Day Seven: Tokyo

We began another bright and beautiful spring day by grabbing coffee and pastries at the nearby Passage Coffee. Here, I would like to take a brief pause to shout out all of the exceptional coffee we had on our trip. Asia, on the whole, is often associated with its love for craft and specialty tea. Our journey, however, quickly revealed that this care and attention to detail is most assuredly applied to its coffee as well. Working in specialty coffee for years, I had never heard much about Asian-sourced coffee let alone had the opportunity to try much of it. And while all of the coffee shops we visited in Asia had the usual sourced offerings from Africa and South America, it was a delight to experience the bold and bright offerings of their locally sourced coffee.

In any case, with some beans and sweets in our system, we proceeded to the Akihabara district of Tokyo, which, to those unfamiliar, is essentially the big anime district of the city. As was the case with Shimokitazawa, this was another place in which one could spend hours (and maybe even days) just wondering around and looking at the incredible amount of toys, cards, apparel, and other goods celebrating this world-popular medium. I, myself, am not even much of an anime-head and was still utterly captivated by everything to be seen.

Here I should offer some sort of content warning as at the very seams of Akihabara is where a significant amount of Tokyo’s adult entertainment lives. I must iterate as strongly that I can that I am in no way qualified to cover Japan’s cultural relationship to sex, porn, and adult entertainment, nor the way in which it differs to America’s relationship to these things, except to say that it is much more out in the open than it is in America. So, for every store that had one or two floors dedicated to anime, at least that many, if not more, were dedicated to adult entertainment. What I’m really getting at is this: If you want to find merchandise dedicated to your favorite anime, Akihabara is a great place to start. But if you are also interested in highly-specific porn, purchasing an elaborate sex toy or doll, or buying used underwear from a gumball machine, Akihabara is the place to be.

Alrighty then, making the seamless transition from explicit content to family fun, it was time for our evening plans which, that night, consisted of attending a baseball game at the historic Tokyo Dome! In all honesty, this game was not only my favorite activity of the day (porn and anime be damned), but of our whole trip. Now, I love baseball, so that was definitely a big part of it. But the atmosphere at this game was unlike anything I had ever experienced. We were especially lucky in that the contest was between Tokyo’s two local teams, the Yomiuri Giants and the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, and as such, had a packed stadium full of fans representing both teams.

So what makes a game in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball League so fun? If you start anywhere, it has to be the intensity of the fanbase. The crowd here was more akin to a college football or basketball crowd than any American professional league. Not only were there distinct supporters sections for each team, but when it was that section’s team at bat, the supporters would rise to their feet with specific cheers for each batter. Moreover, each of these two fanbases had their own unique celebration. The Giants fans’ consisted of swinging a towel in the team’s color (orange), which of course is done in America as well. The Swallows’ celebration, however, was completely new to me and all the more delightful for it. It consisted of doing a dance, set to music, by raising open umbrellas up and down in the air. A truly spectacular sight.

All of that alone was more than worth the price of admission. But, if for some strange reason you’re still on the fence, you should at least go to sample the many distinct food offerings you can get at an NPB game. There is, of course, the classic baseball fare: hot dogs, fries, popcorn, soda. Not to mention plenty of beer options (I was particular impressed with the technology that allows the Uriko or salesgirls to pour drafts at your very seat). And then, there is just an obscene wealth of local options ranging from bento boxes to donburi to popular Japanese street fare like crepes, ramen, teriyaki, and fried squid.

And still, if all of that is not enough to persuade you, I will make an appeal to the baseball purist. The game was really good! At the end of the day we left with full stomachs, nice buzzes, and full satisfaction in witnessing a Swallows come-from-behind 7-5 victory over the Giants.

After a day exploring the various entertainment options found around Tokyo, it was only natural that we closed our night by partaking in one of the oldest forms of entertainment known to man (no not that): having drinks at a bar. For this, we traveled to Tokyo’s legendary Golden Gai section, an area famous for its narrow alleyways littered with hundreds of tiny bars. Though it is not always easy finding a spot at one of these bars (many only sit 6-8 patrons at a time), there is just about every type of joint you could imagine.

The two spots that Gioia and I picked are really a pretty good display of the range in our individual tastes. I settled for Bar Cinema Club, a quiet, sleepy spot with some old movie posters and A24 signage littered about. If anything though, it was most notable for its large selection of local whiskies. In fact, when I ordered one, they not only poured me a glass but left the whole bottle with me. Was I supposed to pour myself the second round? How would they charge me? Alas, those answers we never found out as after one drink it was time for Gioia’s pick.

Gioia’s spot, as is almost always the case, was where things were really popping. Given the place was called Death Match in Hell, how could it not be? In any case, it was here, under the hazy glow of slasher b-films and horror memorabilia, that we wound down our night, changing pace from high-end Japanese whisky to cold drafts of Dry Asahi.

Day Six: Tokyo