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The Best Places in Japan

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  1. Perched on stilts above Miyako Island's southern coast, this boutique resort looks like a stack of futuristic glass boxes from the outside and barely more than that inside, which is the point. Slate floors, white linens, and sliding doors onto private patios keep nothing between you and the water. Breakfast is a carefully arranged spread of organic island produce. Imugya Marine Garden, a snorkeler's haunt, is directly across the street.

    The awards


  2. Four rooms and suites sit at the southernmost tip of Shikoku, inside Ashizuri-Uwakai National Park, with the Pacific filling every window. TheMana Village is a small, minimalist-luxe resort where the landscape does most of the heavy lifting, and the Italian restaurant on site, Azzurrissimo, takes its cues from the same ocean view. A Michelin Selected Hotel, and the kind of place where "remote" feels less like a sacrifice than a point.

    The awards


  3. Two private villas on the edge of Lake Kussharo, the largest crater lake in Japan, inside the remote Akan-Mashu National Park in Eastern Hokkaido. RERA lets waves slap against its floor-to-ceiling windows; FURE, the two-story option, runs quieter. Both have wood-burning fireplaces, hot-spring baths, and multiple bedrooms. A short path connects to the lakeside restaurant, where the team serves traditional Japanese cuisine over water views.

    The awards







  4. Rank 2107. graf

    Coffee







  5. Address
    106-2 Yaoyachō, Nakagyo Ward, Kyoto, 604-8072, Japan · Kyoto
    Hours

    Closed now, opens 9 AM

    Saturday 9 AM–6 PM

    Online
    Instagram



  6. The roasting happens on-site, so the smell hits you before the door does. This specialty coffee cafe from the Australian-born Single O group sits in Ryogoku, a neighborhood better known for sumo than pour-overs, which gives it a pleasantly unpretentious edge. The space is spare and deliberate, the kind of room that makes you want to sit quietly and pay attention to what's in your cup.


  7. A towering Mahlkönig grinder dominates the counter of this quiet Tomigaya coffee bar, which is the whole thesis statement in one piece of equipment. The room looks too spare to sit in until you realize it isn't, and then you stay. Single-origin espresso is the move, pulled with the kind of unhurried focus that makes the surrounding neighborhood noise feel irrelevant.






  8. Address
    Japan, 〒600-8487 京都府京都市下京区橘町31 · Kyoto
    Hours

    Closed now, opens 7:30 AM

    Saturday 7:30 AM–3 PM

    Online
    WebsiteInstagram







  9. Address
    17-7 Ikedachō, Kita Ward, Osaka, 530-0033, Japan · Osaka
    Hours

    Closed now, opens 9 AM

    Saturday 9 AM–6 PM

    Online
    WebsiteInstagram


  10. Address
    2-chōme-2-18 Edobori, Nishi Ward, Osaka, 550-0002, Japan · Osaka
    Hours

    Closed now, opens 11 AM

    Saturday 11 AM–7:30 PM

    Online
    Instagram



  11. Address
    4-chōme-20-2 Kuramae, Taito City, Tokyo 111-0051, Japan · Tokyo
    Hours

    Closed now, opens 10 AM

    Saturday 10 AM–5:30 PM

    Online
    WebsiteInstagram





  12. Address
    1-chōme-2-2 Momoi, Suginami City, Tokyo 167-0034, Japan · Tokyo
    Hours

    Closed now, opens 8:30 AM

    Saturday 8:30 AM–7 PM

    Online
    WebsiteInstagram








  13. A New York roaster that planted a flag in Osaka's quieter Kitahama district, this specialty coffee shop leans into minimalist design and natural light in a way that makes laptops appear almost as often as flat whites. The pour-overs get the attention they deserve, and the baristas can actually explain why. A good place to remember that Osaka has neighborhoods where nothing is especially loud.





  14. Rank 2141. Kaikado

    Coffee


    Address
    352 Sumiyoshichō, Shimogyo Ward, Kyoto, 600-8143, Japan · Kyoto
    Hours

    Closed now, opens 8 AM

    Saturday 8 AM–5:30 PM

    Online
    Instagram




  15. Address
    382-3 Mogamichō, Nakagyo Ward, Kyoto, 604-8303, Japan · Kyoto
    Hours

    Closed now, opens 11 AM

    Saturday 11 AM–6 PM

    Online
    Instagram




  16. Rank 2141. Sniite

    Coffee




  17. Address
    7-chōme-6-9 Takadono, Asahi-ku, Osaka, 535-0031, Japan · Osaka
    Hours

    Closed now, opens 10 AM

    Saturday 10 AM–5 PM

    Online
    Instagram
  18. Rank 2165. Aidaya

    Japanese Noodle Shop


  19. Rank 2165. Alt

    Coffee


    Address
    28-4 Shinsenenchō, Nakagyo Ward, Kyoto, 604-8371, Japan · Kyoto
    Hours

    Closed now, opens 11 AM

    Saturday 11 AM–6 PM

    Online
    Instagram





  20. Rank 2165. Kagura-ya

    Japanese Noodle Shop


  21. Kiha is a train-themed standing bar where the decor commits harder than most commuters do. Ambient rail sounds play, empty ekiben boxes line the staircase, and upstairs there's a full replica of a train car, with conductor outfits for photos. You pay by the clock rather than the drink, so the snacks stay simple: canned sardines under cheese, karaage, fries. It's The Infatuation's pick for both Tokyo's best bars and izakayas.


  22. Rank 2165. Kissa Ray

    Coffee



  23. Rank 2165. Kushiwakamaru

    Yakitori Japanese




  24. Address
    1-chōme-5-8 Kitahama, Chuo Ward, Osaka, 541-0041, Japan · Osaka
    Hours

    Closed now, opens 10 AM

    Saturday 10 AM–11 PM

    Online
    Instagram

  25. By day this is a fishcake shop with trays of neatly arranged product and no particular interest in your evening plans. At 7pm it flips into a standing-room oden bar tucked into Harmonica Yokocho, where you eat simmered fishcakes off your feet and drink sake in cheap, small cups. Tell the staff when you're halfway through and they'll top it off with oden broth, which locals insist helps the hangover. Nobody has verified this, but it's warm.


    Address
    1 Chome-1-8 Kichijoji Honcho, Musashino, Tokyo 180-0004, Japan
    Hours

    Closed now, opens 10 AM

    Saturday 10 AM–6:30 PM

    Online
    WebsiteInstagram



  26. Address
    3-chōme-8-11 Nihonbashi, Chuo City, Tokyo 103-0027, Japan · Tokyo
    Hours

    Closed now, opens 11 AM

    Saturday 11 AM–2 PM

    Online
    Website


  27. Address
    3-chōme-7-2 Hirano, Koto City, Tokyo 135-0023, Japan · Tokyo
    Hours

    Closed now, opens 10 AM

    Saturday 10 AM–6 PM

    Online
    Instagram

  28. Ball is a tiny natural wine bar in Koto City, built around a U-shaped standing counter where every glass costs the same ¥1,000, so ordering requires no math and very little courage. The list runs to bottles from Japan and France, and the food is the kind of small-plate cooking that makes you forget the lack of chairs, including chicken drumlets fried to look like tulips. It fills up by 6pm on a Monday, so arrive early.


  29. Bar Lupin is a windowless basement cocktail bar in Ginza, named after the gentleman thief and long a drinking spot for Japan's literary heavyweights. Dazai and Ranpo both put in their hours here. The room runs dark and Showa-era, with weathered books on the shelves and black-and-white portraits of famous patrons watching you order. The Golden Fizz comes with whipped egg yolk and a writer's endorsement.


  30. Rank 2184. Bar Orchard

    Cocktail Bar

    Bar Orchard is a Ginza cocktail bar where the menu is a heap of fresh fruit and you point at one, like a very expensive farmers market. The bartender builds something tiki-ish around your pick, then serves it in a ceramic shark, a turkey leg, or a tiny bathtub with suds on top. A flock of rubber ducks in outfits watches from the bar. Seats vanish fast, so arrive when the doors open at 6.



  31. Address
    Japan, 〒104-0061 Tokyo, Chuo City, Ginza, 6-chōme−12−16 片桐ビル Ⅱ 2階 · Tokyo
    Hours

    Closed now, opens 11:30 AM

    Saturday 11:30 AM–2 PM, 6 PM–9:30 PM

    Online
    Website
  32. Rank 2184. Chatei Hatou

    Japanese Café






  33. Rank 2184. common.

    Coffee




  34. Rank 2184. EUREKA!

    Sake Japanese Cocktail Bar

    A sake bar up a flight of stairs in Nishiazabu, where the sign reads "strawberry meeting," a translation of ichigo ichie that sounds like a very polite jam session. The list runs past 200 bottles, from sparkling to cloudy doburoku, plus a few made with local breweries that you won't find elsewhere. The egg in black squid ink mayonnaise looks like a river rock until you crack it, which is the whole bit.


  35. Rank 2184. Fuglen Tokyo

    Nordic Coffee


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The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

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    The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

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      Four fifths of the score is the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin Key outweighs a listicle. The last fifth is where it is: the ranked places to eat and things to do around it, and how safe the country is. When you sort by what's nearby, distance from you changes the order, never the score.

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        The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

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          The Best Place Score rates the area around a point, not any one place. The places are 60% of it: the best of what's within reach, weighed by distance. The setting is the other 40%: how life goes in that country (how people rate their own lives, how long and how well they live, how safe they are) and what it's like right there (the air, and the weather). If the score looks low, we probably haven't found enough critics out here yet.

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