TOKYO 🇯🇵
Eating sushi anywhere else is going to be tough
And so the real adventure begins! I touched down in Tokyo already in a whirlwind — fourteen hours on an airplane will do that to you — but when I arrived at my hostel they informed me a walking tour was about to begin, so I embraced the chaos and jumped in. I explored the neighborhood of Kagurazaka (the hipster “Brooklyn area” as my tour guide put it), and hit an Izakaya with my new hostel friends!
Day 2, I woke up at about 4am. I felt like Bill Murray at the start of Lost in Translation (had to work in a reference somewhere for my film nerds). What’s insane about Japan is how late things seem to open! So I found myself hitting the 7-11 around 7am for breakfast as I couldn’t wait till 9. Tiktok has covered this to no end so I’ll keep it short: Japanese convenience stores (or “konbinis”) are built different. Also, I don’t know how there aren’t onigiri sold as snacks everywhere in America, I’d eat one every day.
I got going and hit Asakusa, the neighborhood of older Tokyo with narrower streets and the world famous Senso-Ji temple, which was awesome but crowded as hell. From there I walked around Ueno park and saw its beautiful gardens, and walked through the Tokyo National Museum.
I had to sprint from there to a sushi making class at Cooking Sun where I happened to sit next to four New Yorkers, one of whom was the older brother of a classmate from Brown! Small world. Anyway, I’m now a sushi making master (at least when supervised and provided with everything I’d need). I went with my new friends to Golden Gai, a historic district which is comprised of four blocks, yet packs over 200 bars and izakaya restaurants. As you can imagine, it was laughable fitting five of us in one of these, but we managed. Of course, we were rejected from our first 4 attempts, as the places were Japanese, or “members,” only (members being another way to put that). There is definitely a complex conversation right now regarding the harsh reaction to tourists versus the understandable desire to maintain cultural norms against an increasingly disruptive outside force. It was definitely eye opening to be actively turned away from many places due to being a foreigner. I already felt pretty strongly about what’s going on in the states, but these repeated instances during my two weeks in Japan definitely put me in the shoes of being on the receiving end of xenophobia. At least my experiences are coming by an extremely polite population that will smile and bow when they shut the door in your face.
I also want to make incredibly clear, the Japanese are an incredible people, and this is in no way me trying to say otherwise. I have been amazed by the level of kindness and respect shown to strangers. The absolute highlight of this came on Monday night. I was starting to really struggle with the solo in “solo travel” (the culture here in Japan has been overwhelmingly solitary even amongst my fellow hostel goers, tough for an extrovert like me). I was hungry and wandered myself across the street to the izakaya for a quick bite. When I entered it was a scene out of Japanese Cheers. There were probably six people sitting around, all engaged in conversation which abruptly came to a halt when I walked in. I meagerly asked if I was alright to enter and the bartender sat me at a table and took my order. I sat to myself for about one minute, when the woman at the table next to me plopped down with a cheery “Hello!” Orie, my new friend’s name, began translating for the others in the bar (she met her boyfriend there and both are besties with the bartender/owner) and I stayed for hours drinking sake and talking about life in our respective metropolitan homes, along with baseball and movies (because how could I resist). Orie and her boyfriend began to profusely thank me for being so kind. I told them I had no idea what they meant, they were the considerate ones welcoming me so warmly. They informed me they work in a hotel and restaurant, respectively, and that most foreigners are very rude. She said how in the past five years the tourism has boomed, and its led to a much higher rate of unsavory visitors (I’m paraphrasing obviously), and that they appreciated my politeness. This broke my heart, as they were the ones being so incredible, but it explained a lot about the hesitation by certain locals to let people in. In fairness, I also learned the other reason this might occur within hospitality is because the standard of service is held so high, that if nobody on staff can speak proper English, they might not let you in for fear of letting you down. Can you imagine something like that in the US? I certainly can’t. Last thought here is that xenophobia is wrong no matter where it is, but listening to locals share stories on their treatment really gives you a sense of how bad it’s gotten here. If you’re going to Japan, remember to embrace their way of life, be overly gracious and kind just as they are, because sometimes I’m sure foreigners don’t even realize they’re being rude, they just aren’t living up to the example of the Japanese. Above all, golden rule: don’t be a dick.
Anyway, I’m jumping around. Back to the timeline. Day 3…DISNEY.
Yes, how could I come to Tokyo and NOT go to Disney?? I showed up at 7:45 for a park open at 9am, and there was already a massive line. People here are even crazier for the House of Mouse than I thought… Luckily, they opened the park at 8am, and I was off to the races. I like to pride myself on being very tactical at Disney, and the one plus of being a sole operative is I was able to really get around everywhere amongst the masses. I bee-lined to Fantasy Springs, the new park they added last year, and knocked off the ride I was most excited for — Peter Pan’s Neverland Adventure. I’m still a five-year-old, what about it? It was an awesome new take on Peter using 3D tech along with actual animatronics. The real highlight though was the Frozen ride, which had a 140 minute wait for the entire day.
Like I said, they’re crazy.
If you’re going and you have the benefit of being an American tourist like myself, get the fast passes, they are pretty cheap and 100% worth it. In the end I spent about $150 for my ticket, fast passes, and all the food I got. That’s about the cost of entry to a single park at Disneyland. Most of the rides at DisneySea are unique to Tokyo, so it was really cool to see, and while all the rides aren’t necessarily as great as what I feel we’ve got back home (and you won’t understand anything cause it’s all in Japanese), the vibes are awesome and it’s the cleanest park you’ll ever go to.
Day 4 was for eating and resting. I’d walked about 30,000 steps back to back days, and I realized that if I didn’t take a beat every few days of doing so, these three months were going to kill me. But to feel productive I woke up early and hit the famous Tsukigi market.
One word: yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
I got the tuna platter, a wagyu skewer, dango (which is like a sweet rice ball dipped in some form of teriyaki - delicious). Then, I decided to do it all again at a few of the other stalls.
I went back to the hostel to pack up since I was switching to one in Shinjuku, and I planned my following day trip to Lake Kawaguchi. Around 6pm I hopped a train to the southern Shinagawa district for a once in a lifetime omakase at Matsunozushi — a restaurant which has been passed down for generations since 1911 and is still operated out of the founders’ original house. It’s pricey, but, if you’re willing, it was probably the best meal I’ve ever had in my life, and I would happily email chef Yoshi to help you get a reservation (just as my lovely girlfriend did for me)! To give you an idea of this man’s mastery, a woman sat down and asked him how LA was. I told Yoshi I lived in LA, and asked why he was there, to which he responded, “Oh I was only there for two days. I made sushi for a baseball team, the Dodgers?”
Mans was 36 hours removed from passing Ohtani nigiri and here he was doing the same for me. Insanity. The sushi was simple, elegant, and everything tasted like bites of heaven.
The following day I hit Lake Kawaguchi in hopes of seeing Mount Fuji. Unfortunately it was too cloudy, but the lake town was stunning, and I decided to take a hike in the mountains just to get lost in nature a bit. I had hoto for lunch. Hoto is a specific style of ramen only made in the Yamanashi prefecture, using a pumpkin base. My lord, was it tasty. Truly I might have to do another post just re-capping the food in this country, but somehow that would be even longer than this one!! With three hours till my train back to Tokyo, and no Fuji in sight, I decided to hit Fuji-Q Highland, an amusement park world famous for its record breaking rollercoasters. If you’re a fan of coasters, it’s a must do. But again, get the fast pass because I ended up waiting 90 minutes in line for Fujiyama (the “king of coasters” as it’s known) before realizing that was an option. Still, it was one of the best coasters I’ve ever ridden so worth it.
We’re almost there I promise.
The next day I went to TeamLab Borderless, an art exhibit which takes the idea “what if art blended together and there were no bounds between one piece or another?” In other words, it was the coolest and trippiest art exhibit I’ve ever seen with stunning side rooms that were nothing short of beautiful. If only weed was legal here…
The night, however, is what likely held my favorite memory of Tokyo. After being distraught thinking I missed the season, I attended a game between the Tokyo Yukult Swallows vs the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants. The Swallows play at Meiji Stadium, a venue built in 1926 which Babe Ruth once played in. There is only one level of seating, yet the energy from the fans could’ve filled Yankee Stadium. It was remarkable. Every player had their own individual chant (some choreo too). There was an away section (filled to the brim due to it being a crosstown rivalry game), and they had their own cheers, going back and forth with the home fans like it was a Premier League match. Truly, there wasn’t a dull moment, and even better, everyone was dialed into the game. Nobody was sitting around chatting, swiping on their phone due to baseball being “boring.” It was pure excitement. My favorite part was whenever the Swallows scored, the whole stadium would put up these beautiful glittering umbrellas and twirl them around. It was a sight. Best part was what a great game we got! The Swallows are the worst team in the league playing the financial juggernaut equivalent of the Yankees and yet it was a shootout: tie game, 4-4, that went into the 12th inning!! Unfortunately NPB rules state a game ends in a tie after the 12th (lame), so it ended there. Turns out it was the final home game of the season and the manager was retiring, so afterwards everyone stuck around for speeches, a flower ceremony, season highlight montage, and a final celebration where the players tossed the manager up in the air like a rockstar while the crowd erupted in cheers.
How can you not be romantic about baseball?
I’m being informed I’m nearing the limit of what I can write (Substack doesn’t know who it’s dealing with) so I’ll keep the final day short. I got the fluffiest pancakes at Cafe Hanon, went to Meiji Shrine/gardens, got carbonara ramen at Menchirashi, and ended with the aforementioned hangout with the locals!
See you in Kyoto folks!