Damn, not at all my vibe for a trip but to each his own.
He is in a food tour group owned by The Hungry Tourist. It’s approx $9000. They hit up some good places, but almost all of them have been widely known/covered in the “food influencer” realm for the last 8 years.
Kagari, Nakahara, Hakokku, etc. Many of them you/ your hotel can get a reservation for relatively easily.
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Even with my high-powered hotel concierge, and several online reservation services, a seat at Hakokku was unattainable on my last visit in November 2022. Things are tighter since the re-opening.
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The sushi meals are probably harder to get, but places like Nakahara you can easily have Amex make the reservation for you or even DM Henry and he’ll most likely get you in. Kagari doesn’t take reservations so Max stood in line like everyone else. I saw he went to Florilege last night and Bar Gen Yamamoto two nights ago, both of which are easy to make a resy for.
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@jc_eats how formal have you been dressing for the nicer places? Could I get away with a sweater rather than a jacket?
Yeah, I’ve not been impressed by Max’s itinerary thus far. A lot of places that didn’t look too interesting. I do wonder if he ever goes into a place hoping for a nice meal though.
Smart casual definitely OK. I typically wear either a collared button down, casual with floral print for example or a neutral Uniqlo sweater. I think you can even get away with a turtleneck or long sleeve.
From what I see on instagram, even Japanese locals show up in tshirts. But smart casual is typically safe
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Good to hear! You are a godsend.
Sweater is fine. Just no margaritaville.
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Does that mean no jeans?
Jeans are cool. The local guys usually have a collared shirt on and often sport a nice watch #AsiaStatus
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And shoes lol just got a pair of paraboots and got sucked in to Japanese fashion Instagram lol
Don’t want to dive too deep into the topic of Max or food tours but his itinerary did point me to a few things. Yakitori Shinohara I’d never heard of before and I think I’ll give that a shot. The cocktail bars have looked pretty neat too. Also nice to read good things about Sezanne for if I ever get around to fitting it in (and if it remains possible to make a reservation normally).
Agree with the sentiment that jeans are fine. I was in jeans and a button down or a nice polo (during spring lol) for almost everything in 2019 and everyone was super accommodating (though sometimes you can’t tell with how polite they are 
). Depending on the date and time for the fine dining places you might end up dining alongside a bunch of Japanese business people in full suits and business dressed feeling underdressed. But that’s more Japanese business dress culture than the restaurant .
While it’s pretty rare for a restaurant to have a dress code, some like Ryugin do and that can be useful as a measuring stick: For the precious time at Ryugin | Nihonryori RyuGin. I’d guess Ryugin is a bit more on the strict side on the casual/dressy scale. You can also cross reference this against the Sukiyabashi Jiro policy: Dining at Jiro - すきやばし次郎 SUKIYABASHI JIRO. Tableall also has a good article: Etiquette and Table Manners | TABLEALL.
You might notice they also sometimes have policies around photos. If no one’s mentioned before, you can always just ask if cell phone photos are ok or look at the Japanese clientele and see what they do. If you know no Japanese and are leery of using English, you could try the phrase: Keitai shashin wa daijobu desuka? (literally means “are cell phone photos ok?”) FYI, daijobu means “ok”. This is what I’d use and what Google Translate will also give you. You can have your phone do the talking or play it yourself to learn the pronunciation. Most of the time this kind of cell phone photography is limited to pictures of the food. If I remember correctly they take photo consent and privacy seriously and just don’t want a single diner to disturb the rest of the counter/restaurant.
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Had a buddy just rave about Sezanne.
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Did I possibly catch the trinity @jc_eats
By the way we had a group of 4, showed up 75 minutes early, could have been first in line. Dawdled, stupidly let a crew get in front of us. Missed first seating. 2 hour wait for those who showed up at 5:45…
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Haha! Yes my final trip there they had hairy crab and nodoguro but no toro taku hand roll. You actually went on a perfect day. If your chef’s name is katoyoshi/yoshi-San tell him Jeremy sent you!
Him and I became first name basis after like my 5th trip there haha
Enjoy! I’ve already been having recurring dreams of Japanese food memories
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Lol ugh just saw this: took no photos bc it was so intimate! But I might go back on Saturday. Really remarkable. Btw just fully followed your itinerary today: cavemen into this spot. Omg they were both superb.
Thank you friend. 
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Eagerly awaiting updates with bated breath
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Lol. Got back to la this morning, forcing myself to stay up until at least like 8 to fight jet lag. Updates and trip report coming soon.
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no food review yet but some general city thoughts are up over here.
Reviews hopefully will trickle out of me this week and next week.
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