good thing to be talking about

01:23:19.560 | right before lunch.

01:23:20.400 | I'm like, do I eat here or just go to SFO

01:23:23.000 | and take a trip to Japan?

01:23:24.440 | (laughing)

01:23:25.400 | It seems like we bring up a lot of food and drinking,

01:23:27.120 | but are there other things to spend the time

01:23:29.360 | in between eating or drinking in Kyoto,

01:23:32.160 | other than a few of the shrines

01:23:33.440 | that you think are worth highlighting?

01:23:35.000 | - You're not gonna find that Brooklyn-esque quality

01:23:39.920 | that you do in Tokyo with certain neighborhoods

01:23:43.080 | that are just so effortlessly cool,

01:23:45.720 | but it's well worth picking a couple neighborhoods

01:23:49.160 | in Kyoto as well and just doing the back alley walks.

01:23:52.680 | You're just gonna see a lot of businesses

01:23:54.880 | that have been around for 300 or 400 years,

01:23:58.360 | places that sell very specific things,

01:24:00.920 | like 11 types of scissors.

01:24:03.320 | There was a shop that I went to

01:24:05.080 | that sold needles for sewing

01:24:07.680 | that had little sculptures on the tip, on the eye,

01:24:12.200 | like a little frog that you had to look at

01:24:14.580 | through a magnifying glass.

01:24:16.640 | Little specific shops like this,

01:24:18.280 | and that you're only gonna find

01:24:19.600 | by doing a back alley walk in neighborhoods

01:24:23.000 | like Gion, in Sanjo, different places like that.

01:24:26.120 | - And culturally, is it okay if you see a little shop,

01:24:28.240 | even if you're not gonna buy a needle or a pair of scissors,

01:24:30.800 | to walk in and look around, is that okay?

01:24:33.480 | - Absolutely.

01:24:34.320 | You can go into any shop that's open,

01:24:36.760 | thank them for their time,

01:24:38.280 | express interest in what they're doing.

01:24:40.720 | A lot of people are really proud

01:24:42.920 | of the things that they're doing.

01:24:44.040 | I was in a small town on Lake Biwa on my last trip,

01:24:47.600 | about an hour outside of Kyoto, called Hikone,

01:24:51.280 | and went for udon, and at the end of the meal,

01:24:54.560 | the man who ran the udon shop, his wife,

01:24:56.680 | was making origami, and when the bill was paid,

01:24:59.680 | she handed me an origami crane,

01:25:01.280 | and she was like, "Here, I made this."

01:25:03.360 | And she was just so proud of it, and I kept it.

01:25:05.800 | It's in my office now, and you just find great pride

01:25:09.560 | in what everyone's doing, so engage with those people.

01:25:13.260 | Usually the people that are in the shop, it's their stuff.

01:25:16.680 | - I will say, this translates

01:25:18.200 | to anytime you're getting anything,

01:25:20.080 | even if it's the concierge giving you their business card.

01:25:23.200 | I think in American culture, it's like,

01:25:24.560 | "Thanks, throw it in your pocket,"

01:25:25.920 | and I find that anytime you're getting anything,

01:25:28.480 | just holding it and accepting it and appreciating it

01:25:31.280 | is a sign of respect that goes a long way

01:25:34.440 | and is much more the standard of receiving things in Japan.

01:25:38.400 | - Yeah, if you're expecting someone

01:25:39.520 | to be an engaged shop owner, be an engaged customer.

01:25:43.920 | This is, again, that give and take.

01:25:45.800 | You're part of the social dynamic.

01:25:47.520 | Not everything is just coming to you.

01:25:49.520 | - So, we said we were gonna not go as deep

01:25:53.040 | on other places as we did on Tokyo and Kyoto,

01:25:55.520 | but I do wanna highlight some of them,

01:25:57.280 | because I think people who have that extra few days

01:26:00.780 | where they wanna go see something more

01:26:02.320 | than just Tokyo and Kyoto, or people who are coming back

01:26:04.720 | and wanna see something else,

01:26:06.280 | you did a high level of the four islands

01:26:09.560 | and a little bit of the vibe on each,

01:26:11.680 | but what are some emerging destinations

01:26:13.600 | or interesting places that you'd suggest people go to?

01:26:17.440 | I really only have one, so I'll go first,

01:26:20.600 | which is we found this hotel,

01:26:23.280 | and it was kind of what you were describing,

01:26:25.240 | where we were looking for that kind of traditional,

01:26:28.040 | the eat breakfast and dinner in the hotel,

01:26:30.320 | not really go anywhere, relax experience,

01:26:33.080 | and so we just took a trip to a region called Niigata,

01:26:36.280 | and we stayed at this amazing design hotel

01:26:38.660 | called Satoyamo Jujo,

01:26:40.400 | which I would say it's not quite a ryokan,

01:26:42.560 | but in that we weren't sleeping on tatami mats

01:26:45.320 | and it wasn't that traditional, but it was amazing,

01:26:48.200 | and that town was known for soba,

01:26:50.360 | so we walked around town and walked by a school,

01:26:53.380 | and it was definitely not a popular destination

01:26:55.920 | in the season we went,

01:26:57.280 | but that was just an awesome hotel

01:26:59.960 | and relaxing experience for a couple days,

01:27:02.240 | and that's all I have,

01:27:03.420 | so I'm gonna turn the entirety

01:27:05.240 | of non-Tokyo, Kyoto, Japan over to you.

01:27:08.480 | So I'll circle back on that idea

01:27:10.200 | of what are the ingredients for a perfect first

01:27:12.600 | or fourth trip to Japan,

01:27:14.320 | which is old and new, mountains and sea,

01:27:17.720 | and I think all of them are really easy to hit.

01:27:20.480 | You can hit them all very close to Tokyo,

01:27:23.840 | even if you only have a shorter trip.

01:27:26.760 | I spent quite a bit of time in Kyushu

01:27:29.880 | in the southernmost main island this time around

01:27:33.300 | because I am a major fan of onsen culture,

01:27:38.300 | hot spring culture, and because the islands

01:27:40.560 | are so active volcanically,

01:27:42.680 | there is just hot water gurgling up everywhere,

01:27:46.080 | to the point where there are hotels in Tokyo

01:27:48.840 | that pipe in hot water from miles and miles and miles away

01:27:52.560 | to have that mineral water bath within the property.

01:27:56.480 | Kyushu is sort of the motherland of onsen culture,

01:28:01.480 | more so than places like Hakone,

01:28:04.680 | which you might have heard of a lot

01:28:06.140 | because it's very close to Tokyo,

01:28:08.120 | so a lot of people go there.

01:28:09.600 | Kyushu has an Oita prefecture,

01:28:12.720 | and I should say, as an aside,

01:28:14.480 | prefectures are like states,

01:28:16.760 | and they all have different reputations,

01:28:18.920 | and they all have different local foods and vibes,

01:28:23.360 | and they all kind of compete against each other.

01:28:25.720 | Oita prefecture on Kyushu has two major onsen towns.

01:28:30.720 | One's called Beppu, and one's called Fuin.

01:28:36.360 | Both have a ton of places to stay.

01:28:40.080 | There's an international university in Beppu,

01:28:43.000 | and a lot of people that go there

01:28:44.200 | work in some of these hotels,

01:28:45.680 | so the level of English in Beppu is better than in Tokyo,

01:28:48.960 | which is very confusing.

01:28:50.720 | And you can choose from a variety of types of properties.

01:28:53.840 | There's an intercontinental in Beppu, for example,

01:28:56.520 | if you want the comfort of something familiar,

01:28:59.400 | or you can go all the way down to a very traditional inn

01:29:02.120 | while you're sleeping on tatami.

01:29:03.720 | If you've ever looked at a photo of Beppu,

01:29:05.680 | it looks like it's exploding.

01:29:07.160 | There's just steam coming up from every vent

01:29:10.240 | as you walk down the street.

01:29:11.520 | It's really cool.

01:29:13.400 | Yufuin is in the mountains,

01:29:15.600 | and it's a little bit more rural.

01:29:17.400 | Major tourism destination as well,

01:29:19.960 | as far as onsen and hot springs culture goes.

01:29:24.320 | There is a very prescribed way that you soak in onsen.

01:29:28.320 | You must wash yourself before you go in,

01:29:30.880 | and you must be naked.

01:29:32.800 | And if that's uncomfortable for you,

01:29:35.080 | IHG hotels have a variety of hot spring hybrid hotels

01:29:40.080 | all throughout the country.

01:29:42.600 | I would just look at their Japan offerings.

01:29:44.720 | They have a property in Hakone, for example,

01:29:47.400 | that you can go in your bathing suit,

01:29:49.360 | and you can go, if you're traveling

01:29:51.360 | with someone of the opposite gender,

01:29:53.280 | you can also go and bathe together.

01:29:56.200 | - I'm gonna give the opposite advice,

01:29:57.480 | which is if you're uncomfortable with it,

01:29:59.280 | try to get comfortable with it.

01:30:01.560 | - Oh yeah, I am all about the real onsen experience.

01:30:05.000 | - You're right, I shouldn't just give the caveat.

01:30:06.960 | Absolutely dive in headfirst, pun intended.

01:30:10.560 | This is absolutely something that you can try,

01:30:12.800 | and in the way that you always see in the news

01:30:15.320 | every once in a while, so-and-so, oldest man in the world,

01:30:18.440 | what is his secret to living till 126?

01:30:22.080 | So many of these people are from Kyushu, from Beppu,

01:30:26.280 | and they all talk about how hot spring culture

01:30:28.800 | is so important to them, and it's so profound

01:30:32.240 | and widespread in Oita Prefecture

01:30:34.440 | that a lot of houses don't have running water

01:30:36.840 | because they have an onsen down the street,

01:30:38.880 | and every morning and every evening they go and soak,

01:30:41.560 | and they talk with their friends.

01:30:42.960 | There's a major social component to this as well.

01:30:46.280 | - That sounds like a place that I've never been

01:30:48.080 | and want to go.

01:30:48.920 | It left off Hakone 'cause we did go there on an early trip,

01:30:52.360 | and it's beautiful, Mount Fuji in the background.

01:30:55.080 | It was wonderful.

01:30:55.960 | Any other thoughts on whether a day trip

01:30:58.800 | or a side trip from Tokyo or Kyoto,

01:31:00.840 | or even flight somewhere else, or train?

01:31:04.280 | - Yeah, I think you're on the right track

01:31:06.680 | with a trip out to Hakone.

01:31:08.240 | It's just this weird prescribed thing

01:31:10.960 | that a lot of operators have people do,

01:31:13.320 | and it's just become this sort of golden circle thing

01:31:16.200 | where you're like, "Okay, I'm going to Tokyo and Hakone,

01:31:18.160 | "and then Kyoto, and we're done."

01:31:21.280 | Outside of Hakone, in the greater Fuji area,

01:31:24.920 | there are some incredible places to stay

01:31:27.440 | and some incredibly beautiful and natural environments.

01:31:31.920 | There's the five Fuji lakes.

01:31:34.560 | I would have a look into those.

01:31:36.240 | Those are nestled right under the mountain,

01:31:39.200 | all have incredible views.

01:31:41.380 | That is something that's specifically different

01:31:43.960 | than the Hakone experience.

01:31:46.520 | I really like Shuzenji as a little town.

01:31:51.520 | There's a really cool place to stay there,

01:31:54.600 | a couple cool places, ranging from budget to high end.

01:31:57.360 | This is small town Japan, and it's really close to Tokyo.

01:32:01.240 | North of Tokyo is Nikko, a major UNESCO site.

01:32:06.240 | A lot of people, for some reason,

01:32:08.280 | do it as a day trip from Tokyo.

01:32:10.960 | Do not do it as a day trip.

01:32:13.280 | It is so far, you will be tired,

01:32:15.680 | and you're missing the beauty of it,

01:32:16.900 | which is the evening after all the crowds are gone.

01:32:19.960 | You can go see the UNESCO protected sites,

01:32:22.120 | but for me, Lake Shuzenji is stunning,

01:32:25.480 | and there are a few really cool places

01:32:26.920 | to stay on the lake there.

01:32:29.360 | Though a big question that I get is,

01:32:31.360 | how do I do Kyoto without going to Kyoto?

01:32:33.720 | Because the crowds, there's already conversations

01:32:36.360 | about how to curb overcrowding in Kyoto.

01:32:40.480 | So a lot of people are opting

01:32:42.120 | to go to Kanazawa instead of Kyoto.

01:32:45.680 | Kanazawa, back in feudal times,

01:32:48.400 | different feudal entities measured their wealth by rice,

01:32:52.960 | how much rice they were making.

01:32:54.400 | Rice was currency.

01:32:56.200 | And after the stronghold in Kyoto,

01:32:59.480 | Kanazawa, the Maeda clan, were the second wealthiest.

01:33:02.960 | There's a lot of that old culture still intact.

01:33:06.600 | One of the most beautiful gardens in all of Japan,

01:33:09.360 | and the Japanese rank their gardens,

01:33:11.340 | and there are three that are considered the nicest,

01:33:13.360 | and one of them is in Kanazawa.

01:33:15.460 | This is that little Kyoto that you're gonna get

01:33:18.760 | with far less people.

01:33:20.060 | It's much smaller, but if you're allergic to crowds,

01:33:23.200 | this is the place for you.

01:33:24.400 | And Kaga Prefecture, the area around it,

01:33:27.560 | is also a teeming onsen destination.

01:33:31.720 | I have mixed feelings about Hokkaido.

01:33:33.720 | Grew up in Canada, I was born with skis on,

01:33:36.520 | love a good ski trip.

01:33:38.840 | Hokkaido has japao, incredible powder.

01:33:41.760 | I have really mixed feelings about going to Japan

01:33:44.520 | for the skiing.

01:33:45.520 | I think you can get great skiing in Canada.

01:33:48.360 | You can get great skiing in the US.

01:33:51.000 | I think it's a bit of a shame to devote your Japanese holiday

01:33:55.920 | to something that you can do really well in other places.

01:33:59.200 | So I'm a bit allergic to recommending a ski trip

01:34:04.100 | with your Japan trip.

01:34:05.160 | Instead, I would pick places that you're really

01:34:07.680 | getting culturally fulfilled.

01:34:09.880 | - We love to ski.

01:34:11.080 | We have not done skiing in Japan for that reason.

01:34:14.180 | I think a part of us is like,

01:34:15.020 | "Oh, it'd be so interesting to do that,

01:34:16.800 | but how could we prioritize that over all?"

01:34:20.640 | I don't think I've ever been

01:34:21.480 | to all these amazing other prefectures, islands even.

01:34:25.240 | We've stayed so central.

01:34:26.480 | Gosh, I feel like there is an infinite more Japan

01:34:29.200 | for us to see.

01:34:30.040 | The fact that you feel the same way after 20 years

01:34:32.240 | makes me feel like it'll just be

01:34:34.240 | on the rotation constantly.

01:34:35.980 | And it's probably the country we've been to the most,

01:34:38.560 | other than of course, where we live.

01:34:40.320 | Any other final thoughts, tips,

01:34:43.400 | things that you have on your notes

01:34:44.800 | that maybe we should have said earlier,

01:34:46.420 | but didn't, that are worth sharing?

01:34:48.920 | - I think we're pretty, I have a couple of random ones.

01:34:52.040 | - Okay, go.

01:34:52.960 | - So one, shopping is fantastic,

01:34:56.240 | but if you are in any way very tall in the US,

01:35:01.240 | it is a very interesting experience.

01:35:03.560 | I think I'm like a 2XL.

01:35:05.680 | I couldn't find any shoes and pants fit me like capris,

01:35:09.680 | and I'm only six feet tall.

01:35:11.080 | So keep that in mind when shopping,

01:35:13.760 | because it could be a difficult experience if you fall.

01:35:16.880 | My brother-in-law basically couldn't buy anything

01:35:18.860 | because he was so tall.

01:35:20.580 | So that was one.

01:35:21.760 | On the general side, we didn't talk at all about Osaka,

01:35:24.700 | but I would say, as you mentioned

01:35:26.960 | before we started recording,

01:35:28.440 | it's known as the food city,

01:35:29.800 | but the entire country is a food country.

01:35:31.720 | So you don't necessarily need to go there

01:35:33.920 | and go out of your way.

01:35:34.920 | But if you are there, fantastic Okonomiyaki.

01:35:38.580 | I believe Osaka is kind of known for it.

01:35:40.880 | That's a thing to hit up there.

01:35:42.520 | And there's a bar in Osaka called Bible Club,

01:35:45.000 | which was one of the coolest like speakeasy-ish bars

01:35:48.680 | I've ever been to, and I'd put that on your list.

01:35:51.960 | - I would also just add that,

01:35:54.760 | this is maybe something that you don't wanna hear.

01:35:57.280 | It is the best place to just indulge

01:36:01.720 | in the joy of exploration.

01:36:04.200 | And it can be really hard for FOMOists,

01:36:07.520 | but you're not gonna go wrong.

01:36:10.280 | You can go to New York City and go wrong.

01:36:13.120 | You could end up at an Olive Garden by accident.

01:36:16.180 | You know what I mean?

01:36:17.020 | I always wanna tell readers of my guidebook,

01:36:19.120 | go to Ebisu Station in Tokyo and go to Ebisu Yokocho.

01:36:24.040 | You can Google it, you'll find where it is.

01:36:25.880 | It is like a little kind of street foodie indoor area,

01:36:30.800 | and just pick one of the stalls.

01:36:33.120 | You're gonna see they all cook one thing.

01:36:35.240 | What's the thing that looks delicious to you?

01:36:37.160 | Rather than hyper-focusing on the one place

01:36:40.720 | that you have to go,

01:36:41.720 | there are tens of thousands of restaurants to choose from.

01:36:45.580 | So many of them are incredible.

01:36:47.240 | It's such a great destination to come home

01:36:49.880 | and say, "I found this place."

01:36:52.200 | You get to have a little bit of ownership

01:36:53.920 | over your own experience.

01:36:55.320 | Certainly talk to your friends

01:36:56.680 | about the things that they've done.

01:36:57.640 | Certainly go to the places that we're recommending here.

01:36:59.960 | But take the opportunity to add serendipity

01:37:02.920 | into your schedule.

01:37:03.800 | It's the best country to do it.

01:37:06.280 | - I love that recommendation.

01:37:07.800 | Half of the recommendations I have

01:37:10.200 | are just places we randomly found.

01:37:12.080 | Certainly, the rest of them might be things

01:37:14.320 | that we found in books or on tabloid or anything.

01:37:17.540 | The one last thing I'm gonna ask you

01:37:19.460 | is because someone wrote in and asked about Naoshima Island,

01:37:22.820 | do you have any thoughts on visiting there?

01:37:25.540 | - So the Satoshi Inland Sea has a lot of different islands.

01:37:30.540 | And if you dip into the history of how that all came about,

01:37:33.900 | it's really fascinating.

01:37:35.300 | It's a really compelling conservation project

01:37:38.180 | to redevelop a destination that was deemed undesirable.

01:37:42.700 | Rather than just having a pit stop,

01:37:44.960 | I would recommend going to a variety

01:37:48.700 | of the different islands in that area.

01:37:51.260 | It's a really upcoming destination,

01:37:53.640 | not just because of all the art that's there,

01:37:57.040 | but new and interesting hotels are being built.

01:37:59.820 | There's a big push to keep populations in smaller places

01:38:04.820 | and not have everyone move to Tokyo or Osaka.

01:38:08.000 | There's a lot of government money that's being spent,

01:38:10.420 | and that is one of the destinations

01:38:12.160 | that's continuing to grow.

01:38:14.420 | So I would expand your holiday there

01:38:16.940 | rather than it just being a beat.

01:38:19.100 | - I haven't been there,

01:38:20.100 | so that's yet one more thing to put on the list

01:38:23.140 | for the next trip,

01:38:24.300 | which if we're gonna try to do it without kids,

01:38:26.700 | it's gonna be shorter than we wanted

01:38:28.580 | or farther away in the future.

01:38:30.320 | So this has been amazing.

01:38:32.780 | As I think to the future of episodes like this,

01:38:34.700 | I'm gonna start to wonder

01:38:35.940 | whether it makes sense to try to do a country.

01:38:38.540 | It was always a gamble whether we do countries or cities.

01:38:40.920 | So I appreciate you indulging in this crazy idea.

01:38:44.540 | And obviously you've written blog posts,

01:38:47.380 | articles, stories, guidebooks, all about Japan.

01:38:50.900 | Where can people stay on top of everything you're doing

01:38:53.620 | and everything you're up to?

01:38:55.020 | - I write for a variety of different publications.

01:38:57.620 | So I keep an archive of those articles

01:39:00.060 | at brandimpressor.com.

01:39:01.660 | I'm active on my Instagram,

01:39:03.740 | shooting real-time photos of the destinations that I'm in.

01:39:07.260 | My handle is @brandpress,

01:39:09.460 | the first five letters of my first name and last name.

01:39:12.160 | And you can find all of my stories on Japan

01:39:14.720 | in every publication from "Travel and Leisure,"

01:39:17.120 | "Bloomberg," "Cutting Ass Traveler,"

01:39:19.240 | "The Daily Beast," and so forth.

01:39:21.360 | And I'll send them your way so that you can have a look.

01:39:24.040 | - That's awesome.

01:39:24.880 | We'll put some of those in the show notes.

01:39:26.120 | But I asked Brandon what would make this a huge win for him

01:39:28.720 | for coming on for an hour.

01:39:29.840 | And on the recording mark, we're almost at two.

01:39:32.400 | And he said, "You know what?

01:39:33.240 | "I post a lot of cool stuff on Instagram.

01:39:34.660 | "I'd love more people to see that."

01:39:36.280 | So if you're listening, go check out his Instagram.

01:39:38.880 | If you like to be inspired by awesome photos of travels,

01:39:42.160 | give him a follow.

01:39:43.440 | And if you wanna hear some crazy stories,

01:39:46.080 | when we had him on last time, we talked about his book

01:39:48.760 | about the wild pirate craziness

01:39:51.240 | of the history of the Pitcairn Islands.

01:39:53.080 | Go back and listen to our episode.

01:39:54.920 | We not only talked about traveling,

01:39:56.840 | like a local and not just a tourist

01:39:59.040 | and some crazy other things about travel,

01:40:00.640 | but we talked about some of the crazy stories from that.

01:40:02.820 | It's an awesome book.

01:40:03.940 | Definitely check that out too.

01:40:05.640 | Brandon, thank you for staying on for so long

01:40:08.320 | and being here today.

01:40:09.960 | - It was my pleasure.

01:40:10.800 | That was so much fun.

01:40:11.920 | - Wow, I have never been so excited for a trip

01:40:16.480 | that I'm not even planning yet

01:40:17.920 | than I am right now for taking my next trip to Japan.

01:40:20.800 | And by the way, I've been there four times

01:40:22.880 | and I'm still so excited.

01:40:24.800 | So I have no idea when we're gonna get to do it

01:40:27.120 | because I think we're still a little bit overwhelmed

01:40:29.320 | about traveling with two kids after going to Europe.

01:40:32.120 | But I am really, really excited.

01:40:33.840 | I hope you liked this episode.

01:40:35.680 | I hope if you haven't been considering a trip to Japan,

01:40:38.480 | you are now.

01:40:39.720 | And if you're already considering it,

01:40:41.060 | I hope you're sold and you're ready to go.

01:40:43.400 | And I know I said that I wanna make sure

01:40:44.960 | these episodes include a section

01:40:46.840 | about how to get there with points and miles,

01:40:48.780 | how to book flights, where to get the best deals,

01:40:51.680 | where to stay in hotels

01:40:53.180 | and where the best deals for points are there,

01:40:55.060 | as well as any other deals and hacks I've learned

01:40:57.640 | or collected.

01:40:58.560 | So I'm gonna release a bonus episode on Friday

01:41:01.360 | that'll cover all of those things.

01:41:03.560 | And I really hope you enjoy it,

01:41:05.280 | but also please let me know what you think

01:41:07.180 | of these travel episodes in general,

01:41:09.080 | because I know it's a little bit different

01:41:10.440 | from what I've done in the past 100 episodes.

01:41:12.680 | And I know that not everyone is looking to travel to Japan.

01:41:15.400 | So I am curious what you think, would love feedback.

01:41:18.560 | And I've got a couple of these planned,

01:41:20.440 | but I am really trying to decide

01:41:21.680 | whether I make this a monthly thing

01:41:23.180 | and also whether we try to tackle a country

01:41:25.560 | or just really go deep on a city.

01:41:27.560 | So I've got another one I've recorded with Lee Rowan

01:41:30.600 | on everything about Italy.

01:41:32.320 | But after that, I really wanna try to decide what's best.

01:41:34.840 | So please let me know what you think.

01:41:36.320 | Please send feedback and thank you so much for joining.

01:41:39.600 | See you Friday.

01:41:40.500 | (upbeat music)

01:41:43.080 | (upbeat music)

01:41:45.660 | (upbeat music)

01:41:48.240 | [BLANK_AUDIO]