Thoughts on Tokyo

May 12th to May 15th, 2018

Photo by Louie Martinez on Unsplash

This note is part of my travel series, Giant Leaps: a collection of my experiences from across the globe. You can view all of my trips on here.

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Things I Did

• We took the bullet train from Kyoto to Tokyo. Tokyo is the biggest city in the world, and it certainly feels that way, there is just so much going on it is impossible to comprehend. We stayed at an Airbnb that was near a subway station which made it much easier to get around. Taxis are super expensive.
• We walked around Harajuku street…a lot of things going on there.

• Me trying to blend in

• The food in Tokyo is really good (but quite expensive). I am not the biggest seafood/sushi person (which is a buzzkill) but I found awesome Japanese curries and noodle dishes. Ate a lot of Okonomiyaki (cabbage pancake type thing) which is super delicious. Also ate Kobe beef…it is as good as they say!!

• One of the big reasons we went to Tokyo (when we did) was for EDC Japan 2018 — a big EDM music festival. Even though it was pouring rain the entire day, it was such an awesome time. We saw Jai Wolf, Martin Garrix, and several other great DJs. The venue is located in a stadium that borders the beach.

• We walked around the Shibuya Crossing (the busiest intersection in the world, which is a pretty funny concept to me as everyone is watching people cross the road when the light turns).

• We did Mario Kart Virtual Reality which was super fun (not as good as the full-body simulation we did in South Korea though). We also hung out at the various arcades and once again tried to play the Japanese slot machines.
• Went to the Samurai Museum and learned a lot about Japanese history. Peaked my interest and ended up later going down a rabbit hole exploring the culture.
• Going out in Tokyo is interesting as there are dozens of tiny bars that only fit a few people in them.

Takeaways

• Tokyo is certainly the most overwhelming place I have ever been to…walking around downtown (much like NYC) is a great reminder of the vastness of humanity — just so much going on impossible to empathize with and truly understand the sheer size of the world! That is why I love traveling…an opportunity to feel small and experience things.