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So i've pretty much sorted out the vast majority of the holiday for my mum for her 60th
One last final thing that simply has been seemingly impossible to accomplish
One of the things that i want to arrange for her is a fine dining experience on the 11th (her birthday) for 5 people, and i've been trying to book a fine dining sushi omakase for her
The main problems i've encountered are
a> no english
b> impossible to book
We made a "blanket rule" that anything that requires more than a month ahead of booking we most likely wont bother with, but we are still looking for a high quality restaurant that is friendly with english speaking customers
Any suggestions here, and more importantly, how on earth to book as an english speaker in another country!
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Maybe get someone who knows the language to help you?
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Hong Kong9154 Posts
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Aotearoa39261 Posts
On September 15 2014 04:01 itsjustatank wrote:
paging cambium
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If you don't know anyone who speaks japanese, then your best bet is probably to do it through whatever hotel you're staying at. Ask them to make the reservation for you. Obviously you may not be able to do it this far in advance, but it's better than nothing.
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Shouldn't most Michelin star restaurants have English speaking staff? Like, at least someone that can handle reservations?
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I hope you are ready to spend loads of money 
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Money isn't the issue, booking and finding ways to book given being an english speaker in another country is definitely the hard part lol
I've tried various places over the last bunch of weeks but the time is getting close and a lot of places running out of booking spaces so yeah... 
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have you tried making a reservation online, or through a concierge service like a credit card, hotel, etc?
opentable.com seems to have a japanese website
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hkmurakami is Japanese but lives in the US. His twitter is @hkmurakami
Maybe he can help you out!
Otherwise, I could contact a Japanese friend who lives in Korea. Maybe she can help you out as well.
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It seems like i've been making a bit of progress now by going through the hotel concierge, so i'll report back with results
I've got a couple of places booked already but still looking for "the one" as it were haha
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Your best bet is to go through you hotel concierge.
Most Michelin restaurants will speak English (even Jiro believe it or not), but some rather speak with a Japanese native, in case you've got weird allergies that couldn't be communicated properly, and probably other reasons.
I haven't been to a single Michelin sushi restaurant in Tokyo, but I hear Saito and Subayaki Jiro (this one in particular) put an effort to welcome foreigners. What English really gets you is the fish name, which may or may not even matter, because to me, words like "horse mackerel" and "mackerel" really register no differences or meaning even, I guess things like "scallops" and "snapper" help, but in the end, it's just fish. So try those two restaurants first, then ask your concierge to go down the Michelin list.
Michelin restaurants book out really early for dinner (1.5 months was my record), given the amount of time you have, you best aim for lunch, when restaurants are a lot less busy, especially on weekdays. Also, a party of five is an exceptionally large crowd, I would imagine this would be more of a problem than your time constraint.
If nothing works out, as a back up, I suggest the Tsukiji fish market in early AM. While I haven't been to Michelin sushi restaurants, I've been to expensive sushi places that really pale in comparison to Tsukiji. Again, a party of five may be problematic.
Some restaurants in Tsukiji that I recommend, and when I think you should start lining up:
Sushi Dai, opens at 5 AM, line up at 3:30 AM
Daiwa Sushi, opens at 6 (I think), line up at 5.
Sushi Bun, opens at 6, you can walk in at 6 with no lines.
Sushi Dai will offer a decent experience, as they try to speak English to you and entertain you a little bit.
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line up at 3:30 am?
I've already got some backups booked so no worried about that, just i know she wants the "grand" experience
Cambium do you know anything about sushi sora? I got a table there but i know very little about the place, though im told out of the hotel sushi bars it's supposed to be very good
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EPT
