2025
Wagyu menchi katsu, tare-glazed yakitori, cold Sapporo, and sake served in a masu box. We go every single trip.
A Milanese institution since 1953. Thick base, loaded toppings, and somehow one of the best things we ate in Japan.
Forty-six thousand people, beer served from a backpack, and a player on the scoreboard called Trey Cabbage.
Kaiten sushi for the masses — and how we ended up with a plate tower that needed photographing before we could leave.
Christmas is not a public holiday in Japan. It is also, somehow, one of the best places in the world to be in December.
The middle ground between kaiten and full omakase. Beautiful ceramics, fresh-made pieces, and the best prawn we've eaten.
Most people treat Nagoya as a blur out the train window. We got off and it turned out to be one of the best decisions of the trip.
You understand Tokyo at street level. You understand its scale from above. The second one you can't get anywhere else.
Skytree is taller. Shibuya Sky has the better outdoor deck. Tokyo Tower is still the one you can't stop looking at.
Forty thousand people, a gyudon at 11am, and a horse called Vodka. You don't need to understand horse racing to have a great time here.
There's a snobbery about conveyor belt sushi I held for too long. Then I ate at a good one in Tokyo and quietly dropped it.
2024
Saikoh Shinkan does Cantonese dim sum — roast duck, mapo tofu, sweet & sour pork — and it's one of the best arguments for what Japanese precision does to other cuisines.
Every trip involves at least one late-night konbini run that turns into forty minutes of genuine deliberation. This is not a problem.
2023
Grilled eel over rice sounds simple. At the right place in Tokyo, it's one of the best things you'll eat in Japan.
Osaka's signature dish — skewers of anything and everything, battered and fried — and the one golden rule you must never break.
Kobe is famous for beef, but the soba we found on a back street might have been the better meal.
We have a rule about chain restaurants. Japan keeps making us break it.
Back home a chicken skewer is an afterthought. In Japan it's a discipline.
Yakiniku puts a grill in the table and lets you cook your own meat. It sounds like a gimmick. It isn't.
You've seen the photo so many times it almost doesn't feel real. Then you're standing in front of it.
Osaka has a different energy to Tokyo — louder, more chaotic, less self-conscious. Dotonbori at night is where it concentrates.
I don't exercise on holiday, I eat whatever I want, and I come back fine. Here's why Japan lets you get away with it.
2022
Koyo season, temple crowds, and why the most photogenic city in Japan is still worth the effort every single time.
The fabric dividers hanging in Japanese doorways tell you more about a place than any guidebook.
We have one simple heuristic for finding good ramen in a new city. It hasn't let us down yet.
A Taiwanese chain, a Japanese queue, and the best soup dumplings we've eaten outside of Taipei.
Japanese city parks are clean, quiet, and often beautiful. Running through them before breakfast is one of the better habits we've picked up.
After a full day on your feet eating and sightseeing, a slow lap of a Japanese garden hits different.