The Japan Skip List

Can you sleep in a Tokyo manga café? A ¥1,000-a-night net café stay found bedbugs, and 3,146 likes agree that “wipes out every good point, with change.”

5,107 likes

All-you-can-eat sushi in Tokyo: Japan's bluntest reviewer panned Kakida's fish, and 30,739 likes went to its old-timey photos at a shop opened in 2022.

30,739 likes

41,720 likes on one reply about Shin-Okubo's endlessly-queued cake shop: the price was so far off the value that inside he must have been angrier.

→ Instead: Chateraise41,720 likes

A Senkyaku Banrai staffer answers honestly: "there's no such thing as a good-value stall. Treat the prices as including an atmosphere fee." 366 comments.

→ Instead: The restaurants inside Toyosu Market6,979 likes

Gyukatsu Motomura's prices and portions changed, and 28,150 likes back the eulogy: “Inbound demand must really be something, to throw away that trust.”

28,150 likes

44,729 likes on one line about Arashiyama's resold-cake cafe: "My only impression is that it still hasn't gone under."

44,729 likes

Is Nishiki Market a tourist trap? The top comment (20,198 likes) isn't about food: Japanese visitors hate the idea that any quality will do for tourists.

→ Instead: The Fushimi sake district20,198 likes

A viral "seven godly Osaka foods" list, fact-checked by Osaka locals: "born and raised, half a century, never even heard of these shops" (163).

→ Instead: Stand Fuji (Tennoji)351 likes

Is Kiji okonomiyaki worth the queue? Osaka's house rule, from the top comment (187 likes): “Okonomiyaki is not something you queue for.”

→ Instead: Yukari (Sonezaki main shop)187 likes

Kuromon Market's top comment (370 likes) is an Osaka resident's epitaph: "the one thing worth eating on a trip to Kuromon… was the takoyaki."

→ Instead: Tenma370 likes

Kusatsu Onsen as a day trip from Tokyo? Japanese regulars say stay the night — 8 of the 200 top comments say so, and the bus is ~4.5 hours each way.

→ Instead: Shima Onsen214 likes

Mostly no: Japanese visitors say Junglia Okinawa isn't worth a day of your trip. Top comment (1,923 likes): fun rides, but you can't get on any.

→ Instead: Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium10,955 likes

Is Nijo Market a tourist trap? A 29-year Sapporo resident (156 likes) has never spent a yen there. In the top 200 of 834 comments: tourist pricing.

→ Instead: Toriton (conveyor-belt sushi)156 likes

Japanese diners on CoCo Ichibanya: the top comment (608 likes) takes Sukiya's ¥490 curry over a ¥1,200 plate. What changed, and what they order instead.

→ Instead: Sukiya608 likes