This was our last tourist day in Japan. We had all of the next day, but it had enough travel logistics, that this was our final day in Tokyo.
I heard about a neighborhood called Yanaka and wanted to visit it. It is called Cat Town because of the number of stray cats. This area is one of the few that has pre-war buildings, narrow alleys, small temples, and tranquil streets, giving it a nostalgic “real old Tokyo” vibe. Yanaka is filled with charming temples, shrines, and the sprawling Yanaka Cemetery. There was a famous shopping street called Yanaka Ginza that had a lot to offer, but we arrived a little too early, so most of it was closed. We decided to explore the Yanaka Cemetery to get some shade, and then we made our way to the Japanese green tea shop called Thés Du Japon.
I had hoped we could have a matcha tasting at the store, but unfortunately, I was wrong. It was mostly for tea buying. It was not a cafe. I bought some very nice tea, and then we had lunch at Ramen Hidamari. We had to line up to get in and then use the vending machine to buy a ticket before entering. It seemed very local in that sense, and we both had a great bowl of noodles. This was not a fancy noodle place like our first lunch in Tokyo, but it was good. If you find yourself in Yanaka, it’s certainly worth a lunch visit. I am glad we visited Yanaka, but we did not see one cat.
The rest of our day was spent packing and shutting down our life in Japan, because we had a very nice dinner reservation. Samer made us a reservation at the 2-Michelin-starred restaurant Myoujyaku (明寂). It is a high-end kaiseki restaurant tucked into a quiet residential street. The chef is Hidetoshi Nakamura, and this restaurant is ranked No. 45 in Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025. It is a 14-course omakase course; it is certainly Japanese, but there are some French elements as well.
We basically had our waiter who was able to translate for the chef and describe our food to us in English. The rest of the restaurant would hear it directly from the chef. That was a lovely touch, but it made us feel separate from everyone else.
I have now been to a couple of Michelin-starred restaurants, and they are silly. The chef’s philosophy around some specific culinary rabbit hole is always lost on me. Chef Nakamura makes water his cornerstone. He brings his water in from the Miyazu Gulf and leans into the purity of ingredients by cooking vegetables in submarine spring water, seasoning only with salt. Even soba noodles are made using pure water from Kanazawa. One funny thing about this meal was the party gift. These restaurants often give you something small to take home. Often a cookie or a biscuit. A sweet you can have later. That is what we assumed they have us and didn’t look at in until we got back to the USA. It was cooked rice!
After dinner, we visited The Mori Art Museum (森美術館), one of Tokyo’s contemporary art museums, situated on the 53rd floor of the iconic Roppongi Hills Mori Tower. We saw three exhibits: MACHINE LOVE: Video Game, AI and Contemporary Art, MAM Research 011: Tokyo Underground 1960–70s, and MAM Collection 019: Viewpoint – Haruki Maiko, Katayama Mari, Yoneda Tomoko.
There is a lot of creativity happening in the digital art space, and I know I am a bit dismissive of it all. So, MACHINE LOVE was me leaving my artistic safe space. Most of it didn’t stick with me, but the final piece was Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler’s Calculating Empires: A Genealogy of Technology and Power Since 1500 (2023), which I loved. Perhaps I liked it because it was one of the few things not on a screen or in motion. It’s so expansive and detailed that when standing around it, it does feel like an immersive experience.
After an evening of decadent food and art, we made our way back to Shinjuku. There was a little more packing to do, so we finished the night shutting down the AirBnb.
Next: Japan – Day 13: Tokyo