Japan: Tokyo, the city of Nicky Larson, Mario and Godzilla

Mar 7, 2023
3 min read

Konnichiwa and welcome to Japan!

Our flight from Bangkok with Zipair, a Japanese low cost airline, had a 2h delay and a lot of turbulence, but we have finally arrived in Tokyo.

More precisely, at Narita airport, 1h east from the capital. So, in order to get to Shinjuku, the area of Tokyo where we were going to stay for 2 nights, we took an expensive bus (compared to Southeast Asia standards 😅, 3200 JPY for 1h15 min). We calculated that the train would cost the same, and we did not want to activate our JR pass just yet.

Arriving in the city from the east side, we drove in the middle of hundreds of rather old and plain buildings, probably built more than 30 years ago. But, at one point, as we were on a highway bridge overlooking the city, we could see the massive Tokyo Skytree, which reassured us that we were heading in the right direction.

After this long ride, we finally arrived in Shinjuku, the city of Nicky Larson/Ryo Saeba/City Hunter! This anime or cartoon depicts the story of a private eye living in Shinjuku, the area of Tokyo where you have access to pachinko machines, clubs with hireable ladies and men, and so many restaurants. We can see why Nicky is depicted wandering in this area. We even saw a lot of crows here going koa koa! 😉

It was so surreal to walk in this city among all the Japanese in an area where many buildings were playing music and videos (among which a video of a cat of course 😻), and had flashy signs. But weirdly, we did not see a lot of traffic, which we expected from one of the most famous areas during rush hour on a Friday evening.

We were also surprised to discover, over one of the buildings, the head of the infamous Japanese monster, Godzilla!

As we continued visiting the area, we came across the Golden Gai neighborhood, where locals were having drinks in tiny bars, with up to 4 or 5 people and the barman. It was like privatizing the place for your personal use. You just have to know that there is a cover charge that can be steep, at times.

We also had the opposite experience when we went to restaurants where we did not have to speak to anyone, from ordering on a screen to sitting in a kind of a booth, perfect for introverts!

The following day, we started by running errands. We bought our prepaid data only SIM card, 18Gb for 1 month for the steep price of 4500 JPY, at one of the Bic Camera stores. Then we went to Shinjuku station to buy the Hakone 3 day pass for 6500 JPY/pax and, finally, we went to pick up our JR pass (52960 JPY/pax for 14 days) that we had previously bought online on the new official website. Quite an expensive start for our trip in Japan...we are definitely not in Southeast Asia anymore! 😢

We then walked to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building, where anyone can access the 45th floor observation deck for free. It has amazing views of the entire city and, on a clear day, you can even see Mt Fuji.

After that, we walked to the vast Yoyogi Park where we found scattered Japanese torii, a Japanese wooden entrance in front of which Japanese people bow religiously. At the center of the park, there was the Meiji shrine, a temple dedicated to emperor Meiji, the Japan leader who reconnected Japan with the rest of the world after 150 years of isolationism politics in the 19th century. One example of the introduction of western culture were the barrels of wine from France displayed in the park.

Crossing to the other side of the park, we arrived in Shibuya at the famous Shibuya crossing, where many people cross a very wide and busy intersection.

All the buildings around have their windows full of tourists who want to do a timelapse of the intersection. We did ours from the train station bridge.

Next to it, there was the statue of Hachiko, a faithful dog who waited everyday at the train station for his human to return from work, even after his human's death. The story inspired an American movie called Hachi with Richard Gere, a movie impossible to watch without tears 😢