Tokyo, Japan.
September, 2016.
This is where it all started.
I had always wanted to travel. I just thought that taking more than one big trip per year was impossible. I saw people on Instagram traveling all the time. I just figured they all made way more money than I did.
I had just gotten out of a 4 year relationship, and you know when you get done with a break up and you just wanna get busy doing something? This was my something.
I had time off coming up from work, and I thought to myself, “I should just pick a place and go.”
I decided to travel somewhere I had never been before, somewhere where I didn’t know a single person, and where English wasn’t the primary language. I picked Tokyo, and it was a winner.
“Lost in Translation” is one of my favorite movies. Have you seen it? Bill Murray, Scarlett Johannson. It’s so friggin good. Ever since I’d seen it years back I’d had a thing for Tokyo.
Tokyo is a city that’s able to be both quiet and introspective and simultaneously outrageous and spectacular all in the same breath.
And this was my opportunity to go. I figured if I could survive a solo travel to Tokyo, I could survive anywhere.
Arriving In Tokyo
Let me put it this way, just getting to your hotel after arriving in Tokyo for the very first time is an adventure in and of itself. Especially when you’re like me and you don’t plan anything out cuz you figure you’ll just wing it when you get there.
Once I got my luggage, I googled how to get from Narita airport to my hotel. I’m guessing a cab ride was too expensive, so I went with option B which involved a 40 minute bus ride to Tokyo station and then a subway ride to my hotel.
The crazy part is this bus ride was 40 minutes of silence.
Not even the little kids were making a sound during the whole ride. It’s a whole different culture on the other side of the world. I stared out the window thinking about how every single person I knew was thousands of miles away.
When I arrived at Tokyo station that silence gave way to the sound of people. Lots of people. And they were all packing themselves like sardines into the subway.
This was Tokyo station, and this is where things started to hit me that I was a long, long way from home and completely by myself. And now I had to figure out how to get to my hotel.
I want you to picture the most asians you’ve ever seen all at one time. Now multiply that by like 5 and you’ll have an idea of what the subway is like at Tokyo Station.
Like thousands of army ants all on a mission, there are so many people here. And right smack dab in the middle of them stands a 6’4″ dude from Texas wearing a batman t-shirt with a huge backpack on his back and the expression of “How am I going to do this?” all over his face.
I needed to find a person behind a counter.
Thankfully I found one and he spoke just enough English for us to communicate.
I showed him that I needed to get to my hotel by slowly and deliberately saying “I neeeeeed a ticket to herrreeeeee” while pulling out a folded piece of paper from my pocket with a picture of my hotel on it.
It sounds bizarre saying that I had a folded piece of paper with my hotel on it, but even though this wasn’t too long ago, it was just a different time. Paper was still a thing. I think I had it just in case my phone didn’t work when I arrived. This was my first trip. I was a total rookie at this.
He said something to the effect of “Yes, one moment”, turned around, typed something into his computer, then spun back around and KARATE CHOPPED ME RIGHT TO THE FACE (jk), he handed me a paper ticket, and pointed me around the corner like he’s done probably a million times before for a million other wide eyed tourists.
Now, with a paper ticket in hand, I turned the corner and it’s back to a sea of a million asians.
Everyone is racing super fast through the ticket stalls, but they’re all scanning a code off their cell phone and racing through. But I don’t have a cell phone code to scan. I have this stinking paper ticket in my hand.
I needed to wait and watch for someone else with a paper ticket so I could figure out how to do this or I was going to be here for the rest of my life.
It didn’t take as long as I thought. A lady with a paper ticket just like mine walked up to the same machine everyone else was racing through but she put her ticket in the machine where there was a blinking light.
It sucked the ticket in, the little doors in front of her opened, she walked through, then her ticket popped out on the other end of the machine where she grabbed it and went on her way all in one fluid motion like she’d done it a million times before.
Ok. I got this.
I walk into this massive crowd of people all flowing in one direction. Everyone is just zooming through. The gate is approaching. And now it was my turn.
I stuck my ticket in where the blinking light was, watched the ticket get sucked in, the little doors opened in front of me, I passed through, and in a smooth, fluid motion grabbed my ticket as it popped out on the other end like a total friggin champ.
I was officially on my way to my cozy hotel bed for the night. Victory number 1.
The hotel I stayed at was nice. Tokyo is a massive metroplex made up of all these wards like Shinjuku, Shibuya, Sugamo etc. I stayed in Sugamo at the APA Hotel Sugamo Ekimae.
And when I appeared at street level after walking up the stairs from the subway station I was only a minute’s walk away from my hotel. Perfect!
In typical Japanese fashion, my room was extremely efficient; a low to the ground bed taking up 90% of the room, a tiny bathroom, a flat screen tv, and a flat but comfy pillow.
There’s a clip in the video at the end of this post of me walking into my hotel room, tossing my hat onto the little desk, and falling into my bed. Every time I watch that I remember exactly how I felt.
I slept so hard. I had made it. I was in Tokyo, in my hotel room, and I had several days of adventures awaiting.
Sunamachi Ginza Street Market Tour
The next morning I woke up well rested and ready to go. A few weeks prior I had booked a morning walking tour of the Sunamachi Ginza street markets for this first day. This was a spectacular excursion!
I got up pretty early to make sure I found the meeting spot on time. I did (victory number 2) and met up with my guide. She was a very sweet older woman who introduced herself and let me know that it was just me and her this morning.
This walking tour was so much fun!
I got to eat tons of delicious food while walking through the local street markets. “You are very hungry” she kept saying. She told me all about the history of these markets, the day to day routine and lifestyle of the people who live in this area, and how it’s a major part of their culture.
But you know what her biggest contribution to my trip was? She asked me if I had learned the subway. When I told her I didn’t know how to work the automated machines she walked back with me and taught me how to work them! This was HUGE! I am so, so thankful for her because this unlocked all of Tokyo for me. Victory number 3!
We had a blast during our full morning together and I ate a ton of really good food. “You eat more food than whole normal group and you’re just one!” I loved every second of it!
The rest of my day I was on cloud nine taking the subway trains all over the city. It was like I had unlocked a secret level or had a brand new toy. I popped in and out of different stations, walked around, people watched, then I’d dive back underground to do it all over again.
I was really doing it. I was in Tokyo, on my own, and it was legit!
The Robot Restaurant
This night would be my first night out in the city, and I had a reservation that evening at the Tokyo Robot Restaurant. Trust me, when you go to Tokyo, the Robot Restaurant show is an ABSOLUTE MUST!
Filled with all the incredible spectacle you’d expect from Tokyo, including explosions, truly bizarre storytelling, live action robotic dinosaurs, plenty of alcohol, music, machines, (did I mention the robotic dinosaurs breath fire?), IT’S AMAZING! You definitely get your money’s worth.
Watch for this amazing experience in the video at the end of this post! I guarantee you, every time I go to Tokyo, this will be a critical part of my itinerary. Too good to miss!
When this show ends you’re on an absolute high. I had such an amazing time! After the show an announcement was made that if anyone wanted to continue the fun (which I obviously did) you could go to their sister bar “Ren” and it was only a short walk away.
I made my way back up to street level, got completely lost, made my way back to the Robot Restaurant, found someone who spoke English, and they walked me to Ren. (Victory 4).
And this is where I met the beautiful and amazingly talented Yuki.
The Hottest Girl In Japan
Ren was described as an American style jazz bar. It was a quiet night for them, only 5 or 6 people in the whole place as I walked in. But none of that mattered. On stage was a 3 piece jazz band, all dressed in white, lights everywhere, and in the center was the hottest girl in Japan.
Her name was Yuki, and little did I know that 2 years later I’d take her out on a date right here in Shinjuku. But that’s a whole other adventure.
Ren was a whole vibe.
First of all, just like everything else in Tokyo, it’s sensory overload.
Check out that stage! Lights everywhere, video monitors showing random clips of New York City, the Las Vegas strip, that massive chandelier above. And in the middle of the spectacular stage singing random Whitney Houston ballads was this beautiful singer.
Now, two years in the future, I’m going to go out with this girl. But on this night, I didn’t even get a chance to talk to her. I’m not gonna lie, I thought about that for months.
It wasn’t my fault, though. Here I was, sitting down in a random, mostly empty jazz bar in Tokyo with this beautiful girl singing to me. I kept thinking to myself, “How awesome is this just to be here?!”
And make no mistake about it. She was singing to me. I was convinced she noticed me. I mean my chances were pretty good with only 6 people there, right? I remember they had a special on Heinekens. Why I remember that I have no idea, but I just vividly remember holding that green bottle as I sat and made the decision that I was going to talk to this girl when she was done with her set.
Maybe about 15-20 minutes passed, they finished their song and looked like they were about to take a break. Perfect.
She stepped off stage, waved and smiled directly at me and then she disappeared backstage.
I asked the waitress if the band was just on a break or if they were done for the night. “They come back for more. You ready more beer?” she said. “Yeah, sure.” And after another couple of beers, finally the trio comes back out.
Except for one problem. It’s a different girl with the microphone now. Why is there another singer? It’s the same piano player, same bass player, but WHY is there a DIFFERENT singer on stage?
Why is THE ONE GIRL in this place that I’m wanting to talk to suddenly the ONLY ONE who has disappeared?
I ask the waitress if she knew where she went. “Ohhh, yes, she leave.”
What do you mean oh yes she leave???
I thought to myself, “You know what? No big deal. I’ll just come back on another night to see her perform again. And if she’s not working when I come back, I’ll just keep coming back until she is working. I could literally come back every night if I wanted. This is a nice spot. I’ll see her again.”
But here’s the kicker. I didn’t see her again.
Long story short, I never got back to Ren the whole rest of my trip. I didn’t get to see this beautiful singer for the rest of my time in Tokyo. I left and returned home to Texas a week later without even knowing this girl’s name.
“WAIT, SO HOW DO YOU END UP MEETING HER AND GOING OUT WITH HER 2 YEARS FROM NOW?” I can hear you shouting to your screen.
And this is the awesomeness of my adventures. When I travel, things have a really weird way of working out for me. How did I manage to get in touch with her? How did we go out on a date when neither one of us even spoke the other’s language? It’s actually totally impossible, but it happened.
And that, my friend, is a story for another day. You can check it out in my Tokyo 2018 blog post. (Coming soon! You’ll love it!)
But let’s quit skipping ahead and get back to 2016, and how the very next morning I got completely left behind on a full day bus tour excursion after the very first stop.
Yes, this is my existence.
Left Behind In Tokyo
My next day in Tokyo was an amazing day of sightseeing. I booked a full day excursion that took me all over the city and surrounding areas. From Tokyo Tower to Happoen Gardens, to Mount Fuji to an amazing boat cruise on Lake Ashi, to a once in a lifetime view from atop Mount Hakone, this was an INCREDIBLE day.
This first stop of this full day excursion was the Tokyo Tower. Imagine the Eiffel Tower, only bright red.
At the top it had one of those really cool observation decks where you’re standing on glass and can look all the way down to the street below. The tour guide told us we would have about an hour or so here, and that the bus would leave for the next destination at 10 am sharp.
After taking lots of pics and video from the observation deck, we were told we had around 15 minutes to go to the gift shop before we left if we wanted to buy some souvenirs.
I never get souvenirs. It’s just not my thing. I feel like it’s impossible to get stuff for everybody and I never know how I’d even bring them back. But for whatever reason, on this day, maybe because it was my first solo travel, I don’t know, I decided the gift shop was a good idea and I followed some of the rest of the my group to check it out.
What did I even buy, though? I’m seriously looking around my house right now as I type this searching for any of these mysterious Tokyo souvenirs I bought and I see nothing.
What I do remember is standing in line at the register inside the gift shop and looking around. Why do none of these people look familiar anymore?
Uh oh. This was the beginning of that feeling of impending doom. I looked at my phone. 9:56 am.
It’s ok. I got 4 minutes.
I finished up at the register and started making my way down to the 2nd floor where my tour guide said we’d all meet.
I look at the clock again.
9:58.
I take another look around. Why do I see know one familiar?
You know what? Why would she say to meet on the second floor? No reason to panic. I’ll just go down to the parking lot to the bus itself. If I’m at the actual bus, there’s no way it can leave without me, right? In fact, everyone’s probably walking down there right now cuz it’s almost 10. I’ll just make my way down. No big deal.
I go down to the parking lot and YES! There’s the bus! And as I start walking towards it, there goes the bus.
Seriously.
There. It. Goes. Driving away.
The wheels on the bus go round and round driving away from the 6’4″ dude in the parking lot who’s obviously part of the tour group cuz helloooo I’m holding a bag of mystery souvenirs!
Didn’t anyone on the bus see me? Like hey maybe we shouldn’t leave this guy behind cuz he’s obviously with us? I wasn’t a football field away. I was right there.
And as the bus rides off to the next destination I’m just standing there in the parking lot with no idea of where the next stop is. What do I even do?
Nowadays, it’s pretty common to have digital tickets for your excursions on your phone, and with that ticket there would be information, phone numbers, etc.
But back when I was just starting my travels, I wasn’t a pro yet. I wasn’t prepared for the off chance of being completely left behind on a tour.
All I had besides my bags of souvenirs was a paper ticket for the tour bus that said “Sun Tours”. I remember seriously thinking, “Do I just go back to the hotel? Call it a day?” Cuz think about this: I had no idea who to contact. I bought this excursion weeks ago online on Expedia. I have no idea where the bus was going next.
I decide to go to the front desk of the Tokyo Tower to try and explain my situation. As soon as I start talking in that ultra slow-mo talk we use with people who speak another language “hey I thiiiinkkk myyyyy touuurrrr busssss leeeefffttt meeee behiiiiiiind” I swear one of the girls behind the counter literally SPRINTS out the door.
I hadn’t even finished explaining myself. Was she gonna chase down the bus or something? Like where did she go? Another staffer asks me if I remembered the tour guide’s name.
You know what? Somehow I did.
You know those first moments when you get on a bus for an excursion and the tour guide grabs the mic and says, “Ok, good morning everyone. Can everyone hear me alright? Welcome to Sun Tours! My name’s ‘so and so’ and I’m your guide.”
Somehow I remember her name from that intro. I give them her name and the ticket stub that said “Sun Tours” and literally 3 minutes later they hand me the phone and it’s my tour guide on the other end whose name I remembered!
(Did that girl who sprinted out the door ever come back?)
[Me on the phone]: “Hi! Yes! It’s Eric, I got left… yeah, here at the Tokyo Tower… Ok… Great, yes, I can do that… Happoen?… Happoen Gardens? Ok… Yeah, ok, I can get a taxi… Yes… Ok… Thank you so, so much, I’ll get a taxi and meet you there… yes, ok… I’m very happy too… thank you. Bye!”
The millisecond I said “taxi” another member of the staff, no joke, sprints out the door and hails one. They all rush me outside (like literally all surrounding me and pushing) and then throw me into this cab which was the cleanest taxi I had ever seen.
Now, this taxi cab driver spoke ZERO English. But as I said “Happoen Gardens” the semi-confused look he gave me was at least a start. Miraculously, he got me there and it’s like I hadn’t even missed a beat. My tour guide greeted me when I walked in with a hug and we had a laugh.
Guess who’s side I never left the rest of the excursion?
Suddenly the other passengers are all interested in my well being. “Hey you! Where’d you go? We were wondering where you went? How’d you catch up with us?”
I was suddenly Mr. Popular and that lasted the rest of the day. Probably out of guilt.
And what an incredible day this was! I’m so grateful for the awesome staff at the Tokyo Tower for reuniting me with my group and for that first girl who is possibly still sprinting out there somewhere.
Thank you!
I would have missed all this. Just look at these pics! When you watch this part of the video at the end of the post your jaw will literally drop.
The Tequila Party
As I write this, it’s dawning on me how absolutely filled with adventures this first trip was! So far all this happened in 3 days. I’m not even close to done yet.
The next night exploring Shinjuku was especially fun.
You know how New York City has its boroughs (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, etc)? Tokyo’s the same way with its wards. Each ward has its own vibe.
One thing that’s a constant is that there’s people everywhere.
Tokyo’s home to around 28 million people. And with the amazing lights and skyscrapers of the big city, it’s a ton of fun venturing out at night.
I found this really cool English style pub to hang out in. You can’t go wrong with a pub. It had a Guinness sign in the window calling my name, so I went in.
I walked straight to the bar to order a beer, but was then politely shown that you don’t just order from anywhere at the bar like we do back home. In this bar, there was a specific spot where you ordered.
Asian people are extremely polite and non-confrontational. I was very politely and respectfully guided to the “order spot” where I placed my order and then received my perfectly poured Guinness.
Now it was time to kick back and people watch.
“Tequira party!” said a grey haired asian gentleman with a heavy Japanese accent as he stood next to me at the bar.
He and his young blonde companion were having a great time. He was buying her shot after shot after after shot of tequila and she was downing them all like a champ.
I seriously watched her take like 6 tequila shots in 2 minutes. I don’t know how she was still standing.
Right around this time I see a couple of guys being very respectfully guided to the “order spot” at the bar just as I had been minutes earlier.
“Same exact thing happened to me, “ I said.
They were two brothers from London. They joined me and soon we all had eyes on joining in on this tequila party going on next to us.
“You two have room for 3 more in your tequila party?” I asked.
“Sure! I come back with more tequira!” the asian gentleman yelled out.
These Tokyo pubs are an instant party. Everyone has the same mindset, everyone is getting along, and in any given pub there’s a global crowd inside with people from all corners of the map.
“You know he’s trying to get you drunk, right?” I said to the blonde as he went to get more shots.
“He better be!” she said with her English accent.
Turns out she’s also from London and is now living in Tokyo as a teacher. The older asian guy is from China and works with her.
She had apparently decided he was going to get lucky that night, and the tequila was helping her to confirm that decision. The two London brothers were there on holiday, and I rounded out our group hailing from Texas.
The older asian guy came back with enough shots for a small army, and yes, this is where all the fun began.
Now, I’m no rookie to drinking. But I tend to stick to beer. I’ll drink every beer on tap from lagers to stouts and porters to IPAs and double IPAs.
But tequila… good god tequila is a sworn enemy.
That being said, if I’m out on vacation I’m not going to turn down opportunities like this. When do you have a chance to have a tequila party with strangers 5 minutes after walking into a Tokyo pub, right?
More people started joining us. It was now myself, the two London brothers, the older Chinese guy, his blonde London date, a husband and wife from the UK and Thailand respectively, and a couple Japanese guys who were locals and understood enough English to join our party with us.
Shots went down and drinks went bottoms up. The London brothers started ordering these ginormously tall beers, so I did too.
And the best part about having the local Japanese guys in our party was that they could be used to bring in local japanese girls into our party.
One of the two Japanese guys who joined us was named Yo. That was easy enough to remember. He managed to make it into the pictures (second from left in the pic above). The other guy’s name was impossible for me to pronounce, so I named him Jim.
“You’re gonna be Jim tonight, buddy.”
“I am Jim? I AM JIMMMMMMMM!” he screamed! He was so friggin happy. I wish I had pictures with Jim.
We started using Yo and Jim and their smooth Japanese speaking skills to bring over some Japanese girls to our group. Yo brought over this gorgeous girl (pictured above). Another Japanese guy came over and started asking us what we were doing. He spoke English so I started using him as a translator, too.
“Ask this beautiful girl if she thinks I’m cute” I said to him. He turned and spoke some words to her in Japanese.
“Thank you!” she said in English.
Okay, so things were getting lost in translation here.
“No man, ask her if SHE thinks I’M cute.” I told him.
“Oh, ok.” he said, “But she is my girlfriend.”
“She’s your girlfriend??” I couldn’t stop laughing. This guy was literally putting up with me telling him to ask his own GIRLFRIEND if she thought I was cute.
“Dude, man, I’m sorry, I had no idea!”
The people are so non-confrontational it’s crazy. He was a great sport about it. I bought him a beer. Meanwhile, I also had a master plan for this night of finding an all night karaoke bar where we could sing the night away.
I was THIS CLOSE to making it happen, too, but ultimately, it got really, really late, we were all pretty much hammered, and my master plan fell through.
It was 4 am and we had survived a tequila party. The blonde from London almost got thrown out for dancing on a table, Yo and Jim’s recruiting missions were all successes, and I had met so many Japanese girls while understanding zero of what they were saying.
That, my friends, is a great night out in Tokyo. So great, in fact, that I woke up late the next morning and totally missed my bullet train to Kyoto.
This would come to become a theme in my solo travels.
Dude I Just Missed My Bullet Train to Kyoto
I was soooo excited about this Kyoto excursion.
The meeting point was at Tokyo Station really early in the morning. I was going to jump onto a bullet train that would take the excursion group to Kyoto at a blazing 200+ mph. We’d tour 3 amazing temples, eat, and then come back on the bullet train that same evening.
I got home from the pub after 4 am and I vividly remember considering the idea of just staying awake and sleeping on the bullet train.
But, I thought to myself, even just a couple of hours of sleep would really help. So I set my alarm for 6 and crashed.
Before I knew it I was waking up. No sounds of an alarm. Just me waking up on my own. Not a good sign.
I sat up in bed, looked at the clock and it was about to be 8. I was so upset.
You know that feeling right? When there’s NOTHING you can do about something that’s already happened. It’s a feeling of complete helplessness.
I kept thinking about how much I had been looking forward to this excursion. I sat at the edge of my bed and just stared at the bullet train ticket that I had set out on the nightstand just a few hours before.
I had actually received this bullet train ticket in the mail about a week or so before I left for Tokyo. Maybe it was because I had booked the excursion like a month in advance, I’m not sure, but it was one of the items I was so afraid I was going to forget to pack.
And here I was just staring at it in my hand.
I had remembered to pack it, and yet, as I held it, it felt completely worthless.
And then I noticed something in the fine print: “This ticket is good for 24 hours…”
Wait, what??
The ticket had my assigned seat on it and was for the 7 am train that I had missed. But apparently, just in case you happened to miss the train because of an all night tequila party the night before you could still jump on any bullet train for a full 24 hours and sit in the open seating section!
I couldn’t believe what I was reading!
I looked at the clock. It’s around 8. Kyoto is a 6 hour drive from Tokyo, but it’s only a little over 2 hours on the bullet train. I could totally be in Kyoto by noon easily!
Ok. I could totally do this, right? I mean I’m all the way in Tokyo by myself, so why should going to Kyoto by myself be any different? I had learned the subways. The bullet train shouldn’t be much different.
I was off to Kyoto!
The bullet train ride was legit!
You’re traveling at 200+ mph and somehow you don’t feel the incredible speed at all. You look out the window and you’re seriously zooming through the Japanese countryside. So cool!
The train pulled into the Kyoto station a little before noon. I walked out and found a McDonalds of all places within walking distance of the station. I sat down, ate, and game planned how I was going to see the temples that were on the tour.
It turns out of the 3 temples that were on the tour, two were pretty small and were only quick stops. The biggest and most popular temple, the Kiyomizu-dera Temple, was only about a 25 minute walk away from where I was sitting.
I wouldn’t even need a taxi. I could walk there, spend as long as I wanted in the temple, and walk back to Kyoto station when I was done.
This was going to work!
Walking around in Kyoto was so cool. Very tranquil, not many people on the streets, it was a real departure from the hustle and bustle of Tokyo.
But it was a cool quiet, you know what I mean? There were small shrines everywhere I could walk right up into and check out. There’s a real peacefulness to the city.
And when I got to the temple, I was so happy I’d made it there. This is where everyone was.
The shrines within this temple were grand, ornate, and detailed. People all around were taking in the beauty of the temple. Some were taking pictures of everything they saw like I was, while others found quiet places to meditate.
I loved that I was there on my own with no time restraints and no guide to corral me back to a bus. I took my time to appreciate every second of it.
Even though I had already proven to myself that I could solo travel all the way to Tokyo, it was this time in Kyoto that really solidified solo travel for me.
Even when things go wrong, like getting left behind on a bus or oversleeping and missing a bullet train, everything works itself out. I realized right then that I could go anywhere on this globe and I’d be just fine.
In my brain, right in that moment, in the peacefulness of Kyoto, I realized I had just unlocked the world.
Godzilla Road & Shibuya Crossing
My last day in Tokyo was a perfect, chill day.
I jumped on the subway and went out exploring. I randomly found an amazing sushi spot for lunch that was dirt cheap.
No one in the place spoke English, so I pointed at pictures on the menu and they brought out all the delicious sushi I could eat.
Good sushi here in Texas can be a bit pricey. But sushi is so prevalent all over Japan that you can get SPECTACULAR sushi and it costs next to nothing.
I ordered a couple of rolls, some nigiri, a nice big soup, beer, some appetizer shrimp and the whole thing cost me $20. I was in heaven.
As I walked out of the sushi place, I see a sign that says, “Godzilla Road”.
Sure enough, at the end of the road, there he is, a ginormous Godzilla head peeking over the Toho Cinema building.
Could I go up to the top?
I did a quick Google search and found a review that said “You gotta make it to the roof of the building when Godzilla roars!”
When Godzilla roars? I had to see this. I made my way to the top of the hotel and was face to face with this life size Godzilla head.
Apparently you’re supposed to be staying at the hotel to be able to go out onto the roof, but I walked right by the security guy at the door like I owned the place and he didn’t ask me a thing.
I noticed a sign on the door that said Godzilla roars every hour on the hour starting at noon.
I looked at my clock: 12:53 pm. Perfect!
Seven minutes later, I’m face to face with Godzilla as he roared and bellowed smoke over me and his city of Tokyo. How cool is that?
Watch the clip below, it’s his legit roar too!
After I got my fix of Godzilla, I made my way to Shibuya Crossing.
In just about every video you see of Tokyo, you’ll see the famous Shibuya Crossing. This is the worlds busiest intersection where every few minutes THOUSANDS of people cross all at once in this controlled chaos that disperses just as quickly as it started.
I couldn’t help but find a comfy spot and people watch. So many people from so many different parts of the world, all in one spot.
And in typical Japanese fashion, even with all these people crossing all at once, there’s no sounds of angry honking horns when the light finally turns, there’s no pushing or shoving, it all just works.
I must have crossed a dozen times.
I’m Sitting In the Bar From the Movie
That night, being my final night in Tokyo, I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to do.
I had seen and done so much during this incredible trip! I had been out all day and there was a split second where I was thinking maybe I should just stay in and rest up for the long travel day the next day.
But you can’t stay in on the last night of your epic trip to Tokyo, right?
I started googling the best things to do. Maybe I’d get lucky and find a really good night spot.
And then, guided by destiny (and maybe Godzilla himself), I found what was 100% meant to be.
On my phone it read: “New York Bar, 52nd floor, Park Hyatt Tokyo, as seen in the movie Lost in Translation.”
Are you kidding me?
This was the bar from THE movie that made me fall in love with Tokyo in the first place.
This is where THE Bill Murray and THE Scarlett Johannson first speak to each other.
This is THE hotel where so much of the movie takes place in.
This is THE movie I’ve seen dozens of times that put Tokyo on the map for me!
Dude I gotta go!
It was around 8 o’clock. Would I need a reservation? I called the number but of course all I got was their machine and, of course, it was all in Japanese. So I said “Ching chow chang chong” into the receiver and hoped for the best. (I’m kidding.)
I decided to make my way there cuz even if they’re packed there’s gotta be room for 1, right? I got dressed, and took off.
Arriving at the Park Hyatt Tokyo, I went up multiple elevators to finally get to the 52nd floor. As the elevator doors opened I walked through and was greeted almost immediately.
“Welcome to New York Bar. Are you staying with us?”
Not gonna lie, it felt amazing to be here. “No, I’m not staying here,” I said.
“There’s a $28 cover charge. Is that ok?”
“Sure, is there any wait?”
“No sir, I can seat you now.”
Just like in the movie, live jazz is playing against the backdrop of all the lights of the city of Tokyo shining from behind the floor to ceiling windows just behind the band. I’m walked to my seat, front and center.
I’m sitting right where Bill and Scarlett sat. This. Was. Perfect.
As I sat there I couldn’t stop smiling. I had maybe 3 drinks and a little cup of fancy looking peanuts and my tab was around $80.
Totally worth it.
The vibe, the ambiance… it was the culmination of a week of PURE ADVENTURE!
This was my first solo travel!
I never thought for a second that I’d ever be sitting right here right now. And from this trip sprung all the rest.
When you have an opportunity, no matter what it is, no matter how difficult it may seem at first, just take it.
Don’t overthink things. Just go for it. You’ll thank yourself later.
I can’t think of any better way to end this post than with this video you’re about to watch. Get comfy, grab some popcorn, kick back and hit play.
I hope this video inspires you to not only add Tokyo to your travel bucket list, but to get out of your comfort zone and EXPLORE!
Nothing beats the feeling of solo travel. Enjoy!
Have you ever been to Tokyo? Do you think you could go it alone? What’s your favorite part of the video? Has anything held you back in the past from traveling solo?
Let me know what you think in the comments section below! Scroll down and leave your questions, comments, and anything else you want to share!
I love reading them and I always respond. See you in the next adventure! Don’t forget to subscribe to the blog!