Ettore Sottsass exhibition Artizon Museum
Featured · Design & digital art
Ettore Sottsass at the Artizon: a must-see — and the exhibition design is half the joy
Japan's first big Sottsass retrospective — the Valentine, Memphis colour, a paper-tube exhibition design, and a lovely café. Through Oct 4.
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Guided by FUMI · Tokyo-born designer & studio owner · About →
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All Seasons Coffee Ikebukuro pudding and latte
Cafés & tables
All Seasons Coffee, Ikebukuro: house-roasted coffee and the pudding I go back for
A quiet west-Ikebukuro café that roasts its own beans and makes a rich, old-school custard pudding.
Baisha Sakan Chinese tea house Ikebukuro
Cafés & tables
Baisha Sakan, Ikebukuro: a 1999 Chinese tea house one flight above the noise
A tiny, cash-only Chinese tea house in south Ikebukuro — steep a pot yourself, cup after cup.
Banh Mi Xin Chao Ikebukuro
Cafés & tables
Bánh Mì Xin Chào, Ikebukuro: a proper Vietnamese banh mi, cheap and satisfying
Genuinely good, well-priced banh mi near Ikebukuro — and yes, there's a terrace.
Sarutahiko Coffee Harajuku Station
Cafés & tables
The Harajuku café I use when I'm not trying to “do Harajuku”
Good coffee and food, kind staff, above the crowds — inside Harajuku Station.
Cafe de Lento Yokohama tart
Cafés & tables
Cafe de Lento: a Yokohama café that reads like Paris, made with Japanese care
Tarts and a Niçoise-style salad near Ishikawacho — French in style, Japanese in care. One booking rule to know.
Sleeping Pokemon event at Yokohama Minato Mirai
Otaku
A giant Snorlax is asleep in a Yokohama mall — and it's lovely even if you're not a fan
A 3-metre sleeping Snorlax, a napping starter trio and a dozing Pikachu — the Pokémon Sleep event at Minato Mirai. Through Aug 23.
Three Tokyo museum shows, summer 2026
Design & digital art · Guide
Three Tokyo museum shows worth planning a summer around
Lucie Rie, Ron Mueck and Ettore Sottsass — a designer's summer-2026 shortlist, all closing within weeks.
Ron Mueck at Mori Art Museum
Design & digital art · Guide
Ron Mueck at the Mori Art Museum: hyperreal bodies, wildly out of scale
Human figures real down to the pores, then blown up or shrunk. Tokyo's most gripping show. Through Sept 23.
Ume to Hoshi omikuji teishoku, Asakusa
Cafés & tables
The Asakusa lunch locals line up for: rice, umeboshi, and an omikuji that picks your sides
A fortune decides your rice toppings, at a tiny teishoku shop a minute from Sensoji.
TORAYA GINZA terrace and ginza graphic gallery
Cafés & tables × Design
My off-menu Ginza afternoon: warm wagashi at Toraya, then design at ggg
A dorayaki grilled while you watch at a 500-year-old confectioner, then a free design gallery two minutes away.
Lucie Rie at Teien Art Museum
Design & digital art · Guide
Only in Tokyo: Lucie Rie's colours in a 1930s Art Deco palace
Her glazes against the Asaka residence's Showa-era design — a contrast you can only see at Teien. Through Sept 13.
Oshi nails
Nails & beauty × Otaku
Oshi nails in Tokyo: how to book a character-nail artist as a foreigner
The art is the easy part — booking is the wall. Instagram, Japanese DMs, and exactly how I do it.
Tokyo nail salons
Nails & beauty · Guide
Getting your nails done in Tokyo: how it works, and how it's different from home
Reservation culture, the department-store salons you can walk into, and why it's all gel.
About

Off-Menu Tokyo is the Tokyo a designer actually goes to — written by FUMI, born and living here and running a design studio in the city. The idea is simple: skip the tourist clichés and the places built for a single photo, and point you to the ones locals actually use.

Four threads run through it — Design & digital art, Cafés & tables, Nails & beauty, and Otaku corners — some from first-hand visits with our own photos, some carefully researched. Honest, first-person, and written for readers who are smart enough to want the real thing.

Off-Menu Tokyo — real cost-of-culture from someone who lives here.
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