TOKYO 2024! 1-5: Reversible Destiny Lofts Mitaka — in Memory of Helen Keller: I SO wanted to see this. This is one of the works/pieces of architecture made by Shusaku Arakawa and Madeline Gins, pre-Fluxus artists who essentially thought you could live forever if your environment was deeply uncomfortable. “Reversible Destiny” is one of their surviving projects, and you can stay here via airbnb (about 50 minutes outside central Tokyo). 6-7: Capybaras! 8: The tableside wagashi service at Yakumo Saryo. It’s chestnut season, so there was a lot of chestnut-flavored pastry. 9: Breakfast at the Peninsula Tokyo. The fish selection changed daily. 10: An amazing home store: Casica. The onsite cafe serves an incredible Ayurvedic-inspired chicken curry. 11: It was also snow crab season, which means there were crab dishes almost everywhere we went, including Ginza Sushi Aoki, where the 13-course crab-based dinner began with strips of leg meat served over a miso-and-brain pudding. 12: Extruding chestnut paste for wagashi at Ginza Sushi Aoki. 13: Tuna head at Cignale Enoteca. 14: One of the crab dishes — barely-grilled legs with a side of brain — at Cignale Enoteca. This meal was the best we had in Tokyo...and, we agreed, one of the best we’ve had in recent memory. 15: Not-for-sale vinyl at Beams Japan, my favorite of the Beams stores (this is the Shinjuku location). 16: Udon with chrysanthemum petals, grated daikon, and eggplant at Toraya, the famous sweet shop. Portions here are small so you have room for wagashi after. 17: Narihira is a temple famous for its Jizo (a Bodhisattva known to protect children and travelers) that’s been completely tied with ropes. After making an offering, you make a wish and tie a straw rope around the Jizo; once your wish comes true, you return and remove it. 18-19: Matsuchiyama Shoden is a temple dedicated to the daikon, or turnip, a symbol of purity and harmony. At the front of the temple are baskets of purified daikon; you pay 300 yen and leave one as an offering inside the main hall; as you exit, you can take a desanctified (presumably) daikon to eat later on. 20: Morning swim at the Peninsula Tokyo.