TravelDay buddy

Mika

@wanderer · she/her · Tokyo, Japan

Start with a neighborhood. Leave room for the unexpected.

  • Neighborhoods
  • Culture
  • Wandering
  • Medium pace
  • Mid range

Mika is a drawn, fictional companion written by TravelDay. The places below are real entries in our catalogue, and each one names the guide it came from.

How Mika travels

I give one neighbourhood a whole day. Not a list of sights, a neighbourhood. I walk the same street twice, once in each direction, because the second pass is where I see things.

I like the parts of a city that were built for the people who live in them. Old shopping streets, a temple with a school next door, a market that still sells to cooks. I will skip a famous view to stand in a street that sells nothing but kitchen knives.

I eat in rooms that are older than I am. I keep the evening loose. If the door is open and the room looks kind, that is the plan.

  • Neighborhoods
  • Walking
  • Markets

Cities Mika keeps going back to

  • Tokyo

    Japan

    A hundred small towns that never got around to merging.

  • London

    United Kingdom

    Twenty minutes of walking puts you in a different century.

  • Mexico City

    Mexico

    Each colonia has its own trees, its own bread, its own hour for dinner.

  • Istanbul

    Turkey

    You cross the water and the rhythm of the day changes with you.

  • Naples

    Italy

    Stairs, laundry, basil on the windowsill. The city happens outdoors.

What Mika recommends

Istanbul

  • Neolokal · Restaurant

    Turkish home cooking rethought, inside the Salt Galata building, with the Golden Horn out of the window. Book a table by the glass.

    • Seen in Time Out Istanbul. Reviewed as chef Maksut Askar's restaurant in Salt Galata, sourcing from a farm outside the city

London

  • St. John · Restaurant

    White walls, no decoration, and a menu that changes twice a day. Go at lunch when the room is quiet and order whatever the board says is offal.

    • Seen in Time Out London. Named in the 50 best restaurants in London for its nose-to-tail British cooking in Farringdon

  • Simpson's-in-the-Strand · Restaurant

    The trolley comes to the table and the carving happens in front of you. It is theatre with gravy, and the room has been doing it a long time.

    • Seen in Time Out London. Listed among the 50 best restaurants in London as a historic British dining room with tableside carving

  • Noble Rot · Restaurant

    A dark Bloomsbury room where the wine list is the reason and the food keeps up. Ask for a glass of something you cannot pronounce.

    • Seen in Time Out London. Listed among the 50 best restaurants in London as a wine-focused restaurant in Bloomsbury

  • Borough Market · Market

    Go early on a Tuesday, not at noon on a Saturday. Eat standing up, buy bread, then take it to the river.

    • Seen in Time Out London. Described as London's oldest food market, in its current location since 1956 with over 100 stalls

  • Monmouth Coffee Company · Cafe

    The queue moves. Get the coffee before you walk into the market, not after, because afterwards you will not want to stand in line.

    • Seen in Time Out London. Recommended as the coffee stop on the south side of Borough Market for an early arrival

Mexico City

  • EL MORO Mariano Escobedo · Cafe

    Churros and four kinds of thick chocolate. The original branch keeps long hours, which is why it turns up at both ends of my day.

    • Seen in Time Out. Described as Mexico City's most famous churro shop, serving churros since 1935

  • Hanky Panky Cocktail Bar · Bar

    You book, you get an address, you walk through a door that is not a door. Small room, short list, no photographs.

    • Seen in Time Out Mexico City. Listed among the ten best bars in Mexico City as a hidden 1920s prohibition-themed bar in Juarez

  • La Clandestina · Bar

    Mezcal in small clay cups, poured by people who will tell you where it came from. Ask for a flight and take an hour over it.

    • Seen in Wanderlog. Listed among the best bars in Mexico City as an artisanal mezcal bar with an intimate room

  • Fifty Mils · Bar

    A long marble bar and drinks that arrive looking composed. Good for the first night, when you want the city to be easy.

    • Seen in Time Out Mexico City. Listed among the ten best bars in Mexico City, in Juarez, for its marble bar and cocktail list

Tokyo

  • Kamiya Bar · Bar

    Order the Denki Bran and sit downstairs with everyone else. You pay at the counter first, which trips up every visitor once. It is loud and it is meant to be.

    • Seen in Time Out Tokyo. Listed as Tokyo's oldest Western-style bar, founded in 1880, known for the Denki Bran cocktail

  • Isegen · Restaurant

    Monkfish hotpot in a wooden building near Kanda. The season runs roughly September to April, so this is a cold weather plan, not a summer one.

    • Seen in Time Out Tokyo. Anko monkfish specialist in a building dating from 1930, with a season running September to April

Plans you can copy

Four days walking the east side of Tokyo

4 nights · Late October to early December · Medium pace · Mid range

One neighbourhood a day, starting in Asakusa and ending in the quiet museums west of the centre.

  1. Day 1

    Asakusa, from the gate inwards

    • Kaminarimon · Morning · Sight

      Go at eight, before the shopping street fills. The lantern is the photograph everyone takes and it is still worth standing under.

    • Sensō-ji · Morning · Sight

      Walk the side lanes behind the main hall. The temple is busy, the streets around it are not.

    • Kappabashi Kitchenware Town · Afternoon · Walk

      A kilometre of shops selling nothing but kitchen equipment. I buy one thing and regret the ten I left.

    • Kamiya Bar · Evening · Meal

      Pay at the counter on the way in, then sit down. Denki Bran, a beer, and whatever the kitchen sends.

      • Seen in Time Out Tokyo. Listed as Tokyo's oldest Western-style bar, founded in 1880, known for the Denki Bran cocktail

  2. Day 2

    Ueno down to Kanda

    • Ameya-Yokochō · Morning · Market

      Under the tracks, loud, cheap, still a market rather than a photograph of one.

    • Tokyo National Museum · Midday · Museum

      Two hours in the Japanese galleries of the Honkan is enough. The rest will wait for another trip.

    • Taro Okamoto Memorial Museum · Afternoon · Museum

      The artist's house and studio, kept as he left it. Small, strange, and over in an hour.

    • Isegen · Evening · Meal

      Monkfish hotpot, one pot for the table. Only in the cold months, so check before you build a night around it.

      • Seen in Time Out Tokyo. Anko monkfish specialist in a building dating from 1930, with a season running September to April

  3. Day 3

    Tsukiji, then Nihonbashi slowly

    • Tsukiji Outer Market · Morning · Market

      The inner market moved years ago. The outer lanes still trade, and they are best before nine.

    • Mitsui Memorial Museum · Afternoon · Museum

      Tea ware and lacquer on the seventh floor of an old bank building. Quiet in the way I look for.

    • Shinjuku Golden Gai · Night · Walk

      Six alleys of tiny bars. Some charge a cover, some are regulars only, and the signs will tell you. Read the door before you open it.

  4. Day 4

    Aoyama and Komaba

    • Nezu Museum · Morning · Museum

      Go for the garden as much as the screens. It is a whole hillside behind a wall on a shopping street.

    • Japanese Folk Crafts Museum · Afternoon · Museum

      Everyday pots, cloth and baskets, shown as though they were treasures. This is the museum that changed how I shop.

    • Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum · Afternoon · Museum

      An art deco house first, a museum second. Give the last half hour to the garden.

  • Seen in Time Out Tokyo. Explains that Tokyo's old shitamachi neighbourhoods are scattered across the city rather than gathered in one old town

Mexico City, one colonia at a time

4 nights · March to May · Medium pace · Mid range

Four days that never cross the city twice, from the Centro out to Chapultepec.

  1. Day 1

    Centro, from the plaza outwards

    • Museo de Arte Popular · Morning · Museum

      Start here and the rest of the country makes more sense. The building was a fire station.

    • Mercado de Artesanías de La Ciudadela · Midday · Market

      Crafts from all over, under one roof. Prices are fair and haggling is mild.

    • EL MORO Mariano Escobedo · Afternoon · Coffee

      Churros and thick chocolate, standing at the counter. This is the afternoon repair.

      • Seen in Time Out. Described as Mexico City's most famous churro shop, serving churros since 1935

    • El Balcon del Zocalo · Evening · Meal

      Book the terrace and time it for sunset over the cathedral. Go for the view, stay for the mole.

      • Seen in Wanderlog. Listed among the best bars in Mexico City as a rooftop with views over the historic centre

  2. Day 2

    Roma and Condesa, on foot the whole day

    • Mercado Roma · Midday · Market

      A food hall rather than a market. Useful when the group cannot agree.

    • Museo de arte Carrillo Gil · Afternoon · Museum

      Three floors, rarely busy, strong on Mexican modernists. An hour and a half.

    • Gin Gin Roma Norte · Evening · Meal

      Gin, a garden room, and food that holds up. An easy first stop before somewhere smaller.

      • Seen in Time Out Mexico City. Listed among the ten best bars in Mexico City for its gin and tonic variations, in Roma

    • Loup Bar · Night · Meal

      Absinthe, upstairs, by reservation. Two drinks is the correct number.

      • Seen in Time Out Mexico City. Listed among the ten best bars in Mexico City as a reservation-only bar dedicated to absinthe, in Roma

  3. Day 3

    Coyoacán, and a house made of lava

    • Frida Kahlo Museum · Morning · Museum

      Timed tickets sell out well ahead and there are no walk-ins on busy days. Buy before you fly.

    • Museo Diego Rivera Anahuacalli · Afternoon · Museum

      Black volcanic stone, low doorways, and Rivera's own collection of pre-Hispanic figures. Cold inside even in May.

    • Tlecān · Evening · Meal

      A narrow mezcal bar with a short menu. Ask what is open tonight rather than reading the list.

      • Seen in Wanderlog. Listed among the best bars in Mexico City as a mezcaleria with a minimalist room

  4. Day 4

    Chapultepec, then a door you have to find

    • Museo Nacional de Antropología · Morning · Museum

      Do not try to see all of it. Two halls, then the courtyard, then out.

    • Museo Rufino Tamayo · Afternoon · Museum

      Concrete and daylight in the middle of the park. The building is half the reason.

    • Jumex Museum · Afternoon · Museum

      Sawtooth roof, travertine, one big show at a time. Free entry days get busy.

    • Hanky Panky Cocktail Bar · Evening · Meal

      Reserve first, then follow the address you are sent. Last night of the trip, small room, no photographs.

      • Seen in Time Out Mexico City. Listed among the ten best bars in Mexico City as a hidden 1920s prohibition-themed bar in Juarez
  • Seen in Time Out Mexico City. States that Mexico City has the second largest number of museums of any city in the world

Mika is a TravelDay buddy: drawn, fictional, and not an account in the network. Research edition 2026-09-17.