According to the Tokyo expats we met, we would not find a candidate for our Local Knowledge Tokyo guide. “Tokyo locals aren’t friendly,” we were told. “They’re shy, so they won’t make an effort to speak to you,” one said. “They’d rather you just go away, because they get embarrassed they don’t speak English,” said another. “They actually don’t want you here at all,” said one rather bitter and twisted long-term expat. How wrong they were.
Every day in Tokyo brought myriad encounters with locals that made myths of this advice from Japanese expats who had clearly become jaded. At the Akasaka Metro on our first day in Tokyo a businessman offered tips and assistance with buying the best train tickets.
As we studied our map having taken a wrong street returning to our Akasaka apartment, an office worker offered to assist, going as far as to walk us down to the end of the street from which he’d just come to show us the right way home. Then walk all the way back again.
One night, looking for an Akasaka restaurant with signage only in Japanese we asked staff at a soba restaurant to point us in the right direction. Instead, the kimono-clad hostess slipped on her wooden shoes, grabbed a parasol, and gestured for us to follow her – in the rain, around the corner, to the next block, and down another lane – to our restaurant.
Another evening, we were standing outside our apartment block looking at a map and discussing the best route to take, when a young couple asked if we’re lost. We weren’t, but we accepted their advice and – as they turned out to be so lovely – their offer to show us the best way to our destination, a 15-minute stroll away.
“We’ve just had a big dinner and need a walk,” they insisted. But as we walked and talked, we discovered that over their meal, the young just-married couple – the wife, Kazuki, a marketing and sales executive, and her husband, Tetsu, a restaurant manager – had just made a resolution to help foreigners who looked like they needed some help.
“We were talking about how we see so many tourists in Tokyo who look a bit lost, and they seem too shy to approach Japanese people,” Tetsu explained. “As we’ve both travelled we know how the foreigners must feel, so we decided that we would help anyone who looked like they needed it!” We were lucky to be the first.
And then there is Yuto from Tokyo, a graphic designer we meet at a yakitori place on Omoide Yokocho in Shinjuku, who not only recommends dishes, helps us order, buys us a round of drinks, he gives us so much local advice that we invite him to be our Tokyo local expert for our Local Guide to Tokyo for our Local Knowledge series.
Yuto accepts, of course. Because all the Japanese people we’ve met have gone out of their way to help and been generous with time and assistance, contrary to what we were told. Which is how we found ourself shooting Yuto’s portrait at Shibuya Crossing – at midnight and in the rain.
Local Knowledge: Yuto from Tokyo and A Local Guide to Tokyo
We meet Yuto Yamada – who looks like a hipster out of a Wong Kar Wai film – and his friend at a smoky yakitori place down an atmospheric alleyway beside Shinjuku railway line. Heavy metal music is blaring, the owner is sporting an Ozzy Osbourne t-shirt and, fittingly, the patrons are drunk or well on the way to it.
Of course there’s no menu in English and we have to wait for a couple of guys to stumble off into the night to get a couple of seats at the bar. We sample a few skewers before Yuto, who is sitting next to us with a friends, offers to translate our next order to the yakitori guys, and recommends the raw liver in sesame oil – one of the main dishes he comes here for.
We take it as a test of our ability to fit in – which we relish. The dish is absolutely delish and we can tell we’ve earned their respect. Yuto explains that he and his friend are graphic designers and that they consider this place to be the best on the strip of yakitori joints in Omoide Yokocho. It’s certainly the most fun!
Yuto has lived in New York, where he worked in a clothing store while learning English. He admits he’s shy, but it doesn’t stop him from helping us and offering advice, asking whether we’ve done this or that: “Have you been to Shibuya? What about Harajuku?” he asks. He and his friend insist on buying us drinks.
We exchange cards and the next morning he emails us: “It was nice meeting you guys last night. I checked your blog. I like your photography. Did you go Tukiji fish market? I forgot to tell you last night. They have the best sushi in Japan. If not, you have to check it out in the morning.”
It makes sense to invite Yuto to be our Local Knowledge expert for our Local Guide to Tokyo. He accepts immediately.
When we arrange to meet Yuto to shoot his portrait, he suggests midnight at a Shiubya club where he’s heading to meet friends. After one too many bad experiences photographing clubs for travel guidebooks, Terence refuses to ever enter a nightclub again with a camera. We suggest meeting up before Yuto meets his mates and agree on midnight at Shibuya crossing instead, seeing Shibuya is one of Yuto’s favorite places to hang out.
An hour later, a little damp after our photo shoot in the rain, we’re perched on stools, digging our toes into shag-pile carpet as we down beers and potent caipirinhas amidst the retro red interior and mirrors at Yuto’s favourite Shibuya bar, Insomnia Lounge.
A Local Guide to Tokyo by Yuto Yamada
Here’s our local guide to Tokyo by our local expert, Yuto Yamada.
Q. What do you most love about your work as a designer?
A. I can earn a living with my art work at the same time that I can make my clients happy.
Q. Why should travellers visit Tokyo?
A. In Tokyo people can experience a mix of new and old stuff in a crazy big city. In every season there are different ways of enjoying Tokyo. Stay longer and you can really do lots of things and see so many places.
Q. 3 ways to describe Tokyo?
A. A big city, a crowded city, and a city that never sleeps.
Q. And the people of Tokyo?
A. Cool, busy, and original.
Q. Top recommendations for visitors?
A. Visit Tokyo Tower and Roppongi Hills just so you can really check out the concrete jungle we all live in here in Tokyo. Go to Shibuya, which is the best spot to hang out for shops, izakaya (bars), clubs and more. Spend some time in Asakusa, which is one of most traditional Tokyo neighbourhoods with temples and old shopping streets.
Q. Best souvenir from Tokyo?
A. Some Japanese incense or a green tea set. They’re both cheap and useful. You can find these and other great souvenirs at Oriental Bazaar at Harajuku.
Q. Must-do eating experiences?
A. Visit the outer market at Tsukiji fish market, where you can eat the best sushi in Tokyo and you can see how the local fishmongers trade seafood, especially tuna, early in morning. Go to an izakaya, a typical Japanese bar where you can eat and drink a wide range of typical Japanese food and sake or beer. Shinjuku has many great izakaya bars. Eat Ramen, Japanese noodle. All Japanese people love ramen I think, and the noodles at every ramen shop have a different taste.
Q. An essential thing to know before coming to Tokyo?
A. The trains don’t run 24 hours and the taxis can be a little bit expensive so you need to plan your arrival and plan how you’ll spend your evening.
Q. Most important phrase to learn in Japanese?
A. Kanpai!! of course, especially for people who like to drink. It’s the Japanese toast like ‘cheers!’
Q. Any other advice?
A. You can visit Tokyo anytime, but the best season to visit is in April because it’s cherry blossom season. The city is beautiful and local people party under the cherry blossoms.
Yuto Yamada
www.wix.com/tokyo03/yutoyamada
We normally leave our Local Knowledge posts (interviews we do with locals who have helped us get beneath the skin of a destination), until the end of our two-week stay in a place, however, we thought we’d move this one to the front of the queue as it dispels a lot of myths that seem to exist about Tokyo and its locals.
We didn’t feel that the Japanese were unhelpful – on the contrary, we found them very helpful – but we had a hard time, at first, understanding the culture. In the first two weeks, I liked Japan but by the end of the 4th week, I loved it. Formality plays such a huge part in Japan that we couldn’t wrap our minds around it. Once we started to understand the formality of the country, we absorbed it and loved it and now that we are in Korea, I miss some of that formality.
Hi Akila – totally agree with you. We were astounded that they were so gracious and courteous after everything we’d heard. We hadn’t been to Tokyo in 17 years and the first trip there was nothing in English, everything in Japanese, and it was more challenging then and the Japanese were definitely a little colder, I guess. But this trip has been completely different. And to be honest, we haven’t found it that formal, although – unlike you – we haven’t left Tokyo. The people we’ve met in Tokyo have been very casual, very relaxed – we’ve enjoyed some beers with people having a very good time, so good, we don’t know how they made it home. Like you, we love it. We’d come back in a heartbeat!
We love Tokyo, and Japan in general. On all of our trips we’ve found the people friendly, welcoming and also have many examples of when they’ve gone out of their way to help us or talk to us despite the language barrier. We’ll definitely be back.
Totally agree with you. I always find it odd when people say the Japanese are cold and unfriendly. We’re eager to return too. Thanks for dropping by!
and it was more challenging then and the Japanese were definitely a little colder, I guess. But this trip has been completely different. And to be honest, we haven’t found it that formal, although – unlike you – we haven’t left Tokyo. The people we’ve met in Tokyo have been very casual, very relaxed – we’ve enjoyed some beers with people having a very good time, so good, we don’t know how they made it home. Like you, we love it. We’d come back in a heartbeat!
Ha! Ha! We hear you!
Although I think there might be a bit missing from the first part of your message…?
Re the formality of Tokyoites, it’s like anywhere, so many different kinds of people – different classes, different levels of affluence, different ages, etc, so depending on who you’re socialising with it can be a completely different experience, and I think everywhere is the same. You could go to Bangkok and hang out with wealthy ‘hi-so’ (high society) and it would be much more glam and more formal and you’d have a completely different experience to hanging out with young hipsters in a local bar, which would be more casual. Same in Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, etc. But we love it all. We seem to be able to slip into any scene, whether formal and conservative or cool and casual.
And, yes, like you, we love it all. And, yes, yes, yes, would definitely return in a heartbeat!
Thanks for dropping by! Let us know if you get to Cambodia!