Favorite restaurants in Japan
 

We will be travelling to Japan in late June for 2 weeks and will be in Tokyo, Kyoto and possibly one other destination. We are somewhat adventurous and prefer great food in an informal setting, as opposed to great food in a formal setting (i.e. a hole in the wall is great if it is going to be a good experience). We are still contemplating a 3rd city/area and are open to suggestions... possibly a more rural location. We enjoy open food markets, beautiful surroundings and interesting food.

Any recommendations on your favorite little secret places?

Try Takayama.In the Japanese Alps.A very quaint little town for the 3rd destination.A good place to stroll around is the merchants quarter,where you can hunt around for curios.The Rickshaw Inn is a good place to stay.Kyoto has the Ginza district which has several restaurants which will cater to your tastebuds,wash down good food with Sake.After a hard days sightseeing relax at the 'Funaoka Onsen',no trip to Japan is complete without a soak in the hot tub at this local public bath ( this is tradition in Japan ).The address is Sembon Imadegawa kado, Murosaki no Minami, Funaoka-cho, Kyoto. You may feel a little out of place initially but you'll settle down soon.Enjoy the expierence

Takayama sounds like a great suggestion. Would you recommend we take a bus to this area or train?
Also, what is "mountain food" as I have heard this mentioned several times? Sounds like the japanese alps woud be a nice diversion from 4 or 5 days in Tokyo.

See my Just back... post of 6/1/06 which has some restaurant recommendations. We seem to have similar tastes - and when a reliable source said to try the Italian restaurant in Kyoto I mentioned in the post (Cucina Il Viale), our response was "no way." We go to Italy and NYC, so why come to Kyoto for Italian food. Try it, you'll love it. We did. We did.

Antonio's (Spanish restaurant) in Kyoto. It's on Nijo Dori. From the corner of Nijo Dori & Kawaramachi St. to east 3 blocks till you hit a jog to the right. (Actually, directly to your right on that corner is a fantastic French restaurant that I cannot remember the name of.) Keep going east another block or two. Antonio's is on your left (south side of the street.)

After over a week we wanted an authentic version - not a Japanese version. This was it.
The four of us made a dinner out of various tapas. And had several inexpensive yet wonderful bottles of Spanish wine.

Our waiter David was Spanish, and we had a great 3 language conversation - Spanish (very rusty, but it's gotten us through Mexico and Costa Rica), Japanese and English - which was the only language all 5 of us had in common.
That night is one of my favorite memories.

Also, in Saijo - 30 minutes from Hiroshima - an okinamiyaki restaurant called Qu. I had a single which was about 7" across and 3" high! It was 840Y - less than$7, and I couldn't finish it. I wanted to go back but ran out of time.
Ok, now - I'm hungry.

Takayama is a great suggestion. I loved it there and you get some fantastic views of the Japanese Alps. Also Matsumoto is on the way and has one of the most impressive original castles in Japan. I would also recommend Kamakura. It's proximity to Tokyo makes it an easy choice and it is beautiful. It has good food, ancient shrines and impressive array of shops in a market style setting. If you go there (especially on a weekend) you might consider walking from Kamakura to Ten-en (pronounce it kind of like Ten yen). Ten-en is a mountain near Kamakura. It has a small open air bar/restaurant on the top of it. Very rustic. Like Thailand rustic, but the walk there is beautiful (although sometimes steep - another option might be to take a taxi to the top of the mountain then walk down), the locals are very friendly and the view from the top is spectacular. It's a great place to enjoy a beer or a bottle of sake (watch the climb down!) Kamakura is also nestled firmly in the foothills around the Kanto plain but due to its location on a penninsula is also a popular beach area.