Posted Mon Jul 16, 2007, 5:52pm Subject: Re: Where to go while in Tokyo at the WBC??!??
Re: Osaka.
DanaS,
Haven't been to Tokyo, too busy for me, but if you are hitting Osaka I can recommend for coffee, Link which is at Higashi-Shinsaibashi 1-13-19, NT Bldg 1F. (from Midosuji turn E on the street that runs along the north side of Daimaru; keep walking for 3 blocks until you get to Family Mart on your left hand side; at Family Mart turn left; Link is located about 10 meters north, on the right hand side) Open 9am-10pm. It is closed onMondays. They do pourover filtered coffee, one owner, does most everything himself, I hit there every year. He's a little shy but very happy to talk about coffee in broken English or your broken Japanese.
For Espresso: Most places are hard to find. This isn't because they don't exist, it's just hard to convey the question to the average- on the street - Japanese. But I would recommend hitting Shakers cafe at the Herbis building down near the JR Osaka Station. If you can read Japanese, http://r.tabelog.com/osaka/rstdtl/27007508/ SHAKERS Herbis 2-2-23 Umeda Kita-ku Osaka-shi
let me know how your Tokyo findings are, we may hit there in the fall next year.
Posted Mon Jul 16, 2007, 9:46pm Subject: Re: Where to go while in Tokyo at the WBC??!??
Hi DanaS
I have had trouble trying to find a list of Tokyo Cafes. We will be there also for 10 days and a friend who lived there suggested some touristy things to do: Take your pick:
Near the WBC event
· Go on the ferris wheel (Japanese = “kan ran sha”) at sunset and watch the city, Rainbow Bridge, and planes swooping in towards Haneda.
· Have dinner at one of the restaurants in the “Decks” shopping mall at Odaiba with a view of the harbour and the Rainbow Bridge. Or, at very least, have a stroll along there at night and look at the pretty lights/harbour/bridge.
· If you’re interested in cars, check out the enormous Toyota showroom (near Pallet Town, I think from memory). It’s not a sales yard (I don’t think)—more a showroom for their latest and greatest, including a swag of models not available in Aus.
· While at Pallet Town, ‘Venus Fort’—a shopping mall for women’s clothes mostly—is worth a 10min stroll through, if only to admire the Italian motif and ever changing sky/ceiling.
· Myriad crazy/interesting buildings in this area eg. Fuji TV
A walking tour of Harajuku
Catch a train to Omote-sando. Ginza line (yellow) or Hanzomon line (purple) on the ‘Tokyo Metro’.
Walk down Omote-sando (this is the street’s name. They—rather optimistically, perhaps—call it the ‘Champs Elysees’ of Tokyo), down the hill past various flag-ship fashion houses, towards Meiji Shrine (Japanese = “meiji jingu”). If you want to knock your socks off, have a look around inside some of the big name shops (Mum particularly enjoyed the Ralph Lauren building—big white mansion on the right, most of the way down. The women’s fashion upstairs is truly amazing).
Gently cajole your Geisha back out onto the street and keep walking along Omoto-sando. You’ll soon reach a major intersection. You are now in Harajuku. You should see a huge “Gap” clothes store on your left, and a “Condomania” novelty condom shop on the diagonally opposite corner. Keep walking straight along Omote-sando (which has now taken an upward swing again) until you reach the entrance to Meiji Shrine. This is where the ‘Harajuku Girls’ (and boys) hang out on a Sunday.
Have your photo taken with the weirdest person you can find.
Go into the Meiji Shrine park—along a long gravel road beneath a canopy of huge old growth trees—until you reach the shrine. Throw a 5 yen (for good luck) coin into the box, clap twice and pray silently for good things.
Go back out from whence you came and either take a right turn and walk along the edge of the park towards the entrance of Yoyogi Park (where you’ll see the dancing Elvis team, jump rope teams and punk bands all competing for space and attention—all really cool); or, turn left and go towards Harajuku Station and Takeshita Street (home of heaps of trashy stores including a million second-hand clothes shops and almost as many waffle shops, and thus lots of interesting young people in interesting ‘Harajuku Girl’ outfits—also worth seeing). In fact, do both!
· If you go through Takeshita Street, there are lots of other interesting little back streets to explore in Harajuku with interesting shops and people aplenty—around this area and further up off Omote-sando behind where you’ve already walked.
· If you go up to Yoyogi Park you can walk over past the site of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and NHK television studios then down the hill into Shibuya.
Other places of interest in Tokyo
· Shibuya—shops and people, and pretty lights at night. Many famous scenes eg. from “Lost in Translation”
· Shinjuku—ditto. West side of the station = tall buildings (go up the Metropolitan Government building for a great—free!—view of Tokyo http://www.metro.tokyo.jp/ENGLISH/TMG/observat.htm ). East side = shops, bars and ‘Blade Runner’ style back-streets with brothels, Yakuza and general dodginess in the wee small hours around ‘Kabuki-cho’ (perfectly safe during the day and evening though).
· Asakusa—famous temple (“Sen-soo-ji”) and interesting old back-streets. Wander around here, have some tempura in a little 5 seat restaurant, then walk over to near the bridge where you can see the Asahi beer building (yellow blob on top—can’t miss it). Catch a boat from here down river back to Pallet Town. Great journey under umpteen bridges with commentary in English (as well as Japanese). Costs about 1,000yen ($10.00)
· Ginza, and Yurakucho. Ginza is another upmarket, very famous shopping area. Within walking distance is Yurakucho (with my favourite building in Tokyo: The Tokyo International Forum, and a huge electronics store next door: Bic Camera), and the Imperial Palace. A walk around these areas could then lead you back to Tokyo station (allow a few hours for the round trip).
· Tsukiji—fish markets. Get there early ie. 6am for an amazing array of sea creatures up for auction, including enormous tuna and stall after stall of stuff that you’ve probably never even heard of. Then enjoy some sashimi and miso soup for breakfast at one of the many places around the market. (Or, there’s a McDonalds up the road.)
Outside Tokyo
· Nikko—temples and forest. Beautiful, and very worthwhile. Takes about 2 hours on the train (not the bullet train, sorry) from Asakusa—perhaps seems a long way, but it’s an excellent day trip.
· Nagano City. About 1hr50mins from Tokyo station on the bullet train (“shinkansen”). About 7,500 yen each, one way (there are no discounts for ‘return’ tickets usually). Nice town up in the mountains with a beautiful temple (“Zen-ko-ji”) that is famous throughout Japan. Nearby to Nagano (another 20mins on a local train) is Obuse—interesting little town too.
· Kyoto. About 2hrs20mins from Tokyo station by shinkansen. 13,000yen one way. World famous temples etc. etc. Absolutely worth a night or two if you can swing it. Buy a JR pass before you leave Aus. to save money if you plan on going this far from Tokyo. http://www.japanrail.com/links/oceania.html
· Atami? A beach-side resort town from the 1960s, about 40mins from Tokyo station by shinkansen, 4,000yen. Never been there for more than an hour (passed through once) and been past about a thousand times. Looks ok? A good jump off point to catch another train down the eastern coast of the Izu Peninsula.
· Timetable in English; http://www.japanrail.com/JR_hyperdia.html
steventtang Senior Member Joined: 14 Oct 2012 Posts: 1 Location: Taiwan Expertise: I live coffee
Posted Sun Oct 14, 2012, 7:52am Subject: Re: Where to go while in Tokyo at the WBC??!??
---Odin-- Re: Osaka. if you are hitting Osaka I can recommend for coffee, Link which is at Higashi-Shinsaibashi 1-13-19, NT Bldg 1F. (from Midosuji turn E on the street that runs along the north side of Daimaru; keep walking for 3 blocks until you get to Family Mart on your left hand side; at Family Mart turn left; Link is located about 10 meters north, on the right hand side) Open 9am-10pm. It is closed onMondays. They do pourover filtered coffee, one owner, does most everything himself, I hit there every year. He's a little shy but very happy to talk about coffee in broken English or your broken Japanese. ---Odin--
Thanks for Odin!!! I just went to Osaka for a few days! Link is a very nice coffee shop!!! Thank you for your information!
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