DigDoug's "Where to Go in Japan?" Thread
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KouAidou
二番目の翻訳者
You'd probably want to do google searches and look for their official sites. They'll usually have an English page with a rail map and the address. (Do you know how Japanese addresses work? They can be a real pain to deal with.) Here's the one for the Edo-Tokyo museum. The district it's in is also a historical district, and a big district for Sumo wrestling, so it can be fun to just wander around and look at the billboards and advertisements there, too.
Here's the one for Mandarake. It's not hard to get there: Take the train to Shibuya Station, leave by the Hachiko Exit. Turn right, cross diagonally at the huge four-way intersection. Go down the street and turn left onto Inokashira-doori -- there'll be a street sign indicating it. You'll see in the distance a big sign for the store Tokyu Hands. Mandarake is on the left just across from it. It'll be a little bit spooky -- you have to go down like 5 flights of steps and it looks like you're going into a dungeon -- but trust me, it's soooo worth it.
Oh, and as long as you're in Shibuya, don't forget to stop by the Hachiko statue (just outside the Hachiko exit). It's fairly small, but it's a huge Japanese cultural touchstone, you see it referenced in a lot of their media. It's a big meeting point.
It's a bit hard for me to recommend restaurants, but I would say, never pass up the chance to eat at a little family-owned shop, or at an open-air festival cart for taiyaki, takoyaki, or yakitori. What kind of food do you like? (In the general sense of spicy, noodles, meat, fried, veggies, etc.) I can give you some dishes to look out for.
One of the nice things about Japanese restaurants is that they often provide wax mockups of the dishes they serve in the window. If you don't speak Japanese, you can just point to the one that looks interesting. There is no reason to limit yourself to Americanized fast food in Japan (unless you really, really want to).
Even if the giant Gundam is gone, Harumi Futo Park is in the same area and is probably worth visiting if you can. I never got to go there myself, but it's another place where they film almost EVERYTHING in Toku. :anime:
Oh! And if you go to Tokyo Tower, try to visit Zojoji Temple, which is right nearby. It's the temple where Tokugawa Ieyasu (the third of the three unifiers of Japan) was buried. It's a beautiful historical site. You can see a tree that was planted there by President Grant 150 years ago, and a gate that was one of the only things that survived the fires of the Great Kanto Earthquake in the 1920s.
(If you're a fan of Shinkenger, they also filmed a couple of scenes there. I nearly jumped out of my seat when I saw them...)
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