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Skip the food tour as many places nearby where you are staying and whatever attraction you are visiting will have fairly decent and good quality restaurants. Most people are correctly saying that if you do some basic research in the neighborhoods, a plethora of memorable meals can be had. A recent discovery for me, tabelog.com, is an incredibly powerful resource, but since I haven't read this thread in it's entirety in a while someone else may have mentioned already. Non Japanese friends who live in Tokyo and a visiting back home Japanese friend recommend it for good reviews and current availability. Additionally you can search by neighborhood which is incredible to me as I use to cross check, 3-4 travel books on my original visits to Japan. You can also search by cuisine which should help to choose where to go. Recently a friend recommended Harutaka since one of Giro's apprentices is the chef, it is in neighborhood of $300 per person. Another popular one with chefs is Sushi Sho. Something to consider with the Japanese cuisines, sometime the lunch meal will be as incredible as dinner but at 1/3 of the cost and getting box meals in department stores. I would suggest getting a Tokyo Subway card for three days and if you are using a JR rail pass that should cover majority of your travel cost in the Tokyo area unless you are using a private rail way line. It's pretty easy to get around Tokyo easier than DC or NYC since the rail systems are models of efficiency and since all signs are in English. Plan visiting 2-3 attractions a day as Tokyo is a quite a large city and you can have a lot of fun and be overwhelmed by just walking around the neighborhoods. Recently, on the way to NYC, I stopped with my wife and son at Mitsuwa Market Place in Edgewater, NJ. For my wife it was the first experience in a Japanese market area. We just walked into the nearby Kinokuniya and in just ten minutes bought over $100 of stuff! She easily could have spent a couple of hours there. I told her that Tokyo Hands in Shinjuku has entire floors devoted to pens and stationary. My point is that visit some of both of yours favorite kinds of things places in Japan. The Japanese people have such an interesting view on things that it may help to personalize the trip and make it more unique than just visiting the normal attractions such as temples, etc...but you can't go wrong, there is a lot to do and see.

Try and make it to Jungle Jim's once a year during the trips to see the wife's family. Whole heartedly recommend checking out the hot sauce area. I've never seen more variety any place in the country.

Interesting. Amazon driven Whole Foods is making some changes. Still haven't had better grocery store sushi than Balducci's in Mclean.

Broke down and ordered Chef Vikram's book. My wife will be happy if I make the flash frozen spinach chaat at home.

It was quite packed today with a convention being held in the hotel, the Apple iPhone line and some fall event for local businesses. Still I'm not surprised by tenants leaving, there are multiple commercial properties that can host businesses with as high traffic with a reasonable distance. I think they are also screwed Tysons by not building out walking areas and having Rte 7 be underground. If there had done that younger generations would have been more attracted to that geographic area for lifestyle reasons. As is, Tysons at night time has become a dystopian prototype.

Did you get one? Or has anyone tried out these birds? Thinking of trying it out for Thanksgiving this year since we will be home and not at the in laws as usual.

Bike Lane was planning to leave as soon as the parking issues started. They are the best biking shop in the area so hopefully they won't have much down time especially since so much new business space is becoming available in the Reston area. We have been visiting more regularly to the RTC but usually on the weekends when parking is free. Traffic does seem to have picked up but still noticeably less than before the parking fiasco.

I think it was a Silver Spring community event. People from all kinds of backgrounds, ages, etc...would get in line and wait. Actually it was a lot of fun in a good natured way. Oriental East never was the best Chinese or Dim Sum restaurant but it was during our time in the city very enjoyable. Hopefully Parkway Deli isn't going anywhere!

Haven't seen that one yet!

Congratulations and all the best!

Ah I feel very nostalgic looking at the line. In the early years of dating my future wife we spent many Sunday mornings in line waiting to get into the first seating.

RTC has picked up on the evenings and weekends mainly due to the free parking again. I do think it will remain challenging for businesses in the RTC especially for places like Red Velvet Cupcakes. In a way Boston Properties is remaking it from Reston Town Center to Metro Town Center, RTC ->MTC. The Union Station of the West! All of the larger chains probably are renegotiating their rental agreements and BP will let the smaller units go for a bit while the new hotel and city block get developed. Personally 85% of our visits are just to Sweet Green these days. If they opened up another location nearby we would probably go there once a month if at all.

Yes the building on its way to completion. At night time it's lite up with small bluish lines perpendicular to the ground kind of like the multi-color one in Tysons. Reston has definitely changed in the past two years quite dramatically.

Oh-no! Access to too many calories close to home.

I was coming back from DC last night about 10:30 and got off from the toll road at Wiehle Avenue. Amazingly the new high rise building was lite up with purple highlights. Over the past couple of years have seen buildings in Tysons like that kind of accenting but the first for the sleepy little town of Reston. Still feels awkward parking at the Reston Town Center. Last weekend we actually went to Lake Anne for lunch at the Greek place and it was pretty full. Also the entire complex was teaming with people from the Brew House to the coffee place. I think a good number of people are just going other places.

Thanks for the information Porcupine! Thinking once our little one is a older and we start to do international travel again it would be a good addition especially for the lounge access.

Thanks for the detailed report MarkS. Looks like an entertaining event. Not sure if Spring House Farm has been mentioned before but looks like a good place to get some meat to try out.

I have over 120,000 points on AmEx. Thinking about going to platinum cause they offer 60,000 with some usage. It just seems like making the travel arrangements thru their website is too much. Feels like it easier these days to go to the airline themselves to do things since haven't used points in many years.

My wife is from Ohio so several years ago we stopped on the way back at the original location. Pretty good stuff definitely upscale than Graeter's. We use to buy it pretty regularly until their recall and shutdown period. If I remember correctly they cleaned up the issues pretty quickly. In Ohio, they have many more flavors than get shipped nationally.

Ah thanks for the info! I think years ago when I first started drinking 120, a couple of the Dogfish locations said they only got a couple of kegs and they went fast.

My current favorite beer. At the moment have three in the fridge for special occasions. Would love to be able to try it on tap some place, if you ever see a place locally TedE please post! I do think it's taste does change after three years, optimal drinking time ~1-2 years.

Nice one DaRiv18! May try this in the Vitamix soon.

Spring and summer are smoothies mainly with fall and winter's usage focused on soups. I like that it can warm the soups as well.

That's a great price! You won't regret getting one, we use it every few days.

Has anyone done any work on Chicken Bone Broth soups recently?