Photo Link:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/n2PPvK6pkz9CAKJC8
So, Tokyo. Honestly, I absolutely loved this city. I think it’s too early to say how much I loved it or why I loved it, but by the time I finish my month-plus in Japan I think I should have a better idea. There are a few reasons why I think it’s tough to pinpoint for now. For one, this is only my second time in east Asia after my ~2 weeks in east China when I first quit my job (Shanghai, Suzhou, Nanjing, Hangzhou), so it’s hard for me to say how much is a genuine enjoyment of Tokyo versus how much is a novelty of being in a new area, which I almost never get now because I have traveled so much (even Afghanistan, for example, basically felt like an extension of Kashmir which is an extension of Delhi, etc. etc.). I guess you can sort of make an argument for Singapore or even Kuala Lumpur as “east Asian” even though they are squarely in SE Asia, due to the ethnic Chinese population (especially for Singapore), but I would say those cities are almost in-between what Tokyo or east China was like for me and what a place like Yogyakarta or Bangkok was like for me, just in terms of general vibe (and not in terms of liking/disliking a place). Another reason why it’s hard to accurately judge Tokyo is that I won’t know for sure how much of what I love is specific to Tokyo versus Japan as a whole, so I don’t think I can accurately judge Tokyo until finishing up my Japan trip.
But yea, Tokyo was wonderful. It’s a bit like Chicago (which I actively dislike) in that is a huuuuge urban sprawl, with giant pockets of nothing and quiet between the crowded areas. That comparison alone, which was one of the first things I realized, does make me wonder if Tokyo is a quintessential “great to visit but I would hate living there” city since one of my biggest gripes with Chicago was how spread out it was. Even London is similarly a sprawl, but I feel like London doesn’t have these “empty” areas between the popping parts like Chicago and Tokyo do. But Tokyo’s public transport is fantastic – basically like a more expensive Singapore, with everything on time to the T. The major criticism I have, which is similar to London actually, is that all trains end at midnight, so if you’re out drinking you’re either spending 100+ USD on a taxi (cabs are stupidly expensive), going home in time to catch the last train, or, like me, stubbornly walking a few hours out of principle to not pay outrageous taxi fares. Tokyo is incredibly safe, so there’s no real danger at all of walking around late night.
In general, Tokyo absolutely felt distinctly Japanese, yet strongly reminded me of a bunch of cities that I have been to, both for better and for worse. To start, the similarities with other cities…as mentioned before, it is a MASSIVE sprawl of a city (I was walking 20+ km a day and barely covering ground in the big picture), but there are giant swathes that are serene and quiet, much like Chicago. Almost like pockets of suburbs between different urban centers (this is unlike Chicago to be fair). Shanghai and Singapore are more obvious comps…Tokyo’s skyscrapers are honestly more like Singapore than Shanghai…Shanghai really did tower over you as a ginormous city. Tokyo and Singapore are much more modest in their building sizes I feel, for a large/modern city. The similarity to Shanghai is just the mix between ultramodern (bright lights and sounds at night, though Tokyo is on a totally different level) and traditional (areas with traditional/historic temple and alley architecture side-by-side with modern skyscrapers, etc.). Tokyo and Shanghai are also similarly diverse I feel in terms of a non-local ethnic population. Singapore is obviously way way more ethnically diverse, but also nowhere near as crowded and hectic as certain parts of Tokyo are…it’s overall a much more lowkey/laid-back city than Tokyo. The big difference between Tokyo and the other Chinese cities I went to – Suzhou, Nanjing, and Hangzhou – is that in those three, the historic quarters were contained and separate from the rest of the modern city, whereas in Tokyo everything is modern and the historic parts are almost sticking out amidst all the modernity. In a way, Japan to me is very similar to India in the seeming clash of old versus new, between centuries old tradition and monuments with a breakneck pace towards modernity. And the everpresent small Shinto and Buddhist shrines and random Japanese gardens certainly add a sense of peacefulness amidst the urban in-your-face nature of the more packed parts of Tokyo. And speaking of gardens…so far, I will say that the gardens I saw in Suzhou are still the best I have seen, but as a whole these East Asian gardens are for me cooler than any of Mughal stuff and definitely way way over the European stuff. But Japanese gardens are actually directly influenced by Chinese gardens so for an outsider like me they both seemed almost identical with the way they artificially create a sense of “perfect” nature. Likewise, the historic and palatial architecture of the historic stuff I saw in China was, to me, very similar to everything I’ve seen in Japan so far (and to be honest, probably everything I will see). But I love it, so not complaining at all about the similarities…and again, I think me loving it is partially due to the “newness” of it all.
A couple other Tokyo comps that are actually interesting because, like Chicago, these are negative comps and I loved Tokyo, are Vegas and Dubai. Vegas is similar to the flashy parts of Tokyo (Shinjuku, Akihabara), with the constant barrage and in-your-face nature of all the lights and videos and sounds. It’s a sensory overload. I hated Vegas because I found it totally artificial, but weirdly enough I loved this sensation in Tokyo. I wonder if a part of it is the “newness” of east Asia and Japan for me. Also, one thing I realized is that the whole cyberpunk aesthetic is basically wholesale lifted from Tokyo and Japanese culture with very little adjustment (I have heard that Hong Kong is also quite similar, so I hopefully will see that comparison later as well). It’s the same neon lights, loud video billboards with flashy animations and a constant barrage of voices, anonymity in the masses feel that you get from just wandering around in Tokyo. And I think me always loving cyberpunk things in general made me willing to accept these things in Tokyo where I hated it in Vegas? Not sure. The other negative city comp was Dubai. I think the major difference is that Dubai felt soulless to me while there is clearly a local culture present in Tokyo (and Shanghai for that matter), despite the visual similarities at a first glance.
The most obvious comp to Tokyo, even more than Shanghai, is my all-time favorite city (of course), New York. Walking around, you just feel alive with everything that is going on, no matter what time of day. Obviously this is only true for the pockets of Tokyo that have people in it (not the “empty” spaces I was talking about earlier), but it really is an incredible lively feeling that you almost never get in cities, which is what makes New York unique. And an area of NYC that I typically dislike (like the proud local I am), Times Square, is actually very similar to the biggest night spots of Tokyo in terms of the sensory overload. But again, I think back to visiting Times Square in the spring of 2021 during peak COVID quarantine, and how I actually thought it was a cool area without the crowds. I do think that as of now, Tokyo is probably slightly better than Shanghai for me (which is high, high praise), but again, I’ll need to wait and see how I feel after seeing the rest of Japan.
But yea, despite a lot of seemingly negative city comparisons, Tokyo was amazing. I think that might be due to some uniquely Japanese things to it that made it feel unique despite all the things that made Tokyo feel similar. In no particular order, they are: to start with a negative, the lack of garbage cans…you will be carrying your garbage with you for miles; vending machines EVERYWHERE that sell all sorts of random local drinks; the constant presence of 7/11, FamilyMart, and Lawson’s, three convenience stores that have shockingly delicous snack food that is actually a Japanese cultural phenomenon (food highlights include a “spicy” fried chicken from 7/11 that has no right being that good and is highkey one of my top 3 Japanese foods so far, and a deepfried curry bread that tasted just like British Indian food); walking into an Izakaya (a traditional Japanese restaurant, very narrow with only a handful of seats, only one chef, and the outside is decorated with traditional Japanese paper lanterns and has those old school Japanese thin sliding doors) and ordering omakase (chef’s special) and a beer for under 20 USD…these Izakayas are everywhere in Tokyo and are another example of the mix between traditional and modern when you see them in the middle of a bustling street; the toilets! heated seats, settings for the bum gun, music/sounds to play in public bathrooms, it’s amazing that the rest of the world hasn’t copied Japanese technology here; the absolute lack of jaywalking even when the streets are beyond clear; the ubiquity of those coin-operated toy machines that you saw all the time in the 90s in the US (Tokyo is a weird mix of futuristic and retro in this way); vending machines for Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh cards; arcades (again, like the 90s) quite literally EVERYWHERE; delicious custard snacks in bakeries; and of course, the sensory overloads at night time.
So speaking of sensory overloads, I absolutely loooooved the Akihabara district, and found Shinjuku to be interesting (certainly didn’t like it as much, for reasons I’ll get into). Akihabara is basically what the stereotype of Japan is. Geek culture on overload, and it is very cyberpunk as well. As you walk around the neighborhood, you are bombarded with what I call “video game music” but I think is just Japanese pop – sort of the up beat pop you get in Japanese video games – and all sorts of loud ads with women (it’s always women) talking in Japanese…the constant random Japanese women speaking from loudspeakers here and there for some sort of advertising was in particular cyberpunk I thought. And beyond these sounds, you also hear all these arcade noises from these arcade shops that are everywhere and trying to draw you in to play their games. And obviously at night time, you see everything brightly lit up with tons and tons and tons of manga and anime and video game characters in various different advertisements. It’s just such a perfect atmosphere. And much like the rest of Tokyo, it’s nice enough during the daytime but it’s at night where everything gets dialed up to 11 and you really get that adrenaline rush from everything going on around you.
Shinjuku, which is another famous night district of Tokyo, was a bit more hit and miss for me. The neon signs with Japanese characters were certainly a “vintage Tokyo” scene, but beyond the initial reaction of the cool lighting I found this area a bit lacking. There are these two sections in this district, Golden Gai and Omoide Yokocho, which are basically a representation of “Old Tokyo”, with narrow streets and izakayas and small bars lining these areas, with the idea being this is what Tokyo used to be like before modernization. However, it just felt like a Disney theme park – the clientele was 90%+ foreign, the prices were inflated, and it just seemed off. Like I get that these are actual real alleyways that have survived, but I feel like it’s much easier to get this sort of authentic experience in other parts of Japan and that the only reason to visit either of these two sections is if you are only visiting Tokyo and nowhere else in Japan. Hell, there are more authentic izakayas literally everywhere else in Tokyo. Another area of Shinjuku that looked very cool but was a bit sleazy (like a worse Khao San Road in Bangkok) was Kamukicho. It was like a neon lights paradise so I did really appreciate that, but like Khao San Road, after an hour or so it really starts to wear thin…same deal with overly drunk bro-tourists that could take place anywhere in the world, didn’t feel Japanese or like Tokyo at all.
Another district that I was thoroughly underwhelmed by was Shibuya…this is where that famous crossing is, where there are allegedly 1000s of people crossing the street at the same time every single time the crosswalk is green. To be honest, it’s just a mass of people and no different than NYC (and nowhere near as chaotic as half the cities in India). No idea how this became a tourist thing to be honest.
One of the highlights of Tokyo for me was the various temples, especially when contrasted with the big city surroundings. I think the best one for me was the Sensoji temple, which is a Buddhist temple that looked quite stunning at night. It reminded me a ton of the old Tao temples of Shanghai, both in terms of the architectural style and grandeur (Taoism is, at a super high level, basically a “spiritual” religion indigenous to China, as opposed to a religion more based on worship). Another cool Buddhist temple that I saw was the Gotokuji temple which was a bit on the western outskirts – this was mostly memorable for the 1000s of maneki-neko cats (cats with their right paw raised up) that are placed there by locals as good luck charms. It’s certainly a striking temple, and honestly sort of reminded me of a horror movie…these cats are really anything but cute. There were also a couple of cool Shinto shrines…Shintoism is (again, at a very high level) a bit like Hinduism or other old school polytheistic religions, but with less focus on them as human-like gods and more on them as animals and spirits. To be honest it did seem to me that historically in Japan Shintoism and Buddhism were intertwined as opposed to being separate entities. Shinto temples are the ones with the famous torii gates (though a lot of Buddhist temples also have these). The first one was the Meiji Shrine. The standout feature here was this giant display of beautifully decorated sake barrels that were lined up along the walkway to enter the temple complex. And the other cool Shinto temple I saw was the Yasukini Shrine, which is a little controversial as it apparently honors a lot of the Japanese war criminals from WW2 and prior – like the ones who were involved in China. To be honest, I wouldn’t have known any of this without wikipedia…when visiting, everything is in Japanese and the English signs only say that it “honors those who have served”.
Food-wise…so far, I think I would put Japan above Italy and Argentina (best steaks in the world but not much else in terms of standouts) and below Mexico/Jordan/Iraq/Yogyakarta (and definitely below India/Lyon/China/Singapore which is at the very top). It’s definitely been very good, with, as mentioned earlier, the 7/11 “spicy” fried red chicken (not spicy at all but my god it gives The Chicken Shack in Evanston a run for its’ money as the best fried chicken I’ve ever had) a particular highlight. There was also this conveyor belt sushi spot near my hostel where you could basically stuff your face for 20-25 rolls for under 15 USD. And the ramen was of course great…especially since that’s really the only spicy Japanese food that I could find. And it originally came from China, which is why I think it’s spicy, since no indigenous Japanese food really has any kick – wasabi doesn’t count as that’s more of a stab in your nostrils than actual spiciness. I was looking into street food tours for Osaka and Fukuoka for later in Japan since those cities are known for their food, but the cost of these street food tours was over 100 USD each so I think I’ll just discover Japanese food throughout Japan the old fashioned way…walking into a restaurant, using Google Translate to make sure the prices are reasonable (Japanese script uses different characters for numbers), and then asking the chef to make me whatever his/her heart desires. But overall, it’s definitely doable to eat cheap-ish in Tokyo (under 20 USD a day), so that bodes well for the rest of Japan for me. One other food highlight – the cheap (<10 USD) bento box meals that you get in the train station prior to boarding the fast trains. These are filling and delicious. Japan really does convenience store/grab and go food better, by far, than any other developed country I have ever seen. I hope the sweet Lord above forgives me for this, but I would go as far as to say that it puts Greggs in the UK to shame.
Other random Tokyo highlights…celebrating my 30th birthday in the official Pokemon Cafe (wildly overpriced and mediocre food but I loved every second of it. And speaking of Pokemon, the region that Tokyo is in is called Kanto); going to an observatory with pretty cool 360 views of the Tokyo skyline, where there was a piano set up and random Japanese tourists waited in line to play and each and every one of them was a lights out piano player – it really was absolutely amazing; going to the Hyatt 50th floor bar where numerous Lost in Translation scenes were filmed, and catching a great sunset view of Mount Fuji from there; this is more pan-Japanese, but the aesthetically pleasing nature of the Japanese script…a bit like artistic Arabic, except while artistic Arabic was limited to mosques and palaces, artistic Japanese is literally everywhere, even in izakayas, as well as temples obviously; ukiyo-e artwork, which I absolutely adore…went to the Hokusai museum (the dude who did the famous Great Wave picture) and honestly to me there is a CLEAR link between his drawing style and what you see in Japanese animation like the Studio Ghibli stuff, so it was cool to kind of get a historic sense of Manga and Anime unintentionally that way; the super hipster neighborhood of Shimo Katazawa, which has the single best collection of secondhand 90s American sportswear I have ever seen, across like dozens of thrift shops.
After a week proper in Tokyo, I spent my last three days taking day trips (this was to maximize the value of the ~500 USD 21-day train pass, that is used consecutively and covers all intercity transit). All three of these day trips were within the Kanto region. My first daytrip was to the town of Kamakura, about an hour south of Tokyo. It’s a giant temple town – literally dozens upon dozens of historic temples that would take well over a week to properly see. I managed to visit a handful of super cool Zen Buddhist temples. These were really nice visits, especially since the temples were almost laid out like a traditional Chinese/Japanese garden with pretty walkways connecting the entire complex. Just all in all a very cool experience to walk around and explore these temples, and pretty unique as they were my first Zen temples and markedly different from the shrines I have seen in the cities in China and in Tokyo. Again, it was very cool to have a “new” travel experience after 3.5 years of being on the road…that is so hard to get nowadays, and even other things that I love (a lot more than these Zen temples even) are not always “new”. But I do think that these Zen temples were unique enough that I don’t know what other religious complex is even similar – honestly I think the closest parallel is Chinese and Japanese gardens, if anything.
The next day, I did a day trip ~2.5 hours north to the town of Nikko. Took my first speed train and had my first bento box meal on this…the speed trains were basically a cooler looking version of what they have in China. Traveling and seeing public transport around the world often makes me very sad at the state of the US, but oh well. While on this train I got a good view of Fuji draped in snow with not a cloud in sight. Was a cool view, and Fuji is certainly impressive. But (I hate to be that guy) I have definitely seen better mountains in my day…Kilimanjaro, Shivling in Uttarakhand, Cotopaxi in Ecuador, the mountains beyond Lake Karakol in Tajikistan, FitzRoy in Argentinian Patagonia, maybe even Mount Cook on South Island NZ. But I’ve definitely been super fortunate to have taken in all of these amazing mountain views.
Nikko was super cool. The main attraction here is the ornate (ornate might be an understatement) mausoleum of the founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate which reunified Japan, Tokugawa Ieyasu. He is also a prominent character (in a slightly fictionalized form) in the excellent, excellent, excellent novel Shogun. This entire complex actually gave me strong SE Asian vibes (especially the palace in Bangkok) with the over the top color and carvings and decorations. And in both the Buddhist and Shinto temples here, those colorful demons were to me almost a synthesis of the Tibetan demons and the southeast Asian Buddhist demons, so it’s almost like the ones you see in these non-Zen temples in Japan are the similarity in the aesthetics of Buddhism from SE Asia to Tibet. But yea, Nikko was a very different experience than Kamakura – much less serene and much more flashy – but still a very worthwhile trip. Apparently cheesecake is a big thing in Nikko – I saw tons of pictures of it while walking around the town – and I do have to say that I had an absolutely bomb cheesecake for dessert at some small cafe that was run by a grandma and grandpa.
That night I met up with Martin’s London Business School friend Yugo for the second time while in Tokyo (also met him for dinner and drinks the prior week as well), and this was with a few other LBS kids too. I hadn’t met any of them while in London…Yugo was actually taking a trip to the US while I was in London last year (business school is incredible really). He funnily mentioned that his first reaction to the US was how bad the 7/11 food was given how good it is in Japan. But yea, it was great to hang out and get stupid drunk with locals, all while eating some great food as well. Another random social note from Tokyo…hung out a couple of times with this German dude who I had met while scuba diving in Komodo literally right before…he was already planning a quick one week Tokyo trip so it was cool that our timelines sort of coincided for a bit.
My final day trip from Tokyo was to Hakone, a bit to the southeast. It is famous for the views of Mount Fuji by a lake there, so of course it was totally cloudy when I went and you could not see the mountain. But the main reason to visit is for the onsen, which are Japanese hot springs. It was a great hangover cure after my 5am night the previous night with the LBS kids (they were all in their early 30s but I will never not call people my age kids), and honestly it was a super comfortable time. I definitely enjoyed it, but at the same time, not sure if I would go out of my way again to visit one. Glad I did it though.
The following day was the big one – headed to a British bar to watch the Super Bowl before going on to Kanazawa, in the Chubu region. Kanazawa is on the west coast of Japan and is northwest of Tokyo (but more west than north)…it’s basically like halfway west to Kyoto in a way. Tough, tough loss for the Eagles but I am super bullish on Jalen Hurts – for me he is a clear 2A/2B in the league with Joe Burrow.
By the time I got to Kanazawa it was already dark and I was exhausted from my 2 day hangover and getting up early, so I didn’t do much besides go to an izakaya run by a sumo wrestler for dinner…as with everywhere in Japan so far, the standout was an amazing sashimi that ~5+ USD…it’s obscene how expensive good sashimi is in the US compared to the prices you get in Japan.
The next day, I took a daytrip to Takayama, about 2 hours south of Kanazawa and in the same Chubu region. The highlight here was this sort of open-air museum of all these traditional wooden rural buildings from the Chubu region that were fully moved over and kept here for preservation. It reminded me a ton of the open air museum of wooden rural Russian buildings in Suzdal, though I do have to say that I found Suzdal cooler (Suzdal is actually the background image of my blog). The highlight for me in this open air museum was all these traditional tatami mat rooms with sliding doors when you walked inside…it is just so aesthetically pleasing and I really loved getting to walk around in them. And the symmetry there was like straight out of a Wes Anderson set. Besides this museum, I walked around the old town area which is super well preserved with historic Edo-era (so a few hundred + years old) wooden buildings…slightly touristy “old town” vibes that you get all over Europe but this was way more authentic than Golden Gai or Omoide Yokocho in Tokyo, especially since it was like 95% Japanese tourists here (and even then, it was not overrun with tourists). I think if I traveled in East Asia for a few months I would certainly tire of this but for now it’s still a novelty for me so I loved it. Couple of really good street food items here – one was this amazingly sweet strawberry wrapped in a dumpling bun, almost like food you get in east China…Japan is known for their better strawberry breeds so I think this might have been one of them, especially since there was a long line to get this (I joined the line without knowing what I was going to buy) and it was a bit pricey. The other was this pair of almost lentil/rice grilled thing on a stick…reminded me a TON of south Indian breakfast food so I came back for seconds and thirds.
I then spent the next couple of days in Kanazawa. Great, great historical town. Tons of preserved wooden Edo-era buildings like Takayama, though I will say that I found Takayama’s to be a bit more aesthetically pleasing…the ones in Kanazawa were all flat from the outside but that’s because a lot of them were former Geisha buildings so I guess that’s a different architectural style. Still very cool, and Kanazawa definitely had more to see than Takayama – the old town area in particular was noticeably larger, and there were actually a couple that were located in different districts. Another cool old town area besides the Geisha districts was a former Samurai district. This area was actually quite distinctive with these massive straw mats lining the walls all along the streets. Even though almost all of these buildings were now modern, private residences, it was cool that they kept this sort of village feel and the exterior of these old buildings (much like any European old town, except this was largely residential and not commercial). Near this district was one of the highlights of my trip to Japan so far, the so-called Ninja temple. Over the course of a one hour guided tour (no photos/videos allowed sadly) we saw all sorts of trap doors, hidden stairways and hidden rooms, and areas to spring surprise attacks. And most memorably, a room that was intended for disgraced soldiers to commit seppuku (suicide by slicing your guts out with a sword). Very, very cool temple.
The highlight of Kanazawa was definitely the Kenroku-en Garden. To be blunt, I’m not sure just how nice the garden would have been (compared to the ones in Suzhou in China or even the other Chinese ones), but there was heavy snow the day I went so with the snowfall it looked absolutely magical. Like Chinese gardens, Japanese gardens are just so well done to make everything appear natural all while having a heavy human influence…it’s actually quite astounding how heavy manpower is used for “perfect” natural beauty. Off topic but this reminds me of a book I read for my Euro history class in college, The Conquest of Nature, where a lot of what we perceive to be the “natural” beauty of Germany (Rhine river valley, etc.) was all *heavily* engineered over the course of a few hundred years. Pretty interesting how this creates a false sense of “nature” and nostalgia when it’s still largely human driven. But yea, really cool garden to wander around in for a few hours. It’s really amazing to me how these gardens juxtapose extremely curated nature with perfectly placed human elements (bridges, pavilions, stone structures, etc.) to just perfectly “fit” in seamlessly.
The food in Kanazawa was also continuing along the theme of very good but not excellent. Great seafood here, especially in this giant market area with fresh daily seafood. I think one thing that is both a strength and weakness of Japanese cuisine is that since the raw ingredients are of such high quality, there is very little window dressing that they put on it, so you get a high quality meal but it could be so much better if they just did more with it (apples to oranges here, but like with Chinese food as that is also east Asia). I did see waaaaaay more sweet shops here than anywhere else in Japan so far, and again, these were solidly very good but I wouldn’t say they come close to India or the Islamic world. Sweets here are definitely much more subtle and not quite as in-your-face strong though.
Kanazawa is definitely much, much smaller than Tokyo – no need for public transport and can walk everywhere, night lights are not really a thing here, and far fewer convenience stores and vending machines. Honestly feels more like a very large town, especially when contrasted to the megaopolis that is Tokyo. So after Kanazawa, I am heading over to Kyoto. Will be spending about a week+ in the Kansai region…plan is to see Kyoto and Osaka, with day trips to Nara and Himeji Castle, and also an overnight in a traditional Buddhist monastery in Koyasan. Then will continue to work my way west across Japan.