Note: I wrote this blog post over the course of the second half of 2024 from June all the way to November where it amassed 155 pages in a Google document. This blog is being released in 8 different parts where each read has lots of content but is digestible without reader burnout: Pre-trip, May 17-19, May 20-21, May 22-23, May 24-25, May 26-27, May 28-29, May 30-31
Here is the link to view the all parts (released/unreleased)
May 28 Tuesday
If there was one activity I booked in advance of coming to Japan it was actual Mario Kart-ing around the streets of Tokyo. This required me to spend the effort in the US to get an International Drivers Permit. The operating company was Street Kart Shibuya but they also have many other locations in Tokyo (more to come on that later). What attracted me to the Shibuya location was it was a shorter course in case I didn’t really enjoy the experience and you also got to kart through the world famous Shibuya crossing multiple times on the trip! There was light drizzle when I started my morning and I had concerns that karting wouldn’t be as fun or could even get canceled if it was wet out (both untrue!). When arriving at the location, I met plenty of other tourists from all countries who had this on their bucket list also. After signing my life away in waivers/insurance, etc we got to go pick a Onesie - I picked Pikachu! After getting dressed up, we were broken into smaller groups of 6 with a specific tour guide and given a position in the driving line. Watched a few safety and operational videos first, then got assigned a car and off we went! This was by far one of the greatest experiences I have had. Everything is just so raw about being in a tiny go kart and driving in an international city in a safe and controlled manner. Everyone who is on the street watching you drive by wishes they were in one of these too! Driving through Shibuya crossing has no words to it. The tour in total lasted about an hour or so and it never got old. I was so impressed that I wanted to try a different course at Tokyo Bay on Thursday (2 days later) and was able to secure a last minute booking. If you are going to do this, book far in advance though.
After Mario Karting it was almost time for lunch and I wanted to explore the Google office in Shibuya which was only a few blocks away. This office was in a brand new building and was 35 stories tall. Multiple eateries, game rooms, nap rooms, etc. Night and day from the office in San Diego! One of the cafe areas was on the top floor and overlooked the entire city. The rest of the crew that included Jenna, Emi, and Amalie joined me at Google for lunch too. It was wonderful to get to share this experience with them.
What better way to spend our time than shopping afterwards. First stop was roaming the streets of Omotesando of all the luxury stores. I hit up the Amiri, Moncler, and Loewe stores while I was there. I didn’t pick up any luxury goods this trip but I highly recommend doing so due to the weak yen and tax refund. You could probably save around a grand by grabbing a bag in Japan versus the states.
Next area was the hip spot for streetwear Jingumae. Any progressive looks from Japan come out of this area. There were many shops and second hand shops to look at. Since we were with the larger group I would need to return here another day to keep exploring but what I saw I liked.
The final shopping area we went to was Harajuku Takeshita Street where many of the Japan youth hang out at with lots of shops and cafes. The area that I found most fascinating were the capsule stores. The capsule machines are similar to the quarter machines at the front of the supermarket in the US,but here, there are thousands of them at once. I snagged a bunch of capsules while I was here for gifts!
We also needed to stop by a photobooth to take pictures where you can highly edit them and make them look super cool. To be honest the entire process was super confusing since nothing was in English and we didn’t know how to edit the photos after taking them - there is an entire separate booth just for the editing! Thanks to Emi we were able to acquire the digital versions later on.
After all the roaming and shopping, who knows how many steps we had taken already that afternoon and we were all wiped out (I just went back to reference my health data and it was almost 26,000 steps) We went back to Shinjuku for a quick recharge before starting the evening.
Jenna is an avid latin dancer and she was able to find a local bar Fiesta Latin Spot Bar that offered Bachata lessons and dancing near our hotels. We would actually end up here multiple nights! I showed up early to take the lessons since I explore every style of dance possible now these days. Emi also came a bit early and even though she claims she didn’t want to learn to dance, she totally did it! What I learned is that movement has no language barrier. The instructors didn’t speak very much English but I was able to communicate and follow along just fine and same with some of the other attendees. Once the open dance period started, it was quite the night - I was able to use the base steps while dancing with others but the freestyle was just as much fun.
May 29 Wednesday
Wednesday of the week I had pre-booked the 2 Digital Art museums by teamLabs - Planets which is the famous one and then Borderless which is a newer one. This was probably one of the most jam-packed days of the trip for me!
Let me tell you, getting to teamLabs Planets was a 1 hour trek from Shinjuku as it's located on one of the mini islands of the industrial area of Tokyo Bay. I arrived right on time for my ticketed entrance time slot. There are multiple interactive areas in sequence that you get to experience. Skip this section if you are going one day and don’t want to be spoiled.
First area: walking up an incline of running water. This one was just ok.
Second area: was a room that looked like gray moon craters but they were all foam so you got to walk through it and squish around. To be honest I wasn’t that impressed with this area either.
Third area: room with mirrors on the top and bottom and long strands of LED tubes. This was pretty impressive.
Fourth area: Room with knee high murky water with projections going all over it where it looks like the the water was moving and there were fish swimming below you.
Fifth area: Life size balloon room with mirror walls all around and rotating light colors. This one was more of a photo experience than anything else.
Sixth area: This room had 360 rotating projections with mirrored floors. Since I get dizzy pretty easily with spinning things, I didn’t want to stay in this room too long but I could see the allure. I have video but no photos of this.
Seventh area: This was out in the garden and was a bunch of chrome rocks. Pretty trippy!
Eighth and final area: Flower garden that raised and lowered above your head. Lots of mirrors all over still. Everyone had to sit down and then just enjoy the movement all around them.
That was a wrap on teamLabs Planets. Was it worth the experience? Yes. Would I go again on a future trip? Probably not. This is more a one and done experience in my books where the first time seeing everything is the most surprising.
I had a few hours to kill before the next teamLabs in Azabudai so I wanted to squeeze in visiting the Unicorn Gundam Statue Life-Sized which was only a few train stops away in Tokyo Bay. This was probably one of my favorite sights of the trip as I’m a casual Gundam fan.
Near the statue was the DiverCity Mall which had the main Gundam store in Tokyo. This place was insane with the amount of model kits they carried and had on display!
I probably spent about 2 hours in this mall roaming around seeing all the awesome Japanese stores before I needed to take transit over to teamLabs Borderless Digital Art Museum in Azabudai for my reservation time. This museum was newer and in a newer upscale outdoor shopping center. The concept of Borderless was there are no rooms or set route to take. You have to walk around and self discover new areas (which means it's also easy to miss items). I really enjoyed this experience much more than Planets earlier in the day and just immersed myself in all the unique areas that transpired as I kept turning various corners. Since there is no set order, here is my experience as it unrolled:
Walked into a large area with carpeted walls that had continuously changing projections on the wall so it was never the same when I was in there
Found a long narrow hallway with a new set of projections that led me to a central room with a large rock on one side of the wall that people were sitting on. So much was happening in this central room between the floor, ceiling, and walls. I had to sit down for a good 10 minutes just to take it all in (no photos, just videos)
Another long hallway with black and white animated characters walking in a parade
Mirror area with large black sticks - I don’t really know how to describe this one any other way
Circular garden room with disc plants to walk through
Multi textured art display area
Fire and fog room - This one had flame projections with fog machines that allowed the projections to display in 3d right in front of you
The bubble room - I believe this was the most famous one and also my favorite. It’s just a ton of crystal lit up spheres all over with mirrors to add extra illusion.
Room with led strips from floor to ceiling similar to teamLabs planets
Labrinth room with moving balls from ceiling to floor - This one is hard to explain
An interactive area where you get to design yout own image that gets scanned in and projection onto the wall. I made a fish that said “Spark Joy”
A room with suspended cubes in the area that had different patterns going through them that would change over time
The last area I visited was a room with many projectors lined up around the walls from front to back that created light illusions in the distance. It would cycle through a bunch of different preset programs. This was very fascinating to watch. If you see me in person ask me to show you videos of this.
I was at Borderless for almost 3 hours and would definitely return to this one again! Next stop was visiting Tokyo tower since it was nearby. You could go into the tower area that had restaurants and shops but I just did a quick look from the outside.
I rushed back to my hotel after Tokyo Tower in order to meet up with Jenna and Emi for dinner/bar hopping. Emi knew Tokyo really well and took us to this area called Omoide Yokocho that had many small restaurants lined up concentrated in 2 alleyways.
Shimonya was the spot we picked to eat at that specialized in Izakaya. You are super cramped together with everyone just due to the size of the place but this was a really enjoyable getting to order various food samplers and beverages (beer)
We continued to wander until the next spot that called our name Saitama ya. Luckily we got to sit at the only real table in the back. Everyone else was at the counter area. This was where I got to experience drinking Sake out of a box!
At the end of the night we went back to the Fiesta Latin Spot Bar again! This night it seemed like a more free for all style.
