Routes and rail
Kenji Morita
Published work
31 signed pages across 10 collections, biggest section first. Every one carries this byline.
Restaurants 6
- NakiryuTokyoOne of the most decorated ramen counters in Tokyo, a sesame-and-Sichuan-pepper tantanmen, and a queue that forms before it opens.Read
- TamawaraiTokyoA soba specialist that stone-mills its own buckwheat daily and stops serving when the day’s dough runs out, five minutes from Omotesando.Read
- Tonkatsu HinataTokyoA small counter near Takadanobaba frying pork cutlet to a standard that got it into the Michelin guide, at student-district prices.Read
- DenTokyoTwo stars, a counter of about twenty seats, and a kitchen that treats kaiseki as something to enjoy rather than endure.Read
- Monja MugiTokyoA monjayaki counter on Tsukishima’s Monja Street, on a sourcing caveat we would rather state than hide.Read
- RokurinshaTokyoThe tsukemen shop that made Tokyo Ramen Street famous, and the reason half the advice about it online is about the wrong branch.Read
Things to do 6
- Hozugawa boat rideKyotoThree boatmen pole and row a flat-bottomed boat sixteen kilometres down a gorge. It has been a working river route since the seventeenth century.Read
- Kyoto Imperial PalaceKyotoThe one major Kyoto sight that costs nothing and needs no ticket. Most guides still say you have to apply in advance. You do not.Read
- Fushimi sake districtKyotoWhite-walled brewery warehouses on a canal, a working sake town, and a museum visit that now refuses banknotes.Read
- Universal Studios JapanOsakaThere is no single USJ ticket price any more, and the change is recent enough that most published figures are already wrong.Read
- Toyosu tuna auctionTokyoTwo ways to watch the same auction: one you can simply turn up for, and one you have to win a ballot for weeks in advance.Read
- Grand Sumo in TokyoTokyoThree of the six annual tournaments are held in Tokyo. You have to buy your ticket before anyone knows who will be fighting.Read
Museums 4
- Kyoto National MuseumKyotoA 700 yen museum, closed Mondays, open late on Fridays, and dark for weeks at a time between shows. The one Kyoto museum you must check the calendar for.Read
- Kyoto International Manga MuseumKyotoA converted primary school with fifty thousand manga on open shelves and no rule against reading all afternoon. Closed Wednesdays, which is the trap.Read
- Kyoto City Kyocera Museum of ArtKyotoA 1933 municipal art museum rebuilt by Aoki Jun, where the entrance hall, the roof terrace and the garden cost nothing at all.Read
- Edo-Tokyo MuseumTokyoFour years closed, reopened in March 2026, and the best single explanation of how Edo became Tokyo. One thing we cannot tell you is which day it shuts.Read
What to eat 4
- MonjayakiTokyoTokyo’s own hotplate dish, and the one most often judged against the wrong standard. Here is the method, step by step.Read
- Edomae sushiTokyoTokyo invented this sushi as street food in a bay with no ice. What survives is a set of techniques, not a preference for rawness.Read
- TsukemenTokyoCold noodles, hot concentrated broth, one Tokyo noodle cook, and a founding date that nobody can agree on.Read
- Unagi kabayakiTokyoOne dish, two national methods, and a difference that comes from Edo being a garrison town and Osaka being a merchant one.Read
Districts 3
- Umeda and KitaOsakaOsaka’s northern centre is a rail interchange with a city built on top, and the confusion is structural rather than your fault.Read
- AsakusaTokyoTokyo’s old east side, built around a temple that opens at dawn and a shopping street that does not. Time it and it is a different neighbourhood.Read
- ShibuyaTokyoA station rebuilt for fifteen years, a crossing that moves three thousand people a cycle, and several ways to look down on it at very different prices.Read
Routes 2
- Japan in 10 daysThe standard first-trip line from Tokyo to Osaka, with the price of every move on it and the JR Pass arithmetic done rather than assumed.Read
- Japan in 2 weeksTwo weeks buys you the Alps as well as the Golden Route. It also changes the JR Pass answer, because the backtracking finally adds up.Read
Sights 2
- Nijo CastleKyotoThe headline price gets you a moat and a garden. The palace with the nightingale floors and the room where the shogunate ended costs 500 yen more.Read
- Imperial Palace East GardensTokyoThe keep of Edo Castle, free to walk, behind a gate that shuts twice a week rather than once. Closing is as early as 16:00 in winter.Read
Walks 2
- Umeda to Osaka CastleOsakaA flat riverside walk that puts Osaka’s whole history in order, from 1990s towers back to a seventh-century palace.Read
- Imperial Palace to AsakusaTokyoCastle to temple across the old low city, following the Edo road rather than the subway map. About seven kilometres, mostly flat.Read