A L S O +T O D A Y Is it safe for women to travel solo? Swap tips and tales from the road in Table Talk Informed Sources How do you deal with lost luggage? And what items are absolutely essential to pack? (12/15/97) Tip of the Week An expert's tips on dealing with jet lag (12/15/97) R E C E N T L Y Surreal Gourmet By Bob Blumer Two delicious appetizers for your holiday bash (12/12/97) Passages By Don George "Fifty Years of Europe": Jan Morris on France, England and Germany past and present (12/11/97) Learning to love the abyss By Maria Dolan Snowboarding is a lot like life -- full of scary slopes, big spills and tiny triumphs (12/10/97) "How do you celebrate Christmas?" By Joshua Cohen A Jew in China: The travails of life in a land where Westerner equals Christian (12/09/97) Road Warrior By Dawn MacKeen Are airlines delivering sexist service in first class? (12/08/97) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Browse the Wanderlust archives - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Your virtual travel agency - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -		The expat's guide to Tokyo+|+P A G E+2+O F +2 At the end of the business day, a good way to get rid of stress is by plunging into a traditional Japanese bath. The Jakotsu baths in the wonderfully old-fashioned Asakusa area of Tokyo have indoor and outdoor pools, as well as a rock garden and waterfall. A plunge into the past is cheap too -- less than $5. (For information within Tokyo, call 3841-8645; from outside Tokyo, add the prefix 03.) If you're shy about getting naked with the natives, there are other things to do, many of them free or surprisingly inexpensive. The Edo Tokyo museum (03-3626-9974) is a huge complex that chronicles the city's history between the years 1603 and 1868. Admission is $4 and there's a taped guided tour available at no additional cost. For a frothy diversion, visit the Suntory Beer Plant (0423-60-9591) in Fuchu -- about 20 minutes by subway from downtown Tokyo -- for free tours and beer sampling. Window-shopping illuminates another side of Japan. Try walking the streets of the Ginza for mind-boggling department store displays; Shibuya for specialty boutiques; or the aforementioned Asakusa for temples and traditional shops. For an inside look at a traditional sport, visit a sumo training session. Tickets to the wrestling matches themselves are expensive and hard to come by, but visits to the Kasugano (03-3631-1871) or Azumazeki (03-3625-0033) sumo stables are free. Before you go, have your hotel concierge call to make sure the wrestlers are in town. And while you're at the stables, remember that no photographs are allowed -- and that excessive noise bothers the big guys. You wouldn't want to get on a sumotori-san's wrong side. A more conventional way to get up close and personal with the Japanese is to arrange a free guide through the Tokyo Metropolitan Student Goodwill Guide Club (03-3201-3331). The Home Visit Program is another terrific complimentary service that arranges for foreign visitors to spend a few hours in a Japanese home. A little advance planning is required in this case: You have to apply in person 24 hours or, preferably, two days in advance at the Tokyo Information Center (First Basement Floor, Tokyo International Forum, 3-5-1, Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku). Highly recommended. In Tokyo, call 3201-3331 for details. Of course, road warriors do not live by window-shopping and people-meeting alone. Sometimes you have to eat. When it's time for a meal, here are a few tips. Look for a teishoku (pronounced TAY-sho-ku); this is a set menu meal with drink, side dishes, entree and dessert all included. Most restaurants offer them, and they are always the best deal. Department store restaurants are generally not too expensive and usually have plastic food displays in their windows, great for pointing and ordering. Many Japanese hotels also have surprisingly good and affordable buffets and set menus available. The Palace Hotel buffet lunch in its Swan restaurant starts at 3,000 yen ($24) for lunch and 4,000 ($32) for dinner. The elegant Park Hyatt Hotel has a set menu Japanese lunch in the gorgeous Kozue restaurant for 3,700 ($30). A set dinner at the hotel's Girandole is about the same. The Top of Ginza, at the Ginza Dai-Ichi Hotel, offers buffets that cost about $16 for lunch and $38 for dinner. Big eaters can take advantage of all-you-can-eat restaurants such as Sutamina Taro (03-3604-9689) in Adachi. For around $20 diners can stuff themselves with sushi, grilled beef, rice curry, salad, cake and drinks. If you really want to impress your colleagues, show your sutamina by taking on one of Tokyo's eating contests: The Ramen Koshin restaurant (03-3412-2531) challenges diners to eat a jumbo bowl of ramen in 30 minutes. This $20 ramen is big enough for 4 people -- but if you finish it, it's free. If you can put away two big bowls, you get 30,000 yen ($240 bucks!). The Japan National Tourist Organization offers a wealth of free information on cost-cutting and culture-exploring in Tokyo. For an extensive list of inexpensive restaurants, and a rich range of other tips, visit the JNTO Web site. If you live in the United States or Canada, you may also want to contact the following regional JNTO offices: One Rockefeller Plaza, Suite 1250 New York, NY 10020 (212) 757-5640 jntonyc@interport.net 401 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 770 Chicago, IL 60611 (312) 222-0874 jntochi@mcs.net 360 Post Street, Suite 601 San Francisco, CA 94108 (415) 989-7140 sfjnto@aol.com 624 S. Grand Avenue, Suite 1611 Los Angeles, CA 90017 (213) 623-1952 jntolax@interramp.com 165 University Avenue Toronto, Ontario M5H 3B8 (416) 366-7140 TorontoJNTO@Inforamp.net SALON | Dec. 15, 1997 Mary Beth Maslowski has lived, worked and traveled extensively in Japan for the past eight years. She recently moved to Berlin.