More Tokyo Travel Tips

This list is part two of my previous Guide to Tokyo post. Here are some more interesting tips about visiting Tokyo as a short-term traveler.

8. This is probably the cleanest city in the world, but weirdly enough there is no soap in any public washroom. It's so surprising and gross. Bring a small bottle of soap or hand sanitizer with you.

9. Be a lot quieter than usual. Don't talk loudly on the trains, and don't talk at all on the phone. People are coming home from work and they need some peace. In general, just be more polite than usual.

10. If there are too many crowds and find yourself getting overwhelmed, breathe and calm down and take a walk in a park. Yoyogi Koen is easy to find and so is Ueno Koen. Both are on the Yamanote line and they're pretty. If you get off at Harajuku you can walk five minutes out of the station to the Miyajima shrine area, which is like a park. It helps to have some open space and get collected before going back into the crowds.

11. Just so you know, it's not normal Japanese behavior for a guy to come up to you on the street and just start up a conversation out of nowhere. Most people in Tokyo are so awesome and the city feels so safe and perfect that it's easy to forget that it's one of the biggest cities in the world and you should still be careful. I've only had one minor bad experience here out of hundreds of positive experiences so don't even think about it, but remember that if some random man starts chatting you up out of nowhere on the road, it's unusual behavior. Not saying he's going to be a weirdo, just saying it so you'll know that behavior is out of the ordinary in Japan.

12. Travel anywhere is always more fun if you're open to new things. Don't make a plan so rigid that you have every day planned by the hour. Just have some tentative plans and head out happy. I love Tokyo because you can be walking around in the most hyper-modern area and suddenly come across this quiet, fantastic old shrine in the middle of the city. You can be in a sea of men and women in suits and suddenly see some kid wearing the brightest and craziest outfit you've ever seen. It's really exciting.

13. Convenience store food is actually tasty. At home I wouldn't touch 7-11 food (Nachos with wax 'cheese' that looks like melted legos, nasty hot dogs and ham & mayo sandwiches) but here, you can get Onigiri and inari sushi and it's actually good. And it's cheap. I can get full for less than 200 yen (two dollars) from Konbu Onigiri.

14. Eat interesting foods you can't get at home. Try the anko mochi. I used to hate anko but now I absolutely love it. Try natto with rice. Mushrooms taste better here. Try Japanese curry; it's kind of sweet and brown and amazing. Try the amazing tofu. Try bitter goya. Try creme brulee with maccha powder in it. Try yuzu. If you eat meat, everyone says the fish is great here, too.

15. Some neat things you can see here that are different from home:
-Some ladies still wear Kimono and they look so beautiful. I think it's cool that some people still like to wear the traditional clothing. Usually it's just elderly ladies but on festival days or fireworks or fancy events you'll see a lot of Kimonos.
-Tons of people have allergies here and they wear face masks like doctors in public.
-Usually if a middle-aged man and a woman are together on a train and there's only one seat, the guy will sit in it. It's interesting because it's different from home where 'ladies first' is normal. Some younger guys give their seat to girls, though.
-Girls dress really sexy here. It's completely normal to see Japanese girls in thigh-high stockings and five inch heels and a five-inch-long skirt to match or boots that go over the knee. Wow.
-A lot of guys dress really well here. Check out their shoes.
-Adults read comic books. In public.
-Maybe it sounds bad to say it, but you know it's true and it's been said many times before: Really ugly white guys can get really gorgeous girls here and nobody understands why. A gaijin guy can be five feet tall, 40 years old, chubby, balding with scraggly hair, bad skin and cargo shorts and you see him with a very lovely-looking woman. Nobody understands it.

16. There are no garbage cans anywhere. There are vending machines everywhere.

17. People don't usually eat or drink while they're walking.

18. Japanese-style toilets are those ones you crouch to use. You might not be used to it, but I think it's cleaner than western toilets. Even in western-style toilets, Japan has it perfect. Toto toilets have heated seats and all sorts of bidet buttons. You should try them. I have tried everything except for the "powerful deodorizer" button which I'm scared of trying.

I'm trying to think of what I can show my mom here, so if you have any recommendations please let me know what we should do in Tokyo together. She'd probably be interested in miniatures and crafts, traditional temples and shrines and really beautiful places, interesting Japanese food (she's into healthy eating but not necessarily vegetarian so if you can recommend any unique restaurants...). I'm thinking of taking her to Nikko to see the leaves and go to an Onsen. I've never been there. Please recommend places to me or add to my list of things a traveler should know about Tokyo, Japan.