Tokyo, September 2025

Getting to Tokyo

Tokyo was part of the two week long trip I took with a big group of friends. We all came into Tokyo for two legs of the trip. Tokyo served as the entry point for all our dumb asses. We got in, met up, and were in the Shinjuku area of Tokyo for three days. At the end of the trip, we all congressed in Tokyo and split up.

I flew into Tokyo, the first of the group to arrive, from Hanaeda Airport and had little issue getting into Shinjuku. Once there though, I had a few issues getting to where we were staying.

I used Google Maps and left the train station it said to get off on and could not find the place we were staying. I tried to put in the address anew and it had me walk a mile to a different building. There, it wqas apparant that the place it took me was not what matched the pictures of our building, so I copied the address again from Air Bnb and it took me a mile and a half away toward thr original building. At this point, my friends were arriving into Tokyo, and I had trekked about four miles looking for the spot we were staying.

Conviently, I walked up on them while wandering the area looking for the spot. I tagged along and let someone else navigate and they got us to the spot without issue. At that point, I was tired from the flight, tired from the walking around with my backpack on, and just kind of wanted to decompress.

The second leg of being in Tokyo was far less burdensome. We took the train back to Tokyo, got off and were able to easily walk to our hotel. Even though there were four of them in the area we were in, we got in without issue.

Adventuring around Tokyo (First Leg)

First real day in Tokyo

Our first morning, a few of us got up around 5 am and started the day. We were all awake and walked around a bit looking for some food. We found some food and walking beers at a convience store. All the shit you hear about Japanese convience stores being amazing is spot on. The food is good and inexpensive and they’re really nice. Then we had second breakfast at a little diner before meeting up with the rest of the group.

Once assembled, we hit a capybara petting cafe called Cafe Capyba. It wasn’t really my jam, but everyone else really enjoyed it. We took pictures, pet the big ass rodents, and got a pricey tea.

That night, we ventured out to Ikebukuro and went to a muscle girl bar, Muscle Girls 666. There, we hung out for a couple of hours getting toasted on beers and slaps to the face from the nicest, shredded, ladies you’ll ever meet. We paid to force one another to have to go lift things or for the muscle ladies to slap our friends. It was such an odd experience but entirely fun.

Second day and walking tour of Shinjuku

One of the first things we did in Tokyo was go on a walking tour of Shinjuku. This involved hopping from bar to bar, drinking at Izakayas, which are small food and booze joints. A friend hooked up the excursion and booked the adventure for the lot of us. We meet the tour guide near what is lovingly called “Piss Alley” for all of the bars in it. We then proceeded to be told about the alley and walk down it. The alley itself, was really colorful and cool to explore and thankfully did not smell like piss.

We went to our first Izakaya where the tour guide read the English menu to us, one line at a time, and made sure to let us know that every line contained a food or beverage that was either popular with ladies or popular with men. The food was solid and the drinks were kind of unremarkable. The place was small and we were a bit crammed, but that seemed to be the norm.

From there, we ventured out to the main heart of Shinjuku. There we walked around a bit and the guide told us about the area. We got a good view of the Godzilla head peeping out. There a few places like KFC and McDonalds in the area that we were used to in the States, so we kept joking to one another that we were hoping to go to an Applebees for the next place. Instead, we go a torturous pit of hell. Even more so than the pit that is Applebees.

It was a pretty packed restaurant. We got ushered to a side room that was full of another group that was from the States. It seemed like a big ass company celebration or the ilk and they were all drunk and loud. So very, very, loud. We couldn’t hear the guide read us the English menu line by line again, so while that was a plus, we really had a hard time trying to communicate what we wanted to eat and drink. At one point the guide drew down a screen like you’d project movies on in school, but that was no help.

Before we even got our food, I said fuck it, and bailed. Shortly after, a few more of us did too. The rest finished up the tour where they had the English menu read to them again. The tour company apologized for the absolute hell that was the second place and did give us a discount when we replied to the “how did we do” survey, so that was kind of cool.

What else did we do on the first leg of the trip

We also went to Tokyo’s TeamLab Borderless. It was really cool. It was really crowded, but really cool. I don’t like big crowded rooms a lot or people walking in my way, so I largely found spots and sat against a wall and watched the colors and shapes move around. It wasn’t too expensive and I think the lot of us all genuinely enjoyed the experience.

Adventuring around Tokyo (Second Leg)

The second leg of the trip, we stayed in Asakusa. It was near the Sensoji temple and unlike the majority of the rest of the trip, we stayed in a hotel. This time, we picked up gifts for people back home and shit to take back for ourselves. We also split up with a couple of us going off to catch two days of Disney Tokyo and another couple going off to stay in a different area of Tokyo. That left five of us, all in the same hotel, in different rooms.

First Day

The first place we went was Harajuku. There, we gawked at the stores and all the food options. I’d love to say that the area was amazing and there were crazy gothic lolita fashionistas everywhere, but that just wasn’t the case. It was kind of cool and some of the shops were cool, but it really just seemed like a hot spot for tourists. That said, we did grab some shirts from a shop that tauted to screen print designs from local artists and was pretty cool.

We started walking toward Akihabra area. There, we had the best orange juice I have ever had from a vending machine of all places. We also ducked into a couple of stores that sold anime statues at the behest of one the party. From there, we lost the same person at a place that had three stories of vintage video games. After an hour, we took off and left him. After three hours, he showed back up.

Back at Asakusa, we grabbed some food and tried to find a bar. The place we ate at oddly was the same place that my brother and I had had on my previous trip to Tokyo. It was purely coincidental and the place in the area that simply looked the most appealing to us. It was pretty good. For bars, we tried a few but really liked Ninja Bar. It’s in the subway and the bartender is dressed like a ninja. It’s weird and kind of dumb, but the drinks were inexpensive and we’d spend the next three nights grabbing a drink or three there before calling it a night.

Day Two

We got up and took a long train ride out to Kawasaki. There, we went to the Kanayama Shrine, a shrine that had a bunch of penises all over it. It was a pretty small shrine that we nearly missed. Still, we found it and made a horde of dick jokes. One of my friends had a friend who had been to Tokyo before and came back talking about the shrine. For him, this was a place that he’d heard about for a dozen years and it would be a tragedy to have been in Tokyo and not gotten to see for himself.

We spent part of the day going to the Nintendo Store, the Pokemon Store, the Capcom Store, and the big ass mall they’re all in, Shibuya Parco. Malls aren’t really my favorite and the whole place was incredibly crowded, but it was cool to see. It wasn’t my favorite part of any day for sure, but it was interesting.

We did some shopping at Uniqlo. I’d read about the comfort of the clothes they have and Reddit had cited picking up more clothes from there as a thing that a lot of travelers had wished they done more of. I got a few things for friends back home, but was kind of impressed with the inexpensive prices and high quality.

We also saw a dance show, Asakusa Kaguwa, in the Asakusa area. I wasn’t expecting much, just to tag along for a bit, but actually liked the show. It was well done and there was a laser scene with a lot of coordinated dancing that was particularly amusing.

After, we ventured over to the Sensoji Shrine. There, we took some pictures and checked it out while it wasn’t swarming with people. I will say, that this was my favorite way to check it out. It’s a lot prettier at night and the lack of people in your way is a huge plus. We finished up at Ninja Bar.

Last Day

The last day, we all split up and sort of made our way around Tokyo doing the things we wanted to before we left. I took the subway back out to Shinjuku and wandered around a bit. Then, I tried to find something for my niece to no avail.

The five of us remaining, met up and grabbed dinner. We went to Don Quijote. It’s massive and has just about everything. It was the second or third one we toured over the course of the trip, but this time we stocked up on odd-for-us flavored kit kats. And of course, we stopped by Ninja Bar.

Overall Thoughts

I dug Tokyo a lot. I did not get to hit ramen at the Tokyo Train Station. The first time I went, I had the best ramen I’ve ever had there, but this time it didn’t happen. I like how big it is and I love the freaking metro rail there. It makes Tokyo easy to get through and all of the crazy sites and business of the city seems a little easier to deal with knowing that you’re not going to get stuck out waiting for a train that never shows.

Like everyone, I will say that the temples and shrines are super neat to see. However, for me, the magic of Tokyo is all the odd spots you find. It’s a bar in a subway, a muscle girl bar, and the best orange juice ever and its from a vending machine.