We call it "the new Heartland.

Designed in 1938 by Jin Watanabe, this Bauhaus-inspired Art Deco home now houses one of Tokyo’s best collections of Japanese and international contemporary art.

The world’s finest collection of Japanese art, in the oldest museum in Japan, the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno.

Most of the year, only the Imperial Palace East Gardens, with the remains of the former Tokugawa Shogunate’s castle and a nice Japanese garden inside, are open to the public.

Kappabashi dori Kitchen Town is where Tokyo’s restaurants get their supplies.

Right off of Takeshita Dori in Harajuku, this monthly flea market happens on the 1st and 4th Sunday of each month.

This crazy five-level store on Omotesando is packed with people of all ages going nuts about the latest toy craze in Tokyo.

Wafuu! This Japanese interpretation of pasta is fun to eat, especially if you try some of the more Japanese flavors, such as the mentaiko (spicy codfish roe) or mushroom spaghetti.

Unmarble is a fashionable cafe tucked away behind Omotesando Hills that offers bargain lunches and appetizing drinks and desserts.

An extraordinary Japanese patisserie (try any bakery off the street and you’ll be pleasantly surprised, the city has some magical breadmakers), these perfect tarts will have you salivating long after you’ve left Tokyo.

This hawaiian chain brings a taste of the islands to Japan.

A beautiful izakaya tucked away behind prewar Golden Gai, this intimate and stylish restaurant has excellent modern, Kyoto-style food and is one of the coolest spaces for eating in Shinjuku.

A slice of Paris in the middle of Tokyo, this homey wooden creperie serves excellent sweet and savory crepes, and is tucked away in a wide alley behind Omotesando.

Royal Milk is a themed ‘maid’ cafe.

Part of Sakura Tei, Design Festa is a three-story building where young artists can exhibit and sell their work in every room, from the tea room to the restroom.

You can put your camera away now, tourista.

You might want to start your weekend morning with some quiet time at Meiji-Jingu Shrine, one of the largest Shinto shrines in Japan, and follow up with pictures with the cosplayers and rockabilly dancers in and around the park.

Buying a ticket to the museum allows you to access the Tokyo City View on the 52nd floor of the Mori Tower building in Roppongi Hills.

Tokyo Prefecture’s newish mall complex also houses it’s tallest building.

This imposing black box is right on Omotesando, good for coffee in the daytime or a drink towards the evening.

If you’re in the mood for tonkatsu, a delicately fried pork cutlet, Maisen is one of the best places for it.

The only Japanese branch of the very popular British store – Located in the trendy LaForêt shopping complex in Harajuku, Topshop/Topman is the same as what you’d find in Britain.

UT Uniqlo is a concept store that sells hundreds of graphic t-shirts designed by famous artists and designers.

This "store for girls, to make them happy" is well stocked with bohemian styles "from India" or beyond.

@home cafe is a themed ‘maid’ cafe.

Host clubs – the male equivalent to the more common hostess clubs in Tokyo – mostly cater to rich women who pay for the company of young men.

If you’re into architecture and feel like getting away from the city, the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum is a 17-acre park that the government set up to showcase Japanese architectural styles from the late-Edo period up through the 1940s.

At Ohara Ikebana School, you can learn the art of Japanese flower arrangement.

Raku means comfortable or easy in Japanese.

Tofuya Ukai is an exquisite zen garden of a restaurant in the shadow of Tokyo Tower.

One of Joël Robuchon’s more casual restaurants, this atelier is more like a French take on sushi bar seating – you’re sitting elbows-to-elbows with the businesswoman on the right and the fashionable urbanite wearing Bape sneakers on the left.

SuperDeluxe is a gallery/club/art space where they routinely host

Heartland is a slick bar on the ground floor of the Roppongi Hills complex.

Dazzling kobe and specialty Japanese beef in an ultra-modern space.

Intimate Japanese-prepared mukokuseki "no nationality" dining, which ends up being a Japanese/Mediterranean/Italian/French tapas bar.

Straight out of a scene in Kill Bill, this feudal-era castle is an popular izakaya that focuses on homemade soba and ‘kushi-yaki’, meat-on-sticks.

Stunning architecture walking distance to Tokyo Midtown in Roppongi and a rotating collection of world-class art.

If you’re tired on a rainy day and want to watch a movie (a few months after it’s released in the US), this is a good place to camp out for a few hours.

Lazy Hazy Planet strives to "provide constant freshness" to the upscale set walking along Omotesando with constantly changing racks and cutting edge designers.

La Forêt is, in the words of one blogger, "a mall for people who have taste.

Though every good ward in Tokyo has one (ie nonbei yokocho in Shibuya), Goruden-gai is the largest and best preserved nomiya bar district in Tokyo.

Shinjuku’s omoide yokocho is a part of a dying breed of prewar huts that serve plenty of birru and grilled chicken on sticks to drunk customers squatting on stools alfresco.

Located in Ebisu, a stylish neighborhood known for their ramen noodles, Tsukumo is one of the best ramen shops in Tokyo.

Though Goruden-gai is the largest and best preserved nomiya bar district in Tokyo, Nonbei Yokocho "piss alley" is a surprisingly clean and quiet street close by in Shibuya.

Piano Bar is a classically tiny nomiya (small bar that seats maybe 8 people) located on Nonbei Yokocho, or "drunk street" in Shibuya.

Love hotels are exactly what they sound like – hotels where young Japanese couples come to do the bijinessu.

You’d better look/speak/be Japanese to get into this club.

The owner of this neigborhood yakitori (grilled chicken) joint kills his chickens daily to ensure meat of the highest quality.

Want to learn how tonkatsu is made? Watch as your meal is created – pork breaded, fried, cut, topped, plated, and brought to you.

If you’re looking for something Japaneezy, this stone-and-wood restaurant is as delicious as it is aesthetically pleasing, especially with the soft romantic light.

The "bomb shelter izakaya".

Every fashion-conscious girl in Tokyo subscribes to a fashion magazine’s style – girls will be "CanCam" girls or "Egg" style.

Japanese people love to rank things – from the most popular items on their menus, to the test scores (and appropriate amount of love) that their children receive.

The spiritual center of Shibuya.

Muse is a laid-back place located off the beaten path in Nishiazabu.

Quirky Italian/French and a good selection of wines.

Tokyo’s a darn fashionable place.

Shibuya is where young Tokyo comes out to play, and as 18-35 year olds, is one of our favorite spots to eat and hang out.

Japan is a food-crazy country – some Japanese people will make a trip into the countryside to taste mushrooms that only ripen a few days a year, the bakeries and chocolatiers rival those in Paris, and the Michelin Guides starred more restaurants (Italian, French, Japanese.

Like a Japanese Bloomingdales, with an extraordinary food emporium on the bottom floor (not to be confused with the restaurant levels on the top floors).

The most famous sword shop in Tokyo.

After 160 years of preparing unagi, Nodaiwa is still one of the best places to enjoy eel.

It’s a trek to Obana, a storied eel establishment outside of Tokyo, but it’s the best unagi in Tokyo.

Shinjuku’s Piccadilly Theater offers the kind of movie-going experience you can only get in Japan.

Completed in 1991, the buildings were the tallest in Japan until the recent completion of Tokyo Midtown.

This Taiwanese import serves some of the most highly regarded Xiao Long Bao, steamed dragon buns, in Tokyo (Zagat food rated 26) and has extended its global reach past Taiwan into Japan, Hong Kong, Mainland China, and even Los Angeles.

Tokyu Hands bills itself as a store that carries goods for hobbies and crafts, but it’s so much more.

Tokyo’s best department store (practically the Harrods of Tokyo).

Pachinko is an extremely popular form of small-stakes gambling.

A nice neighborhood cafe that serves good western-fusion food – good pastas, hamburger steaks served with rice, pizzas, and cheap wine near pretty Aoyama Cemetery.

The Studio Ghibli Museum was designed by the Japanese Walt Disney himself, Hayao Miyazaki, to let visitors “become lost in childhood together.

Tokyo’s biggest club is out in Shin-Kiba, half an hour away from Shibuya Station.

A solid izakaya with an intimate and fun atmosphere, this homey wood-and-stone decorated restaurant is popular with couples and the female 20-somethings that come here for the attractive waiters.

Girls Bar L is one of many bars in Kabuki-cho where salarymen come to get drinks and talk to the all-female staff.

Tokyo’s gay district, Shinjuku’s "knee-cho-may" waves the flag with brilliant colors.

Shinjuku’s Kabuki-cho is like New York’s Times Square in the 70s – seedy, covered in neon lights, and strip joints on every corner with gangsters and drunkards stumbiling around.

Golden Gai is a district of old, compact buildings that almost all serve as bars.

Want a brush of death with your dinner? Fugu ryotei blowfish restaurants skillfully prepare and serve the potentially lethal and pretty bland fish to people year round, though the best fish is served during fugu season, October through March.

You can buy anything with a swipe of your suica or passmo card at the vending machines present at every corner of Tokyo.

Want to learn basic swordfighting skills from Tetsuro Shimaguchi, who played Crazy 88 and was the fight coreographer for Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill:Volume One.

Manga Kissa are cheap internet cafes that rent cubby-like rooms where you can read manga, browse the internet, watch movies, or even take a nap.

If you want a real Japanese nightlife experience, hit up an izakaya gastropub with the Japanese friends you’ve met along the way, drink and eat yourself silly, then hit up a karaoke box, where you can continue to drink and eat in a private room dedicated to your off-key singing satisfaction.

After starting your day with the clamouring bells of the Tsukiji fish auction and crazy fish-cart-avoidance-acrobatics, you may actually have worked up a bit of an appetite in spite of the early morning hours.

The largest wholesale fish market in the world, you can see the live tuna auctions where, literally, the entire world gets their sushi.

Walk through this crowded pedestrian street to see the epicenter of Japanese teen culture.

Ginza is where the richest and most powerful Japanese businessmen (not office-laborer salarymen) rack up the bills on their corporate expense accounts, and their mistresses spend money on clothing and jewelry at the world’s top couture houses.

Enormous and cheap katsu curry rice platters at this throwdown hole-in-the-wall that’s consistently ranked #1 or near the top of the

Yasukuni Jinja is a shrine dedicated to those that have died fighting on behalf of the Emperor of Japan.

Upscale denim and a gallery space for artists inspired by the Tokyo fashion scene.

Sometimes, zany Japanese game shows and counterculture come to mind when I think of Tokyo.

Many busy Tokyoites have little time to eat when rushing from one place to another.

Sushi no Midori always has a line out the door for their bargain priced and absolutely fresh sushi.

Night of the living what?

It’s an izakaya, which means, a melange of eastern flavors and western cooking techniques and plenty of draft nama birru.

Nagoya is known for their spicy fried tebasaki chicken wings and high quality miso, among other things.

This garden restaurant sources its food from organic farms within Tokyo Prefecture and is nestled atop Atago Shrine, on an uncharacteristically serene hill in the middle of the busy city.

Simple, cheap, favorite chain spot for food a Japanese mom would make, in a woody diner-type setting, with branches found all over Tokyo.

Cafe La Boheme is a chain of Italian restaurants.

Japanese conbini convenience stores are on literally every corner in Tokyo.

Ichi Ni San often competes for ton-katsu superiority with Maisen and Tonki.

Yakiniku is a Japanese take on Korean beef barbeque.

Ever want to dress up like a geisha? Spend a few hours at Henshin Maiko (

Escape from the bustle of the city in the Zen environment of the highly-ritualized cha-no-yu tea ceremony.

You’re a fool not to climb Mount Fuji, and a fool to climb it more than once… as the old Japanese saying goes.

The museums, shrines, and attractions in Tokyo are fine places to get a taste of Japanese culture, but if you’re looking to slow down and experience old-school Japan, take the shinkansen bullet train an hour outside the noisy city and stay overnight at Hakone Yumoto.

During the Meiji Emperor’s modernization of Japan, samurai were no longer allowed to carry daisho, the long and short swords that defined their class.

During the day Japan is a very buttoned down place.

Gas Panic is the Roppongi bar stereotype – a dirty, drunken area full of foreigners looking to score and Japanese wanting to let off steam – even if you’re at the Shibuya location.

Down the street from Harajuku and nestled up against Omotesando, Aoyama is an upscale, stylish, and boutiquey neighborhood where you can find many brands’ flagship stores, including Prada’s stunning beehive.

Hit trendy/derelict Shimokitazawa for live music, local bars, and vintage finds.

Centered around Waseda-dori, the main sloping street, Kagurazaka is where Geisha culture was born, and many Ryotei restaurants serving kaiseki meals (considered the epitome of Japanese cuisine) still operate in the area.

Super trendy and on the river, Naka Meguro, along with the Daikanyama/Ebisu and Omotesando/Aoyama neighborhoods are where young fashionistas and designers get their fix.

Along with Naka Meguro and the Omotesando/Aoyama neighborhoods, Daikanyama is where you go for trendy boutiques.

Omotesando is the "Japanese Champs-Elysees" where stylish young Tokyo comes to buy clothing and accessories so trendy that "pop-up" stores close after a few weeks just to stay in front of the fashion curve.

Roppongi during the day is like the foreign-company financial center of Tokyo, and at night, it’s all the suki-suki-sleaze that takes its money.

3 million people go through Shinjuku station daily – there’s something for everyone here, you just have to pick one of the forty-seven exits and hope it’s the one for you.

It’s suprisingly hard to get on wi-fi in Tokyo (all the locals have 3G on their phones so they don’t need it).

One of the most normal modern-style izakaya you’ll find – which means, a melange of eastern flavors and western cooking techniques and plenty of draft nama birru, as well as more traditional Japanese preparations.

The fantastically safe Tokyo metropolis is made up of several neighborhoods, concentrated around subway stations.

Citibank is one of the few banks with 24-hour accessible ATMs throughout Tokyo.

Sake means liquor in Japanese.

Don’t let the name fool you – it’s way more than just cameras.

Launched in 1984 by Nobuhiko Kitamura, the ‘hysteric glamour’ of girls and groupies from the 60s – 80s rock culture beget the fab rags you see on the racks.

Grace Continental is a store for women old enough to be elegant but still young enough to be trendy.

Think that the conbini have an inordinate number of intricate snacks? Wait till you see this chain of stores.

Kamakura is a coastal town about an hour south of Tokyo and has beaches popular in the hot summer months.

If you’re looking for a place to hike near Tokyo, consider the lush Nikko National Park, replete with mountain landscapes, lakes, waterfalls, hot springs, and even wild monkeys, about 2 hours away by local trains.

Japan’s former capital city and widely considered to be it’s most beautiful, Kyoto is about 2 hours and ~$150 away from Tokyo by shinkansen bullet train.

Gwen Stefani’s crazy teenage Harajuku kids spend their time traipsing up and down at Takeshita Dori and cosplaying in Yoyogi Park, but it’s not all cheap and crazy fashion here.

Colorful tops and jeans, as well as an affordable line of Japan-made selvege denim.

Tipping is almost never expected or accepted, for eating, bellhops, etc – the excellent service you recieve everywhere is customary of Japanese culture.

Location is everything for your Tokyo hotel.

Japan’s experiences and customs can be somewhat difficult to navigate, even if you speak Japanese.

Mujirushi Ryōhin, or "brandless quality goods" is a homeware and clothing store that wins awards for their achievements in the design of everything from the most basic home needs, such as CD players and notepads, to pre-built houses.

Though all high school students have taken years of mandatory English lessons, Japanese people are very shy about speaking English.

An imaginary reader wrote in today to ask, what’s a gaijin? Perhaps the best person to answer the question would be the newest member of the HoodHot Travel editorial staff, The Gaijin Host. A hybrid – local of locals, fluent in Japanese culture and language, he blends in with the other hosts but never forgets [...]