TOKYO
July 11-22 2025, went with Nick Scramuzza to Tokyo, for 11 days.
While Tokyo is amazing, I do not recommend it in July - it is an oven.
Here are a few of my notes. It took a long time to process this trip, and wasn't writing much, but how could I not, I asked myself? This is a partial, yet still probably exhausting essay.
July 11
Left for a painful flight in economy, 1.37 million hours, weighed 365 lbs, do not recommend. On the plane from Hawaii, we went over the International Date Line deep over the Pacific; some of the Americans looked out the window, as if it was visible. Facepalm.
Tokyo Haneda airport, closer to the center of the city than the far-distant Narita, even arriving late, is amazing: it puts every American airport I've been to to shame, from the passport control to amenities: vendors, amazing food, Japanese-English signage, directions to the awesome public transport and taxis.
Transport was covered by an intelligently designed Suica card which included JR East lines (like the Yamanote Line), all Tokyo Metro lines (9 lines), Toei Subway lines (4 lines), and private railways (such as Odakyu, Keio, Seibu, Tobu). It is a comprehensive, near-universal tap-and-go system for public transit in the metropolitan area.
Madness: these folks have their shit together. Made the NY Subway look like a bad joke. Adding insult to injury, the bussed are great, like the trains always on time, and have seats too small for me to get my knees in.
It being the evening, we took a taxi, which was an expensive luxury, to the campy Henn na Hotel Tokyo Haneda, which had at the time, animatronic dinosaurs doing the automated check-in. Tiny room, nice amenities, good place to crash for four nights.
July 12
Hit family Mart for a tasty beverage - much like Japan's version of 7-11. We wandered around and found a breakfast place with some standard Japanese selections: from what I can remember, rice of course, grilled mackerel, miso soup, and pickled vegetables: ichiju sansai: one soup, three sides. I remember it was fantastic, and cost like $6 US. We ate like kings. Eating cheap was a recurring thing: an egg-salad sandwich was .91 cents US: in Hawaii its $4.90, and the eggs there are cleaner and better.
1000 yen was about $6 at the time.
Prices in general were amazing, about $3.50 for a Big Mac (signage, didn't have one)
Then, Tokyo station, probably grabbed a snack, and then went west a few blocks to the Gardens around the Imperial Palace. Walked around a nearby outdoor food street, enjoying displays of plastic food, which was fascinating.
July 13th
Had a ridiculously cheap amazing breakfast with eel and butadon (simmered pork strips and onions), miso soup of course, and something very much like coffee. I'm sure we did some other stuff but I took no pictures:
July 14
We made our way north to the AirBnB at 〒169-0051 Tokyo, Shinjuku City, Nishiwaseda, 3-chōme−5−13 成和ビル, in Waseda. A lovely place, two rooms, kitchen, uncomfortably small toilet with an ineffectual bidet, a common clothes washer that took hours and hours, and terrible support: if I hadn't been an IT pro for 30+ years I would not have been able to figure out the WiFi. Place was good: 4th floor, nice view South, two bedrooms, small kitchen, fridge, local incredibly cheap 7-11 with fantastic choices across the street, great University neighborhood.
That 7-11: 91-cent egg salad and other sandwiches, a vast variety of decent coffee and better tea made much of our breakfast subsistence. They do not go for PB&Js. Also down the street was a self-serve, honor-payment organ-meat room of fridges, where you could pull out of the freezer or fridge, fresh nose-to-tail stuff and more boring things by putting cash, trust system, in a box.
Our first night there we went down the street a few blocks to Musashino Abura Gakkai Waseda Head Shop, a noodle shop, 〒169-0051 Tokyo, Shinjuku City, Nishiwaseda, 3-chōme−5−13 成和ビル, where we puzzled our way through, with some coaching from locals. The idea of purchasing a ticket outside from a vending machine, a common thing there, all in Japanese, turning your ticket in, and getting the resulting fantastic, deeply satisfying bowl. Sitting on stools at a counter for which I was too large.
Everything in general on the whole trip was tiny. I'm six-foot-three and at that time weighed 365 pounds: A fricking fat bastard. Japan wasn't designed for me. As much as I loved it, I'm not going back: its designed for people who are at most 5'5", and more comfortably a skinny 5'2".
On the other hand, especially after Hawaii (in July 2025, even!), the prices were amazing.
On to Shinjuku station, a colossal warren, the busiest train station in the world, where as many passengers pass through on an average day as live on the entire island of Manhattan, NYC (~9 million). Had some good food, soba noodles for me and I think tempura for Nick, at a random place on one of the food malls.
Walking about outside, Nick was chased by Godzilla.
Priceless.
Unfortunate encounter with Starbucks. Not cheap. However, had AC.
July 15
Golden Gai, a warren of bars, before noon, found one that was open, entered, maybe six seats, cheap drinks, a happy full crew of regulars, a bartender with a piratical eye patch. Much fun was had, language differences not a big deal.
Also went to Tokyo Station, the large sprawling complex with many, many many people, and a lovely exterior. Got lost a few times. Elsewhere, we visited a vast multi-floor Don Quixote shop, with narrow aisles filled with... well, it seemed everything, and where I picked up a battery pack for my phone, which dies a few months later.
Strolling around looking at stuff, I noted much of the architecture wasn't particularly inspiring, perhaps due to the propensity for earthquakes.
Went to sup at high-end sushi at Mantensushi Marunouchi in Brick Square, a pleasant, cool indoor mall-thing, with only a dozen seats, near Tokyo Station, maybe eight at the bar, sublime sushi assembled in front of you, with plenty of time to savor each bit.
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| Awabi (Abalone) |
July 16
Shinjuku station again: massive, multi-train hub, many restaurants, where we got some decent Japanese specialties, and wandered around the Eastern side of the neighborhood the neighborhood, while I drank drank lots of water and sweated profusely.
Later, met high school roommate Toshi Rai and had some great times at an Izikaya, seeing him for the first time in about 42 years: he was shocked at how fat I'd gotten, I'd been a rail in high school from lots of running. He, however, had gotten old. Ate some great foods, was complimented on my chopstick skills, which baffled me briefly, as, well, New York City.
Nick meeting New Orleans friends, I went to museums sans Nick.
On the continually amazing, inexpensive trains busses and trolleys, on which we used the Suica card a great deal, it struck me how ubiquitous the society was; black pants, white button-down Oxford-style shirts proliferated. Super-high pedestal shoes al la the 1700s, on very short, black-skirted women were common, as were anime plush toy key- and phone-chains on the women, they with colored hair... which seemed a bit radical, on the very thorough and excellent train systems. The tan is not a thing.
July 17
Tsukiji Outer Fish Market. Now more of a tourist thing, the more fishy fish market has moved east to a smaller island. Conveyor belt (Kaiten) sushi!
Later, Nick went off to cruise about, and I explored the Kansan En Park, and the Mizuinari Shrine just south of the AirBnB, lovely place to sit under the somewhat unusual vegetation and people-watch, and some of the nearby University, as I was a bit tired from the previous day's extensive hot walking.
I often wonder what it takes for a city of 38 million people -- four times the size of Manhattan -- to get along. Pure manners. Manhattan is significantly more densely populated than Tokyo, with a density of approximately 72,918 residents per square mile (28,154/km²) compared to Tokyo's far lower overall density. Tokyo as 16,000 to 16,500 people per square mile. While Tokyo has a much larger total population, Manhattan packs a higher number of residents into a much smaller, intensely developed area, with a density 4.2 times higher than the overall Tokyo metropolitan area, whhich is enormous. (Thanks, Google.)
Tokyo and surrounds are enormous.We only really got a glimpse of parts of the city.
July 18
Took the train that circles the "inner" city all the way 'round, looking out over the scads of apartments, noting many small graveyards and then went to Uneno Park where I went through the Museum of Nature and science. (After guiding WWII Civil War and Lewis & Clark tours in Europe and the US for weeks on end, Nick has limited tolerance for museums.)
We stopped again at Tokyo Station, and walked about the ancient Imperial Palace, where I lost about 4 pounds of water through the top of my head. Tokyo in July is ridiculous: I can't imagine how crowded it might be when the temperature was more reasonable.
we went to tonkatsu.jp Omotesando, and got some sublime high-end tonkastu, breaded tender juicy wildly flavorful pork loins, with a selection from specific farms with a great deal of info about each farm, breed, number of pigs.
Nick was attacked by an enormous, vicious moth, clearly a descendant of Mothra:
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| What kind of mustard you should use, depending on which tonkatsu you get. |
Walked them off up the longest high-end mall street - Omote-Sando Avenue - I've ever seen: Breitling, Apple Store, Rolex, Burberry, Lindt chocolates, Louis Vuitton, Hermés, luxury stores on-and-on. Tens of thousands of locals and tourists, which led us to the Meji Gingo Shinto Shrine, a large park with historical buildings and a bugolic Retreat for the Emperor, where it was also very hot, walked a long forested path with not a huge number of others, and saw an elaborate, formal wedding ceremony.
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| Coffee house, Nick & local Dandy. |
July 20th
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| Burger King Sign for >$3.50 Whoppers |
July 21st
Headed NW and enjoyed a long hot walk through an large and lovely Zoshigaya cemetery (rather than the many tiny block-sized ones throughout the city, seen from the train,), grateful for the hat and Ford Prefect's recommendation on towels. Dinner at a local sushi place, Yahatazushi, where they let us in with no reservation. Pretty decent. Not Mantensushi. Great deal, would have been more than twice as much here in Honolulu.
July 22nd
Heading home in the evening, we wandered around another food street, had some piping hot Takoyaki, a few whiskey and sodas in large icy glasses, some more ramen, some more walking around, and a vow to loose weight. Which I did: Down to 284, only 44 to go.
