Now I’m sitting here and ask myself: should I put all the Tokyo experience in one post? Or in 2? Or in 10? Posts by day, or by activity? By theme or just arbitrarily? Difficult to say. Maybe I use the same approach I used to explore the city. Have a few points in mind, and the rest comes on the go.

During the week I roughly spent in Tokyo I stayed in Asakusa, Shibuya, and Shinjuku, and explored the city alone, with Björn, and with Björn and Barbara.

The trip with Björn was planned. I arrived on 6 November, Björn 2 days later, and we were had planned to travel for 2 1/2 weeks until he flies back from Seoul on 26 November. Meeting Barbara in Tokyo was more a coincidence. Sonja, who knows Björn, Barbara, and me, told us that we are all in Tokyo at the same time. Since I knew Barbara from grad school in Tübingen and some other occasions Björn and I took the opportunity to meet up with her and spend a few days in Tokyo and later Kyoto and Osaka with her. But let’s go a bit more chonologically.

Asakusa

The first two nights I spent in Asakusa. Even in this more quiet quarter during the night, almost every street was lit by flickering neon lights. Arcade and slot machine halls were every few hundred meters, big flashy restaurants on the front, and small, simple restaurants in the back streets. Most houses were 2 or 3 story buildings, and only occasionally a 5 or 6 story building in-between.

While the front side restaurants all had menus with at least a few English words, pictures, or European digits, the back street pubs often did not. On the second night I passed by a cosy little pub, only counter tables, and the smell of grilled meat coming out of the doors. I decided to enter and ask for an English menu. No English menu. Or a picture menu. But the waiter said no and pointed to the wall. There were wooden pieces with Japanese letters on it. This was the menu. Even the prices were written in Japanese numerals. I decided that the place still looks fine and the lack of menu does not keep me from staying. So I ordered a beer, pointed at food from other guests, and asked for chicken. And I got what I asked for, some fried mini shrimp, some vegetables which I think were spring onions, and chicken skewers. All freshly grilled and really delicious.

The next special experience was “Don Quijote”. It’s a Japanese department store that sells everything cramped into several floors and busting with loud noises and lights. You get food, drinks, cloths, electronics, costumes, sex toys, makeup, sports equipment, and whatnot there. 24 hours a day. And around 10 pm it’s still packed. Quite an experience when you squeeze yourself though the isles while one TV blasts ads for pineapple juice, the next display flashes with the latest Borat-like speedos, and just a few meters later you get a remote Godzilla.

When I came back to my room someone else was there. The beds were little capsules, closed on all but one side at the foot of the bed, where you have a curtain to close off the last side. My new roommate was Larissa, a French-Canadian girl who went to a German school and now lives in Kyoto. She just came back from the Seoul marathon and when we met at breakfast the next morning we decided to meet up when I’m in Kyoto for a nice morning run.

As day activity I had planned to get a data sim (more on that later), join a free walking tour, and trying some more Japanese food. The free walking tour war in Ueno park, one of the biggest parks in Tokyo. Yoshi, the tour guide, led us through the park and explained a lot about the history of Tokyo, the former Ueno park temples and its current setup as recreational area. I joined a lot of free walking tours all over the world, and in the end the tour guides ask for a small tip for their service. And depending on the quality of their tour you give more or less. So I was prepared to give 1000 Yen, since he took 2 hours, had a lot of interesting anecdotes about the Japanese civil war and the shogun time, and made the tour really enjoyable. But when we came to the end, he thanked us for the participation and directly left without the request nor the opportunity to tip him. This was one of the first cultural insights for me. In Japan, you don’t tip. Either a service has a price, and this price is clear up front, or it is a voluntary service and not to be paid. Something I really grew to like. A price is a price. If the bar tap is 1845 Yen, it’s exactly 1845 Yen. Because that is the service you ordered and you pay only for what you ordered.

This reflects the way people treat you in stores, bars, and restaurants. In the US, where people rely heavily on your tip for their salary I very often felt fake excitement in the way they greeted and treated me. They smile to my face but behind my back they think they would do anything that this fucker gives 20 or 25% tip. Here in Japan I hardly felt fake excitement. People are happy that a customer enters the place, happy that I check what they have to offer, and if I’m happy with the product, we exchange goods for money in the agreed amount. No extra, fake excitement to raise the amount I pay. A service/product has a price, and that’s what you pay. Man, I’m going to miss that soon.

Shibuya

The next day Björn came to Tokyo and we met in our hostel in Shibuya. Different from Asakusa, Shibuya is a business district. With neon light up to the 6th or 7th floor, shopping opportunities, chain coffee shops, arcades, and large, shiny restaurants. One of our first stops was Shibuya crossing. An intersection where the pedestrian crossing does not only go perpendicular to the roads, but also diagonal. When the lights turn green, hundreds of people cross the streets in any direction. Chaotic yet totally smooth. Especially famous to watch from the second floor Starbucks, where the window seats face down to the crossing. As good tourists we obviously have to get a coffee and sit there for a while as well. And the sight at night really has something intriguing. The smooth transition from cars to people, and how disciplined the Japanese wait for the green light, even though no car is in sight.

That Shibuya is a business district stands out when you try to find a restaurant late at night. The only places that are easy to find or open are fancy business restaurants, where you can go with business partners for fine dining or shady red light bars where you can crash if you are lonely and horny on a business trip. It took us quite a while to find a nice izakaya, Japanese restaurant, where we could get some simple food. The house specialty were grilled meat skewers with different parts from pork and chicken, most of them internal organs which you rarely find on German menus. So the English translation did not really help that much, as gizzard or gristle are, or were, not part of my food vocabulary. But we ordered the house platter anyways and just let us surprise what we will get. Well, gizzard and gristle wont end up on my shopping list in the near future, but as grilled skewers nothing that you cannot wash down with a drink and some soy sauce.

Akihabara

The next day the electronic and manga quarter Akihabara was on the to-see list, but we started off with the fish market where you can get the freshest sushi in the country, so it says, and has the largest variety. Well, maybe when you’re there at the crack of dawn. We arrived late in the morning and it was just a very full market with lots of fish and seafood, but nothing out of the ordinary. One stand where they freshly prepared sashimi caught our attention. Different kinds of tuna was the choice of the day and it was indeed very good tuna. After a beer and a matcha soft serve ice cream, which tastes like ice cream filtered through a lawn mower, we took the subway to Akihabara.

In the main streets of Akihabara everything looked surprisingly “normal”. Stores with flashing lights, people rushing up and down the sidewalk, and music blasting from various corners. Only minor details were different. Every here and there a girl in a maid outfit was handing out flyer for a maid cafe, and

instead of random stores many stores sold comic books or computer games. The ground floor of the comic book stores looked quite normal. Many colorful books, people browsing through, some figurines in displays, and sometimes also DVDs. But it got stranger the higher you climbed. With every floor the characters get younger, their chests bigger, and the dresses skimpier. Around the third floor the adult-only sections started. Now the girls are partially naked and the covers show the first sex scenes. And there are 2-3 floors to go. Yet something else changed… the scent. The higher floors were filled with a heavy and sweet perfume, just like teenager like to wear it. We crawled our way to the top to see what’s for sale there, and we were not disappointed. Octopus-alien orgies, lesbians in German WWII uniforms, and female bodies that are contradictory what human physiology can create. However, what I missed were costumes or toys. We checked a few other stores, and they only sold comic books, DVDs, or computer games. I thought that the same skimpy costumes that are worn in the books would be sold in the store. But neither in that store nor in the neighboring stores could I find these.

The next Japan experience on the list was the maid cafe, where girls in costumes serve you drinks and cake. While most maid cafes have the classical maid theme are there also cafes where the girls wear nurse costumes or more steampunk-oriented costumes. We went to the cafe of which we had the flyer handed to us earlier. They had a good review on Google Maps and TripAdvisor, so it looked like a good choice. When we arrived we learned that the price per hour is 1000 Yen per person to be in the cafe plus at least one order per person on top. After we sat down one of the maids explained us the rules. They are cats which transformed into maids, that’s why they wear cat ears. And that’s why the guests have to wear cat ears. If you want to call the waitresses, you have to make cat noises as well. All very playful. Any personal contact is strictly forbidden, and pictures of or with the girls only for cash, then they pose with the guest for a cute photo. We ordered an ice cream cup, I had the unicorn cup, and I didn’t know that ice cream can be that sweet. When the ice cream cups came we had to cast a love spell together with our waitress/cat on the ice cream. Then we were allowed to eat. After an hour we returned our cat ears and went on exploring.

Ebisu

For dinner we decided to try our a new neighborhood. Ebisu was recommended by Catherine,  who lived there for a few months. We were wandering around a little bit, the area looked rather quiet compared to the previous quarters. More residential, fancy restaurants and cafes everywhere, small stores, and only minimum neon adds flashing on the bigger streets. We decided to try out something like a food court. A couple of small restaurants in one building, no Europeans in sight, and since it was rather early only a few places were already filling up. Most restaurants were still empty. After walking back and forth one or two times we decided to give a sushi place a try. But not any sushi. Horse sushi. All sushi they had on the menu was horse, beef, or pork. No fish. We tried several different variations. Especially great was the simple horse meat and of course the big Wagyu beef slice. The highly recommended “fatty horse meat sushi” was actually just a slice of horse fat on a ball of rice. So chewy, I could not eat it.

After dinner we went on exploring the city when we ran into a craft beer brewery. As it was quite late already we were in luck and didn’t have to wait to get a seat. They had a nice test set on the menu, all the 6 beers of the month including a table set which described the beers. Unfortunately non of the beers were really good. Either to sweet, or to flat, or too bitter. So after another half pint for 1000 Yen (7.5 EUR) we made our way back home. Next day we had to move out and make our way to Narita.

The next day we planned to meet up with Barbara and visit the imperial palace. On our way from the train station to the palace we ran into a local film crew that was looking for foreigners to interview. We agreed and were curious what they wanted to know. The reporter pulled out a folder with pictures and started asking us if we know the buildings and what architectural features strike us. Well, as we were only 2-3 days in Japan we did not recognize any of the buildings. So we confidently explained what architectural features differ in Japanese buildings from the European buildings we know. Slightly embarrassed we completed the interview and continued to the imperial palace.

The imperial palace is a huge and mostly empty area in the middle of Tokyo. There are a few buildings here and there, but the majority of the space is garden and squares. Some parts are not open to the public, the parts where the royal family lives. We wandered around for a while, yet I didn’t find it too impressive. It was nice and all, just I was missing the nice, big pagodas or temples. Fortunately the imperial palace is free, so a great opportunity for a run if you’re staying close by. After the palace we grabbed our stuff and went off to Narita.

Shinjuku

After we returned from Narita we decided to stay in Shinjuku, a shopping and business district. And we opted for a capsule hotel, the nine hours Shinjuku. Prices are around 3000 Yen (23 EUR) per person per night, which is for Tokyo quite a good price. When we arrived we took the elevator up to the 8th floor. At the reception we checked in and received our night bags. A bag with a big towel, a small towel, a toothbrush and toothpaste, slippers, and … a pajama. Yes, you receive a what they call lounge wear, but essentially a pajama in fancy black-and-gray space style. One size fits all. Or mostly all, some let’s say over-sized guys wore only the bottoms. But let’s not get ahead that fast.

After the check in we had to go to the right elevator, as this is the only one going to the male floors, the left one only goes to female floors, and the middle one to the ground floor. So the separation between male and female is really strict. The reception staff is watching that you don’t take the elevator of the other sex. I wonder how their policy for trans-gender or gender-fluid people is.

On our floor there was first the locker room, where we can store our luggage, and behind the locker room is the capsule room. mote than 50 capsules in one room, each equipped with two small trays for cell phones or glasses, a power outlet for charging, and a curtain for privacy. The capsules were actually quite spacious. I could comfortably sit upright on the bed and even had a few centimeters left to the top. The mattresses were also really good, the only thing missing was a good air conditioning inside the capsule. When you enter at night it’s nice and fresh, but during the night when the only opening is closed with the curtain it really heats up the place. In the morning I felt really hot. A vent inside the capsule would go a long way.

In the morning you have to completely check out of the capsule. Nothing can be left in the capsule, you have to put all into the locker and return your key by 10:00. This is not only for the cleaning staff to tidy up the place but also because they rent out the capsules for naps during the day, so you can check-in again in the evening. Your things stay safe in the locker, and you receive a completely fresh bag with towels and lounge wear, and a cleaned capsule.

The hotel was in the Korean quarter as it seemed, as there were numerous Korean chicken and beer places and cosmetics stores had ads in Japanese and Korean. The center of Shinjuku was really a large shopping and entertainment area. Blinking lights, loud music, and fancy food places. The first night we ran into a kebab festival. Loads and loads of really delicious looking kebab spits rotating in front of the grills. But we were in Japan for just a few days, so we decided to go for Japanese food again.

The next day we decided to do a relaxed day after the race on Sunday, so we stayed in Tokyo and met up with Barbara again. We went up the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building which has a free viewing platform on one of the top levels. There you have a great view over Tokyo. For the rest of the day we mostly wandered around from restaurant to coffee shop to pub. At night it started raining and we sought shelter in a small restaurant on the outer rims of Shinjuku. A nice and quiet place that specialized in okonomiyaki and yakisoba. Okonomiyaki is a form of pancake with vegetables, meat or seafood, and noodles freshly fried and seasoned with teriyaki sauce and mayonnaise. Or numerous variants of it. And yakisoba are fried soba noodles. We actually just wanted a beer and a snack to wait for the rain to pass, but the food looked so delicious that we started off with some okonomiyaki and continued with yakisoba and something else I don’t remember. But I remember that we ordered explicitly the pork and green pepper yakisoba, as Björn does not like seafood. When the yakisoba came and was prepared, we wondered what the little white-ish pieces were. After a bite we recognized them as squid. We called the waitress and (tried to) ask if we have the right food, because we didn’t order squid. “Ah, yes, little bit.” was her response. So it seems there needs to be a little bit of squid in it.

The next day was supposed to be our last day in Tokyo. During the day we went hiking to Mount Fuji, in the evening we went out in Shinjuku, more precisely to Golden Gai, an area in Shinjuku which is preserved since the 60s with tiny 2-story buildings what inhabit pubs and restaurants. A very popular area with tourists, and you can get drinks in the differently themed bars. Honestly, what a shit hole. Maybe it was nice in the 60s, when people used to live that way, when you went into a small, smoked-filled restaurant for a beer and a bite after work to chat with some people. Now it’s bars and restaurants that charge you up to 1000 Yen entrance fee, and drinks on the same price level. It’s a place where you can go if you’re hammered and have lost control of your wallet, so you wake up in the morning and ask yourself where the 20k went you got from the ATM yesterday. The pub owners were unfriendly, the places messy and smelly, and it had nothing from the open and welcoming atmosphere that I experienced in Japan so far. I cannot understand why this shit hole is recommended by any guidebook. Except as reference for how things can go south. From the description in the lonely planet it sounded really nice. Too bad it’s shit.

The next morning we left Tokyo for good, with the Shinkansen towards Miyajima.

Björn and I had the fun idea that when we are in Asia, why not taking part in a race? So we looked up where races are in November. Seoul was booked, Osaka was booked, all was booked. All but a nice little race in Narita, mostly known for it’s international airport close to Tokyo. The Narita Pop Run. They offer a 10k, which is perfect for me, and a half-marathon, perfect for Björn. So we signed up. The sign-up process alone already posed a challenge. Google translate does a decent job in translating the content of the website. Name, address, phone, e-mail, the usual things. However, the forms did not accept European characters. Only Japanese letters. So I looked up a website and translated my name into Japanese. But as my knowledge about Japanese characters was nonexistent at that time, I did not copy the Katakana but the Kanji characters. This means that the characters do not make any sense to Japanese people. They are words which sound to me somewhat similar to my name, but are completely senseless. Somewhat like trying to write a name with emojis. Or would you understand that 🥛🛢️ is Michael, just because milk-oil sounds somewhat similar? Well, luckily no one seemed to care. The next problem was the address. Narita Pop Run only accepts Japanese addresses for participants. It really looked as if we were the first and only participants from outside the country. We entered the address of our hostel in good faith that if any mail is sent to it, they will store it. In the final step we had to pay the registration fee, which unsurprisingly worked flawlessly with my German MasterCard. Seems like money is a language that everybody understands.

Now we were registered, the day of the race was approaching and we needed to get some information on how this works. Luckily I met Larissa in Tokyo, she explained to me that in Japan they usually send you a postcard with your start number, and this is what you show at the race to get your starting materials. I asked the hostel staff if they received the postcard, but they either didn’t receive it, or they threw it away. So we had the hostel staff call the organizers and asked for our start numbers. Then we headed on to Narita.

For the night before the race we stayed in a small guest house 10 min from the train station. On the day of the race we walked to the train station and from there followed the stream of people in sports clothes to the stadium. As we arrived we saw well organized about 20-30 lines of people waiting in front of clearly labeled windows with start numbers. No bulk in front of the windows, all standing in line one after another. I lined up behind window 23 and waited my turn. Then I handed a piece of paper with my start number to the lady behind the window. She asked for my postcard, but I tried to explain that I don’t have it. So she sent me to window 0, the window for late registrations and special cases. Björn was already waiting there, as he was also sent to window 0. As I came to the window I tried to explain that I lost my postcard, but I have my number. They looked me up, found my entry, but wanted some more ID, I explained that I only have a German ID which does not contain my (hilariously wrong) Japanese name, and the address was the address of a hostel. After a short discussion they understood that this will be a difficult case and it is easier to just give me the postcard. Then I could return to my previous window to collect my starting materials.

After we both had our stuff we started to get ready. Pin on the numbers, get to the toilet, give your bag to the luggage deposit, and start with the warm-up. So we pinned the numbers to our shirts and started looking for the luggage storage. But there was none. Then it dawned on us. There IS none. Why should there? In Japan you don’t steal from other people. In a country where you leave your cellphone in a coffee shop on the table, why should there be a secured luggage deposit during a race? You just put your things somewhere on the grass at the side of the track and that’s it. So we put our things in the bags and just left it on the grass.

The next revelation was the toilet system. About 20 porter potties were behind the stadium and 2 lines were formed. At the end, two men were organizing the toilets. Whenever someone exited a toilet, the men were signalling the next in line to go to that toilet. Alternating between both lines. Even though the line was long when I entered, the process was fast and efficient. No bad luck when you stand in front of the wrong toilet where someone takes ages for his pre-race dump, no cutting in line, and always progress. When I was walking to and from the toilet I was watching the other participants. Except for 2-3 US-Americans we were the only westerners in the race.

Then the race started. Well organized track, people on the side of the street, water supply every few km, and the weather was perfectly sunny, almost too sunny. So the race went fine, but my thigh cramped up around km 3, and my stomach was acting up around km 6, so I only finished with 51 min on the clock. Not below 50 min this time. But still the fastest European in the race.

After the race, and after Björn received his gift as being #2 in the half-marathon, we returned to our guesthouse, freshened up, and went into town for some food and sight seeing. Narita is really full on a Sunday. The old town consists of several small stores and restaurants. The local specialty is Unagi, grilled Eel. But the real sight is the temple complex. You enter through a large gate and climb up steep steps to get to a central square. The square is surrounded by a tall and bright pagoda, the extensive main hall, and a few smaller buildings that contain stores and information booths. From Tokyo I was used that this is more or less all what the temple is. But here the temple area expands way beyond the central square. Smaller halls and temples until we reached to a park. We strolled through the park and stumbled upon even more temples and pagodas. The biggest pagoda was sitting in the center of the park, with stairs leading from the bottom of the hill up to the pagoda. Despite the race in our legs we kept on wandering around in the temple area. Around late afternoon we decided to head back to Tokyo, this time to Shinjuku.

Wednesday, 6 November, 3 pm Tokyo time. My ANA flight is on time and was quite pleasant. Friendly service, okay-ish food, comfortable seats, and good entertainment program. The first Japan-experience was already the bathroom. Even in the plain, just as in any other place I found, toilets have a bunch of buttons. Often in Japanese and English, but sometimes only Japanese. So it’s a good idea to learn the letters for flushing. Or just press random buttons. Worst thing that can happen is that the seat gets hot and water sprays from various directions. Or music plays. So in case you’re interested, this is the little flush: 小.

The next surprise waited for me just after clearing customs. I checked how to get from Haneda Airport to my Hostel in Asakusa, and simple enough, I just had to take the metro to Asakusa station. No transfers. The lady at the ticket office confirmed what Google Maps told me, and the price was 800 Yen. She handed me a small basket and I put my credit card in. Then I heard the two words I thought I would not hear that often in high tech Japan: cash only.  I would expect that at street markets, in remote restaurants, or maybe small stores. But Tokyo Metro only accepting cash? But yes, Metro tickets or the contact-less payment cards like pasmo can only be bought and re-charged with cash. With that level of credit card rejection I felt right like home in Germany.

The first 1.5 days before Björn arrived I spent in Asakusa, a touristy yet more laid-back quarter in the eastern part of Tokyo. Small stores in a large shopping-arcade, cosy restaurants, and the shining-red Senso-ji temple. By the time I got to the hostel, checked in, put my stuff away and went back out it was dark already, and the Senso-ji temple area was almost empty. Here and there a person or two wandering around, and the temple shining bright in the dark. When I returned the next day the scenery was turned upside down. During the day hundreds of people, mostly students and elderly people, were all around the temple. Some praying, some admiring, and some posing for photos in colorful kimonos.

For 100 Yen you can have your fortune told by shaking a box full of sticks. One stick falls out and has a number written on it. Find the drawer with the matching number and a small paper inside tells you your fortune. But the instruction came with a warning. If you have a great fortune foretold, be humble to not send it away. And if you get a bad fortune, don’t be sad and work on turning your fortune around. I drew a small fortune. “Beginning a trip is half a fortune.” This on my first day of a 4 months journey. Not too bad.