Tokyo again

Getting there and away: This time we flew Skymark, which offered by far the most inexpensive fare to Tokyo. Even though they are the discount airline in Japan, the service, seats, and snacks were all as good as JAL or ANA. Taking the train and metro into the city is not difficult, involves 1-2 changes or line, and costs around 700Y. Hyperedia is a fantastic website that will plot out your journey in Japan - just enter the start point and destination and it will list different ways to get there, in order of quickest to slower. http://www.japanrail.com/JR_hyperdia.html Get a PASMO card and use it throughout your stay. Then get a refund on it at Haneda. Be aware, you cannot get a refund on Suica at any non-JR station. But there are convenience shops in the airport where you can drain down a Suica balance.

Where to stay: We again had reservations at the New Sanno. We discovered they have Japanese tatami suites for approx 80$ a night which include a view of the Zen garden, a superlush and cozy futon, a sitting room, and a deep bathtub. The New Sanno also has a "single room" which is a double bed in a room without a sofa/coffee table. This is several dollars cheaper than the standard double room.

Where to eat: In Hiroo, we enjoyed the Yakitori-ya on the main restaurant road (west from the metro station). It is on the ground floor, with a bar in front of the open kitchen and several long picnic-style tables. Shochu cocktails (try oolong and green tea) and wine are 430Y, beer is 550Y. There is no cover, but a one drink minimum. They have a rotating specials board from which we enjoyed grilled squid, a lovely tuna carpaccio with mustard sauce, a cheese and avocado salad, and gingko nuts. From the main menu we had a sampling of yakitori, especially enjoying the beef, the unagi, and the shitake. Also, the boiled dumplings were quite tasty. There is an English menu and the staff also speak English; the crowd is a nice mix of locals, tourists, Japanese, and gaijin various. We also loved the very small tapas joint called Tres Ramas, which can be reached by walking west on the main restaurant road, making the mandatory left turn, and continuing along that street for a block or two. This is for serious tapas aficiados - there are only 10 chairs at a bar, and the proprietress speaks only Japanese and some Spanish. There is no English menu. She offers wine by the bottle (starting at 2300Y and up) or beer for 600Y. On the bar there are plates of her tapas creations (700-1500Y each) - calamares en su tinta, atun y verduras, albondigas, paella, lentejas, and others. You may also order manchego cheese, jamon iberico, and several other classics like gambas al ajillo and championes rellenos. Each dish was really great, very authentic, and she serves them with bread an a few olives. There were a few other places we enjoyed that are a subway ride away from Hiroo. At Ebisu JR station, on the 5th floor of the ATRE complex, are a bunch of restaurants, including a respectable little Thai joint doing inexpensive lunch sets. There is a fantastic, and very popular, French place called Casse Croute in Meguro (http://www.bento.com/rev/0297.html) which does a 1500Y 3 course lunch set. There is a rotating set menu that allows for choice of 1 of 4 starters, 1 of4 mains, and 1 of 2 desserts. We had the house chartucerie and a white bean soup for starters, mains of roast lamb and white fish with veg in wine sauce, and for dessert a delicious apple cake covered in burnt sugar sorbet. In Roppongi, we went to Moti (http://www.bento.com/rev/0512.html), which has tacky decor and slightly inflated prices, but the curry was better than expected. We also ate some quite unremarkable food. Avoidance of cheap Chinese-Japanese lunch diners is recommended. We also had a couple bentos from the Tokyo Main Station that looked a lot better than they tasted.

What to do: We got a GRUTT pass and tried to take full advantage of it. For 2000Y, you get free or reduced admission to most of Tokyo's museums and galleries. These can be purchased at any participating venue. A list of these can be found on http://www.museum.or.jp/grutto/about-e.html. The pass is good for 2 months after purchase. Admission to museums is 300-1000Y each, so if you will be in Tokyo for more than a few days, you can easily save money. This is especially true if you visit during a rainy period and visit museums to seek shelter from bad weather.

A selection of museums included on the GRUTT pass:

Ebisu and Meguro

The Photography museum in Ebisu had a nice show of photos from USA 1950-70s.

The Meguro Museum of Art had a daring but somewhat uninteresting sampling of aged textiles and photos of scars, hands, and feet.

Especially noteworthy is the Teien Art Museum in Meguro, which is a remarkable Art Deco building with various pieces from the era. Admission also allows a stroll in the gardens. The GRUTT pass also works for the adjacent Center for Nature Study, which is a large and unsculpted green space.

Central Tokyo and Ueno

The Bridgestone museum (Imperial Palace area) has quite an extensive array of impressionist paintings and Rodin sculpture.

The National Museum of Modern Art (Imperial Palace area) boasts an interesting building, an OK collection, and a fantastic rotating display during our visit. It is right across the road from the Imperial Garden area, which is worth a stroll.

The Shitamachi museum is a small space in Ueno park that has a couple of reproduced pre-war urban Tokyo houses, and friendly English speaking guides who explain the exhibits.

Shinjuku

The Sompo museum has a couple of famous pieces, like Sunflowers, and does rotating shows.

Odaiba

The Miraikan museum of emerging science is good for kids with lots of hands-on stations. On a rainy Sunday, this place was overrun with Japanese families and the three eating options in the museum were each packed to capacity. The Maritime Museum has lots and lots of model ships. Be aware that it is some distance from these museums to all the other attractions on Odaiba. It is almost a kilometer to the malls/eating areas and the seaside beach park. The LP discusses an Odaiba metro pass for those who want to spend the whole day there and hop on and off the train system to get from place to place.

We also paid a few admission charges. The Koishikawa Korakuen Garden north of the Imperial Palace is a really beautiful traditional strolling garden (300Y). In Ueno, the National Museum of Western Art (approx 400Y) has a sculpture garden and a couple nice modern pieces mixed in with plenty of dull religious art from earlier periods.

Other city spots worth a visit are Ginza and Shibuya in the evening, especially on weekends. We also enjoyed the Yebisu Beer museum (free, in Ebisu) and the spectacle of its tasting room, where virtually everyone gets the 500Y sampler of 4 beers, but there is the occasional older gentleman who treats the place as an inexpensive bar and downs Guinness after Guinness.