Love and Kissas

Nippon de replay - 9 item listicle

While overengineering a trip to TOKIO TŌKYŌ TOKYO I think I’ve read just about everything a person like me might be expected to read:

1. My brother and I got a Craig Mod SPECIAL PROJECTS access and I’ve read almost every issue of Roden and Ridgeline - the bits on Morioka and Mod’s quick timeline from reasonably famous newsletterer and walker to internationally famous small-town-Japan promoter was inspiring - we’ll find out if it was inspiring enough to put us on the Shinkansen to do the unlimited soba challenge. The Morioka trail of reading from Mod to NYT back to Craig then variously online is fun—

2. I’ve been slowly reading two architectural-looking paperbacks I got at a ‘rare books’ shop in Helsinki Design District. Fun and easy-to-read slightly outdated essays in the tone of yesteryears “The Orientals have more to them than meets the eye…”

   

3. From Kalani / Allocators Asia I found this BBC article and a response to it which were interesting:

   1. Japan was the Future but it’s stuck in the past

      Actually, Japan has changed a lot

4. Blackbird Spyplane has revealed a good list of Kyoto and Tokyo jawn spots - mostly to add to Google Maps rather than any detailed reading:

   When you know your diet, it's easy to pick your meals

5. Using Eater, Pocket Concierge, Tabelog and Craig Mod maps to find kissas, omakase spots, pizza spots etc. The FT Guide To…. with people like Matsuhisa recommending unagi-don spots 20 minutes outside of Tokyo central.

   

6. Miscellany in the form of ‘boutique hotels’ we won’t stay at, ‘hidden grails’, a bath-house designers project archive, what the former-monocle reader does when in Tokyo, how to buy jeans, how the city is designed, Tokyo Cheapo and Japan Cheapo for essential basic knowledge, even TimeOut. One off-stack recs such as

   Japanese Nail Houses.

7. These were pleasant:

8. Finally - this old NYT piece on shitty sushi

   A friend who is a scholar of Japanese Buddhism tells me the parable is about how enlightenment is not elsewhere; it’s always here. Connoisseurs complain that mediocre sushi is ubiquitous. Well, so is nirvana.

9. Things I’ve mostly avoided- Monocle, direct recommendations from people who have been, Conde Nast et al (though I read one MrPorter style council thing on omakase but didn’t action it), printed guidebooks Loney Planet etc, Nikkei (does FT count?)

More to follow!

2/9 update - more following

1. A Swiss Giant gave me recommendations of some expensive hotels and restaurants - I’ve noted their suggestion to get some Fugu if around the appropriate area, %Arabica near the famous bamboo forest walk in Arashiyama (and some reading around this also led to a famous unagi spot nearby).
   

2. Thinking of organising the trip around particular dishes and formats I’d like to seek out rather than specific restaurants - in no particular order: unagi-don, chiarshi-don, omakase, conveyer belt, kaiseki, tempura, maple leaf tempura, fugu (originally known as fuku!), varieties of ramen (mazemen, tori paitan, tonyu, miso, mentsuyu, mayu, yuzu/curry/spicy, yasai, tsukemen etc…), varieties of matcha preparation (tiramisu, affogato, pancake), konbini, onigiri, ‘sando’, hamachi kama (yellowtail kollar), kakiage tempura, miso soup.