DaBestSpoona

Just went to Tokyo-Fukouka-Kyoto-Kanazawa with a baby for a month that shit was rough.  Sakura Prince Tower in Shinagawa is the best bang for the buck hotel, super swank, under 200 a night for a 650 sq ft room, but Shinagawa blows.  

Saw Yonehara Ryoko a few weeks ago at Roppongi Hills, what kick ass bod.

it's fucking crazy that all these californians and hawaiians (i don't mean the aboriginals) always tell me how much they like shabu. it's like a sunday dinner you'd have with your folks with sazae-san on in the background. i’ve been to imahan for sukiyaki lunch, and it was great. 

 

i'm probably doing a bunch of lunches this time. nothing crazy for dinners. 

 

i had no idea that was the reason why people always told me that they had to use hotel concierge to book. i usually go with my folks so it's never been a problem. interesting. i think it has a lot to do with the fact that the mainlanders (sorry to be judgmental but yeah) just make reservations at a bunch of michelin starred restaurants and choose one based on their mood for the day, and totally ditch the other outstanding reservations. may not be true but from i've been told that's the reason why they stopped taking reservations from farrin people. the japanese are inherently polite and like to adhere to schedule – no show is more like a westerner phenomenon. 

I know quite a few people in the restaurant business.  Never heard about mainland chinese but I dont doubt it lol mostly wealthy Americans who will probably go to Tokyo try to book the "best" with a few backups and hope they get lucky with scoring a reservation and never go back so they dont give a fuck.  Mizutani told me he doesnt like Americans because they complain they want no hikarimono, no shellfish, when he has a planned menu based on whats best available, ask for wine pairings when he doesnt have wine, bitch that he only has one type of sake,.  When my wife used to book michelin starred restaurants, she used to give her US number, now she has to give her home address and phone in Kyushu.

People eat shabu at home, and pass out under the kotatsu.  Kind of a waste to spend 20000-30000yen to par boil some A5 Saga gyu  

If your GF is fluent, she should know about 2chome, tabelog and how to make reservations over the telephone.  FYI you will probably need to have a japan local phone number to confirm reservations for most Michelin starred\high Tabelog ranked places as well(only a few places will take a foreign number for confirmation), otherwise you got to stay at 5 star like the Tokyo Station Hotel and make use of their concierge.  Also you probably should had made reservations 1-2 months ago.  Oh yeah bring cash, one of the stupidest thing about Japan is paying cash for 80000yen meal in cash, the 2nd stupidest is going to the ATM to get cash for said meal and find out that ATMs shutdown at 9pm.  

Not being a dick, okay maybe I am but a lot of your questions could have been answered by using common sense and google.

Trader Joes stuff works when in a pinch for omiyage, and maybe strand bags lol

Japan pays indian outsourcer salaries for tech jobs.  

Have you heard about that new tempura place opened by Ootoya group? I heard it's like $200+ per person (factoring in drinks and tip – that's more like $300). "High-end" in the US is very expensive. My friends and I did a trip to Vegas, and we were like "even if you go all out, you just CANNNOT spend this much in Tokyo."

 

I live in a pretty shitty area right now. Nowadays, I go out for lunch even in a city that is considered "affordable". I'm still paying close to $20 for a lunch wo boozing. Then again, I was astonished to learn places like Portland, OR where beers are like $3, oragnic smoothies are $3.50, and artisananl burgers are $9, did still exist in America. 

 

What I think makes Japan expensive is all the ä½æ°‘税 and other misc. taxes you have to pay. It's hard to assess this b/c I have compared the tax deduction from a Japanese salaryman's paycheck (who makes comparable $) vs. mine, but their net income is more than mine. 

 

I know a bunch of Eigo Sensei who post curated pics on IG and get hundreds of likes for posting everyday food. Japanese food that might cost you $30+ here can be had for <$10. Shit, there's like simply NO food option that can be had for less than $10 in the US now (unless you go to BK, or McD). Eating out in Japan is "easier" than it is here, I think. Also, most of the time, I go to restaurants here expecting to walk out with disappointment and throw my money away.

 

Life in America is overrated, but work condition in Japan, from what I've heard through my family and friends, is dire (can't speak for Gaishi-kei ballers). To me, the only benefit of living in the US is the access to deeply discounted clothes that won't ever go on (or make it to) sale in Tokyo.

 

Then again, EC sites have gotten so good that you could do window shopping in Tokyo and buy everything from end, mrporter, or the corner (it's basically what I do). 

I want to try the tempura place, but I'm okay waiting to go eat Tempura when I am in Japan.  Vegas is just overpriced and mediocre all around. NY is overpriced but we have some good food.

Japanese taxes are in general lower, but salaries in Tokyo overall there are pretty low compared to NY and SF, but the cost of going out in NY and SF is ridiculous compared to Tokyo.  When we cant cook, its hard to go out without spending like 60 for two ppl for a mediocre meal.   60 in Tokyo, you're eating at a place frequented by former prime ministers, talento, baseball players, and models.

Working in Japan vs US, def US is so much better.  Japan you work long hours for no reason other than everyone is doing it, no VPN, you have to be here because everyone is so inefficient.  My wife works at SMBC, they hire so many people whose jobs are to do stupid menial tasks like take newspapers out of conference rooms, hand out mail from the interoffice mail at the end of each row of cubicles, are forced to look busy all day, work late, actually do at most a half hour worth of work that "executives are too "busy" to do.   In the US, its like there is usually an actual purpose for working late, and its headed towards employers finding creative ways to keep you in the office longer like yoga at 5, dinner served at 6:30, unlimited sick days and time off.

Its because of the ridiculous commercial rent in NYC which why we cant have 10 dollar meals.  Landlords here can sit on empty property for months to years and just wait it out until someone will pay their asking without penalty,and I think they get tax breaks for lack of rent roll.  BTW the rent for the new Tsurutontan opening up in Union Sq is 650K USD a year.

shit in nyc is hella overpriced. when wypipo are like "i heard tokyo is expensive" im always like fuck no, go back to willyburg

NYC is home of 20 dollar ramen +extra for nitamago and lunch for two at Ootoya is 60 bucks. We do have 80% off Hermes sample sales though.  I gotta fucking move.

Never took note of this before, cus we didnt care before.  I'm contemplating taking my kid to see his aunts, uncles and grandparents in Nov.   How baby friendly are most shops in Tokyo that arent dept stores, uniqlo, muji?  I know we can eat at Dept Store, Kaiten sushi, and Royal host type restaurants, any regular places we can eat at?    He will probably be too heavy for an ergo baby, so I will have to use a stroller.

Its okay, nothing special unless you like a variety of toppings on your burgers.  Maybe they will source better meat from Japan instead of that bland grassfed shit they have in NY.

Nomura is modern techwise in the US, saw them present at a conference about their real time trading analytics.  I was specifically referring to Instinet, what happened to them?  I havent seen any press releases in a while about their volume. 

sometimes i think the japanese IT people are fucking retarded. they just can't come up with innovative ideas. it's a blatant knock off of mistobox. they just can't fucking create any gamechangers ala uber. i know that the whole culture is about "出るæ­ã¯æ‰“ãŸã‚Œã‚‹" but all they seem to do is to circle jerk.  if i see something new from japan, 99% of the time it's a knock off of some bay-area based startup's idea. 

 

Also, japanese people who work in IT constantly share bullshit clickbait articles and æ„識高ã„ç³» inspirational stories. So stupid.

 

Gone are ye olde days when companies like Sony actually put out interesting products. 

 

I recently bought a TV in the US and my friend was like "oh did you buy a sony? a panasonic?" i was like fuck no, i bought a korean tv because they look good, cheap, and last a long time. no fucking "sony timer". also, japanese products kinda disappeared from the appliance world. it's either korean or american. sucks that something the japanese used to be so proud of is like getting phased out everywhere.

 

even videogames. gross generalization but japanese games SUCK now. 

Sony still makes the best TVs at the top end, XBR series still highly reviewed.  Panasonic was well regarded for the best picture quality for their plasmas up until last year.

All the Japanese ppl in tech doing big thingz are living life in Palo Alto and SF.  Why make 40k a year in Tokyo when you easily pull 130-160k in the states.  Ruby is still pretty hot.  

My company tried to push block trades, automation, algos, data analytics, and modern order management into the Japanese market, and its pretty much the only market where we were not successful in penetrating.  Nobody over there seems to be interested in modernizing stock trades, they rather use paper/pencil/phones calls.  Nomura bought one of our biggest competitors and did nothing with it, just let a once successful company rot.  Nothing is going to improve there tech wise as long as lifers make all the decisions and not take risks.    

^

interesting read, so why are the Donut Plant donuts in Tokyo so awful?  Bad localization?      

I stay in Shinjuku because its easy from the south exit, no navigating the maze to get to\from trains\narita express\shinkansen .  Dont have to deal with ppl giving me dirty looks on the local lines because of my 150lbs of my giant rimowas, and screaming baby.

Maybe a pur or brita?  I have this giant charcoal filter thing under my sink, its sold by some cult my mother in law belongs to. 

Spring water has a lot of minerals.  According to Wikipedia Dasani is reverse osmosis and minerals added afterwards.  

somone educate me on metal aeropress filters.

 

apparently, the us aeropress champ used an artisanal japanese made metal filter. 

 

your thoughts on this? (or other metal filters)

I have the able one, and some other one from kickstarter.

Its personal preference, you get a cup thats more similar to a french press, and sediment comes through.  

I'm experimenting. I didn't like it at low temp like 85 degs. Now I do 95. It came out too dark. Then again, if I do dilute it, it tastes like crap. I've had really good cups of aeropress at coffee shops so I must be doing something wrong. Maybe I should steep less. Maybe I  shouldn't sitr. Hmm.

Do you have a water filter?  Some shops use either reverse osmosis water filter or the japanese charcoal one.

kimmy schmidt was pretty good, esp for first season. (slows a bit during last arc)

 

 

fortitude is sick

 

the 100 is cool

 

empire is very watchable

Kimmy Schmidt could get it

My wife wants to go to Budoya and Tomato.  Finally checked out the main branch of Camp in Yoyogi on my last visit, really like it a lot.

Herp send me some prepackage curry from places you like.   I cant go to Japan for bit.  

I think Kayser is fine for things like croisants but I find their breads are kind of bland, tried quite a few times.  And the texture kinda reminds me of the bread served at italian restaurants in Tokyo.  Bouchon is very good, but my wife's cc got cloned there by a worker, probably wont go back.  That place near Lumine is basically Japanese sho pan made to look like baguettes.  Dean and Deluca is pretty good and they carry everything. 

Trader Joes Tuscan Pane and their new San Fran Sourdough, TomCat are pretty good for store brand bread.  Actually Tom Cat's baguette is quite good.

Kasper where do you buy bread?  In NY I buy bread from Lafayette, Bien Cuit, Il Bucco, and Sullivan St.  I tried the famous places in Tokyo like Viron, that one near Shinjuku Lumine that housewives line up because theres a handsome french guy, and they dont compare.  Is it me does Maison Kayser suck worldwide, tried it in Paris, Tokyo and NY.

Pastries, cakes yes.  I fucking love Harbs which just opened up not too far me.  Bread is debatable.  In Tokyo is still kind of tough to find the more hearty and long fermented\proofed european breads.  You will find lots of bread that looks like pain de champange, but inside the texture is like sho pan.  Dont get me wrong I love sho pan, those fancy Robuchon curry pans, yakisoba pan, but often I find myself wanting a hard, crusty,sour piece of bread with french butter and sea salt.

^^

which place is that sschadenfreude?

would have been cooler if they could fit a ps4 into a ps1 body.

I'm gonna get a lot of shit for this but reddit.com/r/coffee is pretty good for NYC recommendations. I'd stay away from La colombe though, terrible all around for single-origin coffee/espresso. 

La Colombe doesnt do single origin, unless things changed, they only do blends.  Ever watch the La Colombe show on Travel Channel, he really sets you up for disappointment when you actually goto the store and get a shot.