Back in Japan: Tokyo

My thoughts on Tokyo now + 13 food and drink recommendations.

Nov 29, 2024

My love affair with Tokyo began last year just as the sakura were beginning to fall from their branches. Like a new lover, the city was mysterious and intriguing, full of temptation and excitement. In my former life, I cooked professionally. In my current life, I write about and serve food. Always hungry for a taste of the unknown, I arrived in Tokyo on a mission to fulfill this craving.

Where last year I was learning the layout of the city, the train system and the very specific nuances of Japanese culture, this year I focused more on becoming one with the tide and pulse of Tokyo. Knowing that most coffee shops donʻt open until 10 a.m., I spent my mornings writing in my hotel room. Accepting that Tokyoʻs circadian rhythm swings on the later side, I adjusted my schedule accordingly.

It was October, the humidity of the summer was a whisper, a tease. But, as the days moved on and autumn took hold I recalled days in San Francisco when I took a risk every time I’d leave the house without a jacket. Reveling in anonymity, I spent most of my afternoons rambling through city streets, sipping single-origin coffee or amber wine, slipping down back alleys and into long conversations with strangers. I encountered a Korean woman who scribbled down the names of all the restaurants and coffee shops I’d loved throughout Japan, a couple who made wine in Nakano, a twenty-year-old videographer who had never been to Tokyo (imagine his excitement) and an Aussie who relentlessly vaped and recounted his accomplishments while I devoured a most exquisite espresso martini. I left that bar, leaving my vaping friend disappointed and me promising myself I’d return for another round (of cocktails, not him) the next day.

For dinner I’d meet my traveling companion Julie. One night, we met in a tiny French bistro without menus, another in a cafe built for sake and small plates. We also frequented the train station to stock up on intricately assembled bentos and desserts to enjoy in the comfort of our hotel room. Julie, also a Tokyo devotee, loves hunting down delicious bites as much as I do. In fact, the only thing I couldn’t get her to indulge in was a bottle of orange pet nat I’d carried all the way from Kyoto to share with her.

On this trip, I had ample time alone to think and wander. I thought about an old infatuation, who lives in Tokyo now. I thought about the exhilaration of swimming in the Sagami Bay, letting the cool water drag my feet across soft sand. And while I drank my bottle of pet nat alone one evening (after a hot bath and an egg salad sandwich from 7-eleven) I thought about what I’d remember most about this trip to Japan. How would I translate it into words? How do I write about a place that has been written about so much already and not sound cliche? I knew it was going to be challenging. I had discovered Japan is a place (and I’m speaking from a visitor’s perspective) to lose yourself in order to find what you do not know. It is a place to learn about respect and pride, and to trust that anything you could ever think of has been thought through thoroughly already, so just stop and pay attention.

When I returned home, snapping out of the fantasy of being a different me in a different place, I took time to grieve my departure. It helped to begin planning which prefectures I’d visit on my next trip to Japan. And of course I’d stop in Tokyo. Like the rest of the world’s great cities, Tokyo is always evolving and growing. Perhaps that’s why I relate to it. I love it.