Tokyo Trip

It was a nice change being able to have a shower this morning, after spending the night at Betsan’s. I spent the morning catching up on emails and doing a bit of work for my company back in the UK, which is still ticking over with me managing projects remotely.

I’m planning to head back into Tokyo tonight to see some friends I met in 2023 when I came out with my brother. He landed the other day with his girlfriend for a two week holiday. I got the train in at around 4 p.m. – the express is only about £15 and takes two hours from the station closest to Betsan’s. I arrived at Gotanda Station for 6 and met up with Seb and Iman at their hotel. Seb and I called our parents for half an hour or so before the three of us got the train over to Ginza to meet the others at an izakaya.

We had plenty of food and beer and chatted a bit about Japanese work culture and life in Tokyo. Everyone’s English was significantly better than when we last met in 2023, which made me feel a bit guilty about my own Japanese progression.

At around 10, we left the restaurant and I headed over to Shinjuku with Louis for another beer, as his last train left from there around 12:30. We ended up meeting some serious Yakult Swallows baseball fans at the British Hub Pub in Shinjuku. I hung around a little longer before grabbing some late-night noodles and heading to the nearest manga café to get some sleep.

Manga cafés are—lacking a better explanation—a bit weird. They’re essentially internet cafés where you can rent your own booth for anywhere from 30 minutes to 24 hours. They have loads of manga to read (as the name suggests), as well as unlimited free soft drinks and soft-serve ice cream. They also offer showers and often have a 24-hour restaurant, so they really cover all the basics. From what I can tell, they’re mostly used by salarymen who’ve missed the last train in city centres, or as cheap overnight accommodation for travellers (like me, in this case).

I checked into the cheapest nine-hour room with a soft, fake leather floor to sleep on (hence my earlier description of it being a bit weird) and called it a night.