July 31, 2026

So as to not totally abuse the concept of “now”, I’m currently in Osaka. I’ll get to that, but first: Tokyo, the first leg of my trip (after a brief Seattle stopover to see friends). I stayed there for 5 nights.

Neighborhoods

My favorite neighborhood was Shimokitazawa. I went there for the thrift shops, but they were a little too cool / expensive for me. Luckily, I was delirious from walking way too much in the heat that day, and I found myself in the residential area which had a lot of stylish homes which were expensive based on the cars (and the presence of driveways) but still packed together tightly.

I also liked Golden Gai in Shinjuku and Asakusa. They’re both touristy but worthwhile. I’m realizing how much I love an efficient use of space. I get some Tetris-adjacent satisfaction seeing 20 restaurants or homes all packed together in what would be empty space in America¹. Honorable mention goes to Nihonbashi where my hostel was. It’s next to a business district, so it was quiet and residential but well-connected to other parts of the city.

My least favorite neighborhood was Akihabara. Now I like anime as much as the next guy, but… wait. Scratch that. I like it a reasonable amount. I generally like new, unusual stuff—even now I wish I had stayed and poked around longer—but for some reason this repulsed me. Maybe the insides are better than the streets here, but the one pachinko parlor I wandered into was kinda depressing.

Museums

I went to the Mori Art Museum because I thought it would also give me access to a view of Tokyo, but that was a different ticket. There was a Ron Mueck whose stuff was uncanny and impressive. He seems good at portraying mixed emotions like confusion/aggression/impotence in chicken/man.

The Tokyo National Museum was pretty cool. It’s a decent but non-exhausting size for a museum and gives a good overview of lots of Japanese history and culture, art, theater, swords, etc. If you already know what you’re into, I’m sure there’s a dedicated museum somewhere that goes more in depth. I also checked out their Asian Gallery (same ticket) which was a nice building.

I went to the Museum of Contemporary Art on the last day of an Eric Carle exhibit. Yes, the children’s book author. It turns out he loved Japan and Japan loves him. The exhibit had a dedicated ticket with timed entry, and there was still a huge line to get in. I wish I had paid better attention to the exhibit, but I spent the whole time marveling at the crowd which was not all parents with kids like I expected. I did learn that he had an interesting childhood and wrote a lot of other great books after The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Their regular collection was also cool but not very large or as notable.

Other highlights

On my last night in Tokyo, I went to the Pit Inn Jazz Club to see Yolcu-Yoldas, a violin, percussion, guitar trio. In the best of times, I don’t know how to describe music, but on this night I was incredibly sleepy, a problem that was exacerbated by my preference for listening to music with my eyes closed. After intermission, they gave the frontman a cake and he gave an apparently very funny speech.

I watched The Drama and Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie on the flight. I can kinda see what they were trying to do with The Drama, but it didn’t work for me at all. Even if I took the premise for granted, the whole escalation still seems far-fetched. Nirvanna was great. I’ll have to watch it again somewhere it’s ok to laugh out loud.

The food has been a slight disappointment. Everything is delicious and cheap but not as amazing as I imagined which is probably an indication of unrealistic expectations. It could also be a result of my strategy which is just to walk into the nearest restaurant whenever I’m hungry.

There’s a lot more I could say, but this is already getting long, and I need to get started on a Kyoto day trip. I will end on the observation that I’m getting far more exposure to hostel culture than to Japanese culture which is fascinating in itself. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about that as well as Mt Fuji. For now, on to Kyoto!