Walking through the red arches at Nezu Shrine in Tokyo

No Expectations

Ever feel like you’re glad to have visited a city, yet have no yearning urge to ever go back? That’s kind of how I feel about Tokyo. The year before, my husband and brother-in-law, both avid runners, had applied to the 2026 Tokyo Marathon. Only Stefan got in. We had so much else going on and, while it was granted that he would go, we didn’t put much planning into it until a bit less than 5 months out. *I’d been to Asia before—Thailand to be exact—and one day I may write about that too.

An intersection near our hotel in Akasaka

Getting Out and About

We arrived to see the sun rise and had hours to kill. Japan is punctual, so know if your hotel reservation says 3:00 PM, you will not check-in a minute sooner. We dropped our bags off at the hotel, then took off to find some food, enjoying a fluffy Japanese pancake breakfast at Royal Garden Cafe Aoyama. Greenery is a big deal to me, so we ventured to the nearby Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. In late February, we experienced some 70° days, so it was like mid-April in New York City. Sometimes chillier but comfortable and never truly cold. Still, not everything was in bloom yet. Tokyo has some great parks, though it felt like they were few and far between, in a sea of glass and metal blocks. Skyscrapers interrupted forest, peeking out above trees. Contrast that with where I live, where I look out my window and see trees, sometimes hawks and raccoons, even in The Bronx. Ueno Park was probably my favorite, which is centered around a large pond, with museums, a shrine, and zoo. Imagine Boston Common mixed with Central Park. It felt very familiar.

Now, I’m going to say something that may get some pushback, but hear me out: When you go abroad, hit up 7-Eleven. I learned this in Denmark and Thailand. It’s familiar to Americans, yet each country is stocked with their own unique snacks, drinks, and items you might need to pick up in a pinch. If you’re a Japanese food novice, try out the snacks and candy. They have these packs of tiny pancakes soaked in butter and syrup, which were addictive. There were fruit and whipped cream sandwiches—my curious husband ventured a taste. The gummies were another thing I was copping almost daily, the purple star-shaped ones with that sprinkles. The point is, you will find something you’ll want and ease into Japanese food. Another thing you’ll notice is the ubiquitous drink vending machines. Unlike the U.S., where soda is king, these are primarily tea and coffee products. What’s more is that you can choose between hot and cold beverages.

Tokyo is super dense and didn’t waste an inch of space. Apartments are notoriously micro-sized and hotel rooms are no different. My husband and I are on the taller side, and our hotel bed flanked the wall on each side of the tiny room. The bathroom was essentially the size of an American disabled stall in a public restroom, including the shower and sink. New York apartments are far from palatial, yet I could fit the entire hotel room, bathroom included, in my bedroom at home, no exaggeration.

Outside of a shrine in Asakusa

Come On, Ride The Train

One of my great loves is trying out public transportation in new cities. I’ve observed that metro systems outside New York, for the most part, have one line stopping at a platform and you have to walk up or down a series of stairs to transfer to another. Here, you’ll sometimes have four lines merging at one junction on a single platform. We also have one subway system. Tokyo has multiple metro systems and like DC, you pay according to distance travelled…I think. It was daunting, as different fare amounts were deducted from my card each ride. Transferring between lines within a station could consist of a 10 minute walk down a series of passageways and stairs. a true Shoots and Ladders experience.

Be wary of bringing large bags or luggage on to certain train lines, but not for the reason you think. During rush hours you may find yourself crammed tightly shoulder to shoulder. Passengers will push to make space. My husband tripped due to a push, as I imagined he was boarding too slowly. The train service here keep an immaculate schedule. There were no late arrivals. Also, there are no passengers having loud FaceTime conversations or watching TikTok videos at full volume. In fact, you’ll immediately be struck by how quiet public transportation is in Japan. We could all benefit from a little silence.

Unpopular opinion: Tokyo Station is chaotic and somewhat challenging to navigate. Admittedly I’ve made it to my big age without ever having boarded an Amtrak train in the United States. My frame of reference for long-distance and commuter rail is Europe and the NYC metro area. My worst faux pas was getting on a local instead of an express to Nuremberg, Germany, which cost me some money and about an hour of my time. No biggie, lesson learned. In Tokyo Station, walking was like dodging cars on a highway, trying to enter the frenetic flow of foot traffic. Mind you, I can navigate Grand Central and Penn Station at rush hour with the best of them. Despite the signage, it felt like a labyrinth and was disorienting (like the metro stations.) Arriving back to Tokyo from Kyoto, Stefan came to meet me and even then, I couldn’t  find where in the station he was. Rather than continue to walk in circles, we met back at the hotel.

A display of sake barrels in Yoyogi Park

Conclusion

Don’t get me wrong— we did visit some of the touristic neighborhoods, like Akihabara, Shibuya, Asakusa, and Harajuku. Stefan memorized some key Japanese phrases, which he was able to practice at restaurants or when we popped in a pharmacy for sunscreen (which, subsequently, is very high quality there.) We visited the Asakusa Shrine, took some photos, and tried a local katsu restaurant. We waded our way through crowds of pastel-haired, costumed teeny boppers on Takeshita Street. We enjoyed the rare shade the thick canopy of trees provided at Yoyogi Park. We took a leisurely stroll through Shimbashi, ending up at Hamarikyu Gardens where we learned about the saltwater ponds that contained fish that had ended up there from the ocean. We even bought custard-filled, fish-shaped taiyaki from a street vendor, an essential experience.

You might conclude that we missed out. We wandered streets surrounding the famous Golden Gai strip during the day, never getting a taste of nightlife. Stefan took to waking up early to use the hotel’s onsen and finish it off with a hot black coffee on the open-air terrace, though I never did.

Maybe Tokyo is the anti-New York. They’re world class cities and huge metropolises, sure. But where Tokyo is pristine and organized (almost obsessively so), New York is still bit rough around the edges and chaotic. You can hear a half dozen languages spoken on a city block here. Tokyo is hugely homogeneous with a common language and history. Coming from the United States, I learned to speak more softly, to carry my trash with me (waste baskets are sparse there), and to take cues from others on how comport myself in public. Maybe having zero expectations is the best kind of travel because then you can relax and just get lost in the experience instead of chasing bucket list items or Instagrammable moments.

Overall, Tokyo really didn’t surprise me and I got what I needed from it. Tokyo I could take or leave, but Kyoto…