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ELLE travel: Tokyo
Find your Zen in the Asia's most happening city.
By Guy Saddy
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Harajuku girls downtown Tokyo
Image courtesy Guy Saddy
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Check out ELLE's photo gallery of things to see in Hong Kong!
Reputation
Prohibitively expensive, overcrowded and polluted.
Reality
The prices aren't out of reach, and the sidewalks are so clean -- and, for the most part, not particularly jammed -- you could eat sashimi off them.
How to get around Once you get the hang of it, the Tokyo subway is an efficient, reasonably priced way to explore the city.
Where to stay
The Imperial Hotel, Tokyo (www.imperialhotel.co.jp) remains one of Tokyo's finest and busiest hotels -- as popular for its proximity to the chic stores of Ginza as for its packed lobby lounge. Although its 1923-vintage Frank Lloyd Wright-designed predecessor was torn down in the late 1960s, the facade was saved and rebuilt outside Nagoya. Alternatives? Thanks in part to its exposure in Lost in Translation, the Park Hyatt Tokyo (www.tokyo.park.hyatt.com) gets a lot of attention, but the newer Grand Hyatt Tokyo (www.tokyo.grand.hyatt.com) in sprawling Roppongi Hills -- Tokyo's most ambitious shopping and entertainment complex -- has stolen some of its thunder. Choose a west-facing room and wake up to a view of Mount Fuji, or chill out in one of its 10 restaurants and bars -- Roku Roku and The French Kitchen Bar are the most buzz-worthy.
Where to shop
Wander down Takeshita Dori, a narrow avenue made famous by over-the-top Harajuku girls. For the full-on Gothic Lolita experience, shop at Takenoko. Just a stroll away is Omotesando Dori -- often described as Tokyo's Champs Élysées -- where luxe stores such as Christian Dior, Prada, Marimekko and Comme des Garçons share the street with Japanese stars like Issey Miyake. For the super-distressed jeans that all the cool kids are wearing, try Heddie Lovu in the new Omotesando Hills. h And don't ignore posh Ginza, where even stationery stores like Ito-Ya are cutting edge. If you're not buying, it's still worth a trip to the area's swish Mitsukoshi or Matsuya department stores to witness how much care the staff takes to wrap even a simple Agnès B. tee.
Where to play
Tokyo is built vertically: a second-floor location -- a death kiss in Canada -- is a superior retail berth in a city where even seventh-floor restaurants are packed. Small bars and clubs come to life after dark in Shinjuku, a neighbourhood so lit with neon it resembles a scene from Blade Runner -- without the grit. However, we were warned-while sipping Scotch in a basement-level, grotto-style bar -- that the area is popular with yakuza, or Japanese mafia. Izakaya, or Japanese pubs, are everywhere. But for a truly varied choice of small restaurants, head to Ginza Corridor Street, where you'll find a strip of lively -- and generally affordable -- joints that range from the "N.Y.-style" dining of LOB (intimate booths and diner-style cheesecake) to the Japanese stone-grill cooking of Shichirin-ya.
Where to hide away
Visit Sensoji, Tokyo's oldest Buddhist temple, with its main hall -- Hondo -- featuring a tiled roof, burnished wood walls, ornate brass work and red lacquer trim. If you have the time to explore it, the Japanese countryside is a revelation: mountainous and rugged, with great swaths of undeveloped land. To experience the simple life, take a side trip to Shirakawa-go, a UNESCO World Heritage Site filled with steeply pitched, thatched-roof, Gassho-style houses from the 1800s. For a taste of sake, travel a little farther south to Takayama, where preserved samurai-era streets house breweries that serve Japan's famous rice wine cold-and strong.
Think your spa is nice? Check out these specialty Thai treatments!
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