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I answered your book q separately, but I’ve pasted below the little Tokyo neigborhood guide I made for friends after I went.I usually don’t do much research before traveling, but for some reason I did tons before Japan. I’m very happy I did!

KOENJI:

- really cute little town, great for lowkey shopping, bars, and a walk around

- If you like tempura you have to visit TENSUKE. if you go on opening you won’t have a line. It was amazing. The tempura egg is everything

- Walnuts coffee and AIMU both had good lattes/matcha. Walnuts is ran by a Japanese American guy from Brooklyn who was super nice !!

KICHIJOJI:

- is nearby and on the same line as Koenji, so you could go to both easily. Pretty park. We went to Tony’s Pizza there which is an institution and it was cute. Only if you like thicker dough

MEGURO/EBISU: ❤️

- both nearby to one another.

- Slightly busier, (but not busy by Tokyo standards), trendy, lots of shopping

- Daikanyama books is really beautiful. Huge bookstore with a great selection of Japanese authors translated to English too

- Onibus coffee nearby is cute

- Following the river here and seeing where it takes you is a safe bet

- Sky garden meguro

YANAKA: ❤️

- Japanese “retro” neigborhood. This area did not get bombed at all so it has a lot of older buildings. Very quiet and known for their cat iconography everywhere. Great for shopping for ceramics + tea

- Kanekichien is a kitchenware and ceramics store, it’s very old and has beautiful homemade mugs + very good matcha for cheap. It’s very cool and on the promenade of Yanaka

- Menya Hidamari is an ichiran ramen place (mostly solo dining + you order on the machine in front) that specializes in chicken ramen. I don’t love beef or pork cutlet as much as chicken and this was definitely top 1/2 ramen places I went to while in Japan

- Honestly most cafes here are cute

- Cibi cafe

KITAZAWA: ❤️

- trendy area with lots of shopping and izakayas.

thx :)

in semi recent memory, essay; I enjoyed RFQ’s “standing on the shoulders of complex female characters”,

for books; Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening”, Natasha Brown’s “Assembly”, “The Vegetarian” by Han Kang, “The Wall” by Marlen Haushofer are all books I liked in varying degrees that have strong themes of feminism. They asks questions I think are not so superficial, as I think some feminist-leaning media tends to skew that way.