Dreaming of Sushi

Timing is such a HUGE part of travel that can make or break your trip. I am currently planning a short getaway to Tokyo for the first time, and I am lucky to have figured out that a lot of the amazing things to do in Japan need to be planned out in advance. After years of solo international travel, I have figured out my preferred plan to unplanned ratio, and I am finding that a lot of the things I want to do have to be planned way in advance.

I knew I wanted to eat good sushi in Japan, but I had no idea that for all the best multi-Michelin starred restaurants in Tokyo, reservations must be made within the first few days of the month before you want to dine there. My trip is in April, and as fate would have it, I was watching an excellent drool-inducing documentary called Jiro Dreams of Sushi on DocClub (a sort of Netflix for documentaries) on March 1st. It got me thinking that I should see if I can get a reservation there or at a similar place. I was getting so excited!

After doing some research, I also learned that you cannot book a reservation as a foreigner. You need a local to do it for you. I didn't have my hotel or hostel booked at that point in time, so recommendations to use the hotel concierge were lost on me. But then I remembered that Chase and Visa are amazing companies to work with if you have products with them, and so I was able to contact the Visa Signature Concierge since I do hold a Visa Signature branded credit card. Actually I have several; any Visa card is a Signature card if you have a credit line of $5,000 or more. This is a very amazing benefit that not a lot of people know about or use. They were extremely professional and easy to work with, and within a few days, I had my reservation to Mizutani, a 2 Star Michelin sushi restaurant.

And yes, it is for a Party of 1. Whoo hoo!