Advice for Japan

My cousins, aunt and uncle are going to Japan. This is what I recommended they try while they were in Tokyo:


good for breakfast:
donburi restaurant (anything on rice), and miso and egg breakfast, natto (fermented soy beans)
yoshinoya is a donburi chain that can be found near any train station
Mr. Donuts - got to check out this donut chain, check out the different donut variations (notice soy sauce donuts)
good for lunch (fast, cheap and everywhere):
ramen
lots of different ramen variations in broth
shoyu-soy sauce broth
shio - salt broth
tonkotsu - pork broth
miso - miso broth
ramen restaurants also serve dumplings called gyoza which are prettygood. if you decide you like ramen, then you might like to check out this ramen museum in yokohama (really close to tokyo). it's pretty busy during lunch time though, there were lines when i went. the museum has 6 or so different famous regional ramen restaurants inside. these restaurants ship there noodles and broth stock over daily to keep it true to the original. it was pretty cool. there is also this fake robber that runs around inside and if you spot him and tell the fake cop you get a ton of free ramen stuff.
kaiten zushi restaurant (conveyor-belt sushi)
different color plates cost different amounts, just take what you want off conveyor belt
Japanese fast food
Japanese native M.O.S. burger (try the vegetable burger it's really good),McDonalds (they have a teriyaki burger) , KFC...
Japanese interpretation of Italian food is interesting, especially pizza
dinner
yakitori (grilled, skewered meat)
japanese barbecue, probably smoky and loud, but really good. you order by the skewer, and for each cut, there are two standard sauces shio=salt or tare = sauce. two favorite skewers are negima which is a chicken and spring onion skewer and tori-dango which is a chicken ball skewer. Also try some edamame (salted steamed soy bean pods) and some japanese beer.
okonomiyaki
japanese cross between a pizza and a pancake - cook on griddle, also try yaki-soba at this kind of restaurant
soba (buckwheat noodle) - i like cold zaru-soba dish, there are also hot soba bowls
udon (thick wheat noodle)

I forgot to mention Akihabara. Akihabara is a section of Tokyo crammed with electronics stores. I believe Akihabara is a stop on the Circle Line. There is also a transportation museum near there. I'd also check out Roppongi hills. Shibuya and Harajuku are interesting places to walk around. I also recommend exploring Asakusa Kannon temple and surroundings.
The gardens of the castle grounds are also good. This is the one place It might be fun to take the monorail to the Tokyo island Odaiba. A good daytrip would be to Hakone, I've never been there but I hear it's good. http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5200.html
Also avoid traveling during rush hour, especially in Tokyo.

If I remember correctly, there is a Japanese National Tourist information booth at Narita airport which has lots of english language brochures and maps. There is also a branch of Japanese National Tourist office in one of the rockefeller square buildings and you can pick up information from there too. I think there website is www.jnto.org

Also in Kyoto check out the train station and the escalators up to nowhere (wasteful boom construction). I got a haircut at one of the barbers in the basement of Kyoto station and it turned out ok, so if jeremy or gavin need a haircut you should check that out.

Also, at train stations, hotels, and tourism related things like that you will be able to order in english, but a japanese phrase book might be useful at restaurants.

Other random things to check out, vending machines (esp. ones that sell beer, food, warm or cold sake, etc), convience stores called conbini with takeout bentos, Japanese stationary shops, Japanese department stores (the basements normally has a supermarket like set up and the top floors have different restaurants and the middle floors sell clothes, appliances, cookware and lots of random things. Oh, try green tea ice cream, mattcha aisu creamu.

Also from Kyoto, Himeji castle is worth checking out.