My turn for a Japan trip

Gonna spend about 3 weeks in Japan from mid Dec to early Jan. Will be in Kyoto and Tokyo for sure, another other suggestions that's good for that time for year?

Will also be my wife's bday, she wants to spend it in a Ryokan with a good dinner + traditional breakfast. Any recs for that?

Also, what should I buy other thank knives and stones?

Thanks!

oh man..have fun!!

when my feet hit the ground in Tokyo, all ideas i had about knives evaporated. i barely even looked at them. i went into one knife shop and left..almost "bored" (gasp). it is such sensory overload over there, knives was barely a blip on the radar for me. i just wanted to soak it all in. you see the guys at the fish markets, where ever using knives and they seem to simply think of them as simple tools.

food, people watching..some robot war thing..(sorry, my wife dragged me..and i had a blast).. my head was blown clean off there. i got on this Japan Whiskey thing..

man, have fun!! i'm going back!!! soon. very soon.

boomchakabowwow said:

.. you see the guys at the fish markets, where ever using knives and they seem to simply think of them as simple tools..

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Refreshing, isn't it? And nary a custom handle in sight.

Asteger said:

Refreshing, isn't it? And nary a custom handle in sight.

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The Owner/chef at my fav sushi restaurant here in Toronto uses and Yanagiba that's probably pretty old. You can tell cause it's became short from sharpening, and the ho handle is all worn to the shape of his grip. To me, that's interesting, cause you can just imagine the history.

Anyway, any thoughts on going to Kanazawa? Was thinking of going there to eat.

You gotta book a Jiro's sushi while in tokyo. It literally transformed my understanding about sushi. Go to the one in Roppongi hills (younger son), he and his sous speaks good english

pkjames said:

You gotta book a Jiro's sushi while in tokyo. It literally transformed my understanding about sushi. Go to the one in Roppongi hills (younger son), he and his sous speaks good english

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Lucky man. I wasn't about to go in last time I was there, what with a 2 year-old-ish daughter as a dining companion. I was told it was a 1-month wait, too, but I'm sure people will be writing about that somewhere in netland if you need to check. The Roppongi option sounds like an excellent suggestion; you can also go up to the top floor in the tower there.

the convention of booking in Japan works like this: the first working day of each month opens the booking of the coming month. So if you were to go to a restaurant on 15th of October, the earliest time you can book is 1st of September (assuming it's a working day).

I really like this system.