The Journal
Michelin, lineage, and how Japan's restaurants take bookings
Field notes from our Tokyo desk — who is actually reachable and how, the histories behind the counters, and the realistic way in. Written by the people who make these calls every day.
32 articles
Regions & Itineraries
The Genkai Sea, and Why Fukuoka Sushi Tastes Different
What the Genkai Sea actually is, why its fish come up firmer and deeper in flavor, and how Fukuoka's "Hakata-mae" school — black-vinegar rice, citrus, sweet soy — grew out of it.
Regions & Itineraries
Asakusa Food Guide: Eating in Tokyo's Old Town
Asakusa is Tokyo's living old town, where houses measured in centuries still cook Edo-period food. Eat one temple-town snack, then leave the main drag: the great tables sit on the quieter streets around Senso-ji, many bookable the same week.
Regions & Itineraries
Tsukiji vs Toyosu: Tokyo's Fish Markets, Explained
Tokyo has two fish markets and they do different jobs. Toyosu is the working wholesale market — the tuna auctions moved there in 2018, viewable from galleries in the early morning, with serious sushi and donburi restaurants inside. Tsukiji's outer market stayed behind and remains the great street-food morning: knife shops, tamagoyaki stands, uni and tuna over rice. The honest advice: go to Tsukiji for the eating,…
Regions & Itineraries
Best Restaurants in Tokyo You Can Actually Book
Tokyo's famous omakase counters are largely introduction-only, but the city's deepest eating is not there. Its long-running specialist houses — anglerfish, duck sukiyaki, Edo tempura, century-old yakitori — take reservations from outside guests — by telephone in Japanese and, at most of them, on Japanese booking sites such as Tabelog and Ikyu. Plan four to six weeks ahead.
Regions & Itineraries
Ginza Food Guide: How Tokyo's Grandest District Eats
Ginza is the most decorated square mile of dining in the world, its counters hidden in the upper floors and basements of nondescript buildings. The great strategy is lunch, at a third of the evening price. The great discipline is the calendar — Harutaka, Hakkoku and L'Osier open on the 1st, Kiyota on the 20th, Shinohara on the 25th.
Regions & Itineraries
Nagoya Food Guide: Hitsumabushi and the Miso Belt
Nagoya is Japan's most underrated eating city, with a cuisine — Nagoya-meshi — built on dark hatcho miso and found nowhere else. The essential dish is hitsumabushi, grilled eel eaten in three acts, at its most storied at Atsuta Horaiken, the 1873 house credited with inventing it. Around it orbit miso katsu, miso-simmered udon, tebasaki chicken wings and Japan's most extravagant coffee-shop breakfast culture. Most…
Regions & Itineraries
Okinawa Food Guide: Ryukyu Cuisine Beyond the Beaches
Okinawa's food is not southern Japanese cooking — it is the cuisine of the former Ryukyu Kingdom, shaped by centuries of Chinese court influence and its own subtropical larder. The essentials: slow-simmered rafute pork belly, goya champuru stir-fry, Okinawa soba with soki ribs, umibudo sea grapes, island tofu, agu pork — and awamori, Japan's oldest distilled spirit. Naha's old izakaya, led by institutions like…
Regions & Itineraries
Sapporo Food Guide: Miso Ramen, Jingisukan and the Northern Larder
Sapporo is Japan's great cold-climate food city, and its icons are all its own inventions: miso ramen, created in the 1950s at Aji no Sanpei; jingisukan, lamb grilled on domed iron over charcoal; and soup curry, the spice-broth dish the city created and still rules. Around them sits Hokkaido's larder — crab, uni, ikura at the markets, and a French fine-dining tradition led by Restaurant Moliere that quietly rivals…
Regions & Itineraries
Best Kaiseki in Kyoto You Can Actually Book
The bookable kaiseki in Kyoto is almost always lunch. Kikunoi Roan, the Hyotei annex, Kyoto Kitcho's midday course and the tofu kaiseki at Shoraian take reservations with a month or two of lead time. Mizai and Gion Sasaki are effectively closed to strangers — plan around that, not against it.
Regions & Itineraries
Where to Eat Kobe Beef and Wagyu in Japan
Eat certified Kobe beef in Kobe city, where teppanyaki counters sear it to order, or in Tokyo's specialist steakhouses. True Kobe is Tajima-strain Japanese Black from Hyogo, and most travelers also compare it against Matsusaka, Omi, and regional wagyu like Hida.
Regions & Itineraries
Best Restaurants in Osaka You Can Actually Book
Osaka's strength is kappo — seasonal cooking served across a counter — and its street food, above all kushikatsu and oden. The top kappo counters release seats on a monthly schedule, so planning about a month ahead is what wins a table, unlike the walk-in classics. Two houses a short train ride from Umeda — Shunsaiten Tsuchiya for tempura in Suita and Ichijunisai Ueno Minoh for kaiseki in Minoh — show both ends of…
Regions & Itineraries
Best Sushi in Kyoto You Can Actually Book
The best bookable sushi in Kyoto splits in two — the city's own pressed saba-zushi, served walk-in at century-old houses, and its handful of quiet omakase counters. The short list of top counters is small and largely booked through a concierge or hotel rather than online.